Bronco briefs

BAseball

LMU 10, Santa Clara 3

Last Friday in Los Angeles, the Lions of Loyola Marymount scored two runs in the second and four in the third to put the Broncos in a six-run deficit that they would not be able to overcome. Santa Clara's first run came in the top of the fifth, when senior Eric Newton hit his West Coast Conference-leading 12th home run of the year to put his team on the board. After freshman Matt Long and junior Daniel Nava had base hits in the sixth and Lions pitcher Brad Meyers walked senior Dustin Realini, Bronco catcher Kris Watts hit a double for a pair of RBIs, but Santa Clara failed to score again in the game. Freshman starter Justin Kuehn gave up 14 hits and all ten of the Lions' runs in six innings of work. His record dropped to 2-5 on the year.

Santa Clara 11, LMU 8

The Broncos rebounded on Saturday to even up the series with the Lions at a game apiece. The two teams traded runs in the first inning, and Santa Clara scored again in the third to go up 2-1. The Broncos' offense took off in the fifth inning when Watts hit a three-run shot to right field. Senior Jason Matteucci drove home Newton a few batters later to put Santa Clara up by five runs. However, in their half of the inning, Loyola Marymount overwhelmed freshman starter Sean O'Neill, scoring seven runs of their own to go up by two. In the top of the eighth, with freshman Brady Fuerst and junior Kevin Drever on base, freshman Matt Long hit a clutch two-RBI triple to tie the game. Realini brought in Long with a single to take the lead. Freshman Mark Willinsky earned the save.

Santa Clara 4, LMU 3

It was another close win for the Broncos on Sunday as the focus of the game switched to strong pitching and defense, rather than offense. Santa Clara got on the board early with a pair of RBI singles from Nava and Watts. Consecutive sac flies from sophomore Gabriel Alcantar and Fuerst also brought in two runs to get a 4-0 lead in the fourth. The Lions scored in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings to come within one run, but relievers Jeff Lombard and Willinsky shut them down. It was Willinsky's eighth save of the season and freshman Matt Wickswat's seventh win. Bronco baseball improved to 5-7 in conference play.

Santa Clara 6, Stanford 1

Santa Clara extended its winning streak to three games on Tuesday night at Sunken Diamond Stadium with an extra-innings win over the Cardinal. Down 1-0 in the seventh, Nava hit a lead-off double and got to third on a groundout. He was then able to score off a wild pitch from Stanford's Max Fearnow. In extra innings, the Bronco bats started swinging. Fuerst provided a two-RBI double for the victory with some help from Nava and Realini's RBI singles. Lombard shut out Stanford in the last two innings of play for his second win of the year. The team now stands at 24-18 overall.

--From staff reports