Bronco Briefs: Baseball sweeps Saint Mary's to end season
By Aaron Juarez
Baseball
SCU 11, St. Mary's 8
By taking the first game of the season-ending series against the Gaels, the Broncos guaranteed themselves a winning season for the first time since 1997. Spurred by two Gael errors and RBI singles from freshman Jason Mattuecci and sophomore Will Thompson, the Broncos scored four runs in the eighth inning to cap the comeback from an early 7-3 deficit.
Senior A.J. LaBarbera and Will Thompson each homered in the victory and finished the night with three hits and two RBI, while Matteucci had two hits, including an RBI triple in the Broncos' two-run first inning.
After relieving senior starter Matt Travis in the middle of the fourth, junior Chad Fillinger held the Gaels to one run and one hit over five innings of solid relief to earn his second victory of the season. Freshman Patrick Overholt came on in the ninth inning to earn his 10th save of the year, tying the Santa Clara record for saves in one season.
SCU 7, St. Mary's 2
The Broncos reached two more milestones Saturday afternoon by recording their 30th win and their 20th conference victory of the season, the first time these accomplishments had been achieved since 1997.
Led by senior Jim Wallace's two-run double and Will Thompson's two-run homer, his 10th of the season, the Broncos used a five-run third inning to blow the game wide open. Senior Jack Headley finished with three hits, and scored three runs as Santa Clara stormed to a 7-0 lead by the fourth inning and never looked back.
Sophomore Kellan McConnell surrendered just one run and scattered eight hits over six innings of work to even his record at 4-4. Freshman Andrew Slorp, junior Patrick McBride, and sophomore Anthony Rea worked the final three innings to close out the win.
SCU 8, St. Mary's 3
Senior Day ended on a celebratory note as SCU completed its sweep of St. Mary's to finish their most successful season since 1997 with a record of 31-26 (21-9, WCC).
Headley provided the offensive fireworks in his final game with the Broncos by supplying three hits and scoring a pair of runs. Will Thompson smashed his third home run of the series and with junior David Mandley providing back-to-back homers in the seventh inning to help Santa Clara pull away from the Gaels.
The Broncos survived a brief scare from the Gaels, who managed three runs off of junior John Redmond in the sixth inning to cut the Bronco lead to 4-3. Anthony Rea came in and promptly put out the fire to preserve senior Joe Diefenderfer's eighth victory of the season.
Men's Crew
At Lake Natoma, near Sacramento, the men's varsity eight crew finished fifth in their heat with a time of 6:54.3 and failed to advance in the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships this past Saturday.
Yet, the varsity eight bounced back the next day at the Pac-10 Rowing Championships, and along with the second varsity eight captured their respective Petite Finals. The varsity eight finished third in their heat behind top-ranked Washington and UCLA to qualify for the Grand Final, in which they crossed the finish in first place with a time of 6:10.9, two seconds better than runner-up UCLA.
The second varsity eight qualified for their Grand Final with a fourth-place finish in their heat. In the final, they finished at 6:18.8 to defeat runner-up Long Beach State.
Women's Crew
At the Pacific Coast Rowing Championships this past Saturday, the Santa Clara women's novice four failed to advance to the finals, finishing fifth in their preliminary heat in a time of 9:13.0.
The women's varsity eight finished their season with a sixth-place finish at the Pac-10 Rowing Championships, finishing in a time of 7:11.7.
The women's second varsity eight finished sixth in their preliminary heat with a time of 7:43.9 to qualify for their Grand Final. In the final, they finished again in sixth-place, with a time of 7:20.3.