Baseball struggles on the road in Nevada
By Philip Keck
Santa Clara baseball continued to suffer frustrating losses this past weekend, this time to the University of Nevada-Reno who would always match and then surpass any offensive burst the Bronco's put together.
The first game featured sophomore Bronco Chad Filinger against Darrel Rasner of the Wolf Pack. While Rasner pitched an overwhelming eight innings, allowing just two runs on four hits, Filinger was never able to settle down and allowed a steady stream of Nevada runners home in the first six innings.
Santa Clara did manage a small offensive spark in the top of the ninth inning off of Nevada closer Justin Sherman, but the two runs fell well short of the eight needed to send the game into extra innings as they dropped the first game of the series 10-4.
The Broncos and Wolf Pack met again the next day in a 12-inning heartbreaker which saw Nevada jump out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning off of Santa Clara sophomore pitcher John Redmond.
Santa Clara then scored one run in the second off Wolf Pack Craig Norris before opening up with their first rally of the night in the fourth.
The Broncos managed to retake the lead this inning thanks to five hits, including a double by senior Joey Gomes and a two-run single by freshman Ryan Pierpont.
Both teams pitched well the next few innings until Santa Clara came up in the top of the seventh.
Already scoring two runs in the inning, freshman Shawn Epidendio came up with senior Pat Peavey on third, juniors Jack Headley on second and Jim Wallace on first from a walk. After a brief duel, Epidendio launched the ball over the left field wall, hitting Santa Clara's first grand slam of the year and giving the Broncos a 10-3 lead.
Unfortunately this was not enough as the Wolf Pack's bats lit up Bronco pitching in the bottom of the seventh, scoring three runs. Nevada's rally continued in the bottom of the eighth by hitting four more, tying the game at 10-10.
The score remained tied at 10 until the bottom of the 12th when senior A.J. Ampi gave up a game-ending two-run homerun to Tony Cappuccilli of the Wolf Pack, losing the game 12-10.
Seeking vengeance for the previous games, the Broncos met the Wolf Pack for the finale the following day. Junior Joe Diefenderfer started for the Broncos against Mateo Miramontes in the lowest scoring game of the series.
Each team was able to score a sprinkling of runs throughout the game, and the Broncos entered the top of the ninth losing 3-7. After scoring two runs to bring the score to 5-7, Epindendio came up again with loaded bases. Sadly, the previous day's heroics were not meant to be as Epindendio slashed the ball right back to the pitcher, lining out, and ending the inning and the game.
The Broncos next travel to Hawaii for a three game series this weekend against Hilo.