Bronco Briefs
BASEBALL
San Diego 7, Santa Clara 6
The San Diego Toreros got five consecutive hits in the ninth inning and scored two runs to steal a victory from the Broncos. Freshman Mark Willinsky pitched the ninth and took the loss for Santa Clara, dropping his record to 2-2. Offensively, the Broncos were led by Daniel Nava, who went three for three and scored three runs. Kris Watts helped the Broncos jump out to a first inning lead by crushing a first inning grand slam, his eighth home run of the season. Watts and Jason Matteucci both had two hits. The Toreros got back in the game after a Bronco error and capitalized with an RBI single. The Toreros ended the game scoring the final three runs.
San Diego 8, Santa Clara 7
The Broncos were again defeated by the Toreros, this time in extra innings. San Diego tied it up late, scoring two runs in the bottom of the eighth. After both teams failed to push a run across in the ninth, Santa Clara's Kris Watts hit an RBI single in the top of the 10th to take a 7-6 lead. But in the next half inning, San Diego's Ryan Lilly delivered a bases-loaded single to drive in the winning runs. Kevin Drever paced the Broncos with four hits, while Nava added another three. Sophomore Donald Brandt hit his third home run of the season while Dustin Realini had two hits and an RBI.
San Diego 4, Santa Clara 1
The Toreros completed the three-game sweep on Sunday, May 7, defeating the Broncos by the widest margin of the weekend. San Diego rallied late again, this time combating the Broncos lone eighth-inning run with four of their own, and effectively took control of the game. Daniel Nava continued his hot streak, banging out four hits while the only Bronco RBI went to Michael Lange. Donald Brandt and Justin Kuehn combined to keep the Torero offense to only four hits over seven innings. With the series sweep, the Broncos are eliminated from the WCC conference tournament.
Stanford 8, Santa Clara 4 (15)
It took 15 innings, but the Stanford Cardinal bested the Broncos with a late four-run surge Tuesday evening at Stephen Schott Stadium. The first nine innings were played to a 2-2 deadlock. However, the Cardinal posted two runs in the top of the 12th to temporarily take the lead. In the bottom half of the inning, the Broncos would answer back. With two outs and runners on first and second, Eric Newton hit a bloop double to right that scored both runners. Kris Watts led the Bronco attack with three hits while Matt Long and Kyle Hartz each had two apiece. Starter Chris Stansbury threw six strong innings, allowing only the pair of runs. Jeff Lombard came out of the bullpen to provide five solid innings of relief. Lombard also struck out five batters. In their previous meeting at the Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto, the Broncos defetead the Cardinal 6-1 in ten innings.
--From staff reports