Baseball Splits Opening Weekend

By Ryan Mahoney

Bronco bats were red hot all weekend long, but the Santa Clara baseball team was only able to walk away with a .500 record after its opening weekend of play.

The weekend started with a three-game series against the Redhawks of Seattle University. In three high scoring contests, the Broncos were able to capture the first two games of the series before letting a late lead slip away as they were going for the sweep. The Redhawks are playing their first season in the Western Athletic Conference, having recently transitioned back to Division I.

On Friday, senior Mike Couch took the mound for the Broncos. He threw seven innings, while allowing five runs on four hits.

"It was really exciting, there was a lot of energy here," Couch said. "It was tough to calm the nerves, there was a lot of emotion. It was a lot of fun."

Freshman Kert Woods recorded his first collegiate hit in the bottom of the seventh inning, and would later score providing an important run in the Broncos' 7-6 victory.

"I got the hit, I got into scoring position and let the guys hit me in," Woods said. "All I'm trying to do is get on base. Hit, walk, hit by pitch, however I can. It was good to get on the field, get the nerves out and play baseball like normal."

Woods continued his solid start by scoring two runs on Saturday.
"Kert is the kind of player we want to bring into this program," said Head Coach Dan O'Brien.

Although Woods scored two runs on Saturday, the Bronco offense was led by Casey Munoz. He had a big day at the plate, going 4-6 with two RBIs.

"Yesterday the adrenaline was pumping and I got a little jumpy," Munoz told Santa Clara Broncos Athletics online after Saturday's game. "But today I was able to get some hits. I came into the game tonight and I was just excited to be here."

On Sunday, Santa Clara held on to a 13-11 lead heading into the top of the ninth, but ended up surrendering four runs. After a small rally was quieted in the bottom half of the inning, Seattle walked away with the 15-13 win.

The Broncos finished up their opening weekend with a game against California Polytechnic State University on Monday. Santa Clara held a 2-0 lead after the fourth inning, but then surrendered five runs in the next three innings to the Mustangs before falling 5-4.

Santa Clara used seven pitchers in the game, but could not reproduce the offensive success they had earlier in the weekend.

"I felt really good out there," said starting pitcher Tommy Nance who tossed four shutout innings. "All my pitches were working and I was executing. My curveball felt really good and I was just trying to have fun out there. I wanted to take the emotion out of it and just pitch like I've always done. As a team we just need to keep plugging away. The game's over now and we just need to make some small changes here and there."

Although the 2-2 start wasn't the exact start the team was looking for, the team has reason to be happy with their play last weekend.

"We got better across the weekend," said O'Brien. "We'll focus on that more than on the record."

Santa Clara has a busy week ahead of itself, starting with three games at home against the University of Illinois, Chicago before hosting two against San Diego State University.

Contact Ryan Mahoney at rmahoney@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.