Broncs Bombers begin season

By Blake Twisselman

Santa Clara's boys of summer are back in the swing of things.

After months of training, weight lifting and practice, the Santa Clara baseball team will open their 2004 season this weekend with high expectations and hopes of a postseason appearance for the first time since the 1997 season.

The Broncos aim to improve on last season's 31-26 overall record and 21-9 West Coast Conference finish, which resulted in Santa Clara barely missing a postseason berth. Finishing only two games behind Pepperdine in the WCC Coast Division.

Head Coach Mark O'Brien will lead a squad comprised of 23 returning letter-winners, of which only five are seniors.

"Quite honestly, we're a really young team," O'Brien admitted. "We'll be starting quite a few freshmen and sophomores."

But youth aside, the key to success will be found on the mound, as the pitching staff should anchor the ball club this season for the Broncos. Santa Clara returned all but two pitchers from last season's roster and didn't lose anyone from the bullpen.

"Our pitching staff is definitely the strong point of the team," junior outfielder Ryan Chiarelli explained. "We have pitchers for every type of situation, and as a hitter, it's great to know that if our bats aren't there during a game they can really step it up for us and win ballgames."

The baseball adage, "good pitching always beats good hitting" may set the tone for success against some of the more intimidating WCC lineups. The Broncos have an exceptionally versatile pitching staff that should keep hitters guessing.

"I really like the depth of our pitching staff this year," O'Brien said. "We feel really comfortable going deep into our bullpen."

Santa Clara bolstered their pitching staff in the offseason with the addition of hard-throwing freshman Jared Hughes. The 6-foot 6-inch right-hander has been turning heads with a mid-90s fastball, and he's expected to make an immediate impact on the Bronco starting rotation.

"[Jared's] a guy who established himself pretty well in the fall," sophomore shortstop Michael Lange said. "He throws the ball pretty dang hard, and he's really confident for a freshman."

Hughes may try to emulate sophomore Patrick Overholt, voted Team MVP and Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American. Hughes, who throws a fastball that has been clocked at an intimidating speed of 96 mph, spent much of the preseason refining his fundamentals. Hughes also developed a consistent off-speed pitch to complement his hard stuff and ultimately become the key to his success this season.

"He's always been impressive and had electric stuff at times," Head Coach Mark O'Brien said of his freshman phenom. "But now he's been able to work on throwing consistent strikes and add a good breaking pitch to his two-seam fastball. He's also improved on a lot of the little things, like bunt coverage and holding runners on base, but the development of his breaking pitch has been the biggest for him."

Hughes highlights this year's crop of freshmen that have been touted as one of the nation's strongest recruiting classes by college baseball analysts. First baseman Steven Alexander and outfielders Nathan Faulkner and Robert Perry should all see significant playing time for the Broncos this weekend and throughout the season. Perry will start the season as the Broncos' leadoff hitter, replacing Scott Dierks at the top of the lineup, and will set the table for physical hitters Jason Matteucci, Matt McColgan, Will Thompson and David Hoffmire.

"It looks like there's gonna be huge contributions by our freshman class this year," Chiarelli said. "Typically on college teams, freshmen don't contribute that much but these guys are ready to contribute right away."

Youth may be often times negatively associated with inexperience and losing, but that adage might not hold true for the Broncos squad this year.

"Most of our position players are underclassmen," Lange added. "But I don't think that it will hurt us. Our freshmen are going to make a big contribution to the team."

The youthful Broncos will open the season this weekend with a three-game road series against UC Riverside. The Highlanders, ranked No. 34 nationally, return many starters from last year's team that finished 41-17 and qualified for the postseason.

"It's opening weekend, so there will be tons of excitement, energy and nervousness," O'Brien explained. "UC Riverside is a very good ball club and they've really picked up the level of their program during the past few years. They should be one of the tougher teams we'll play all year long. We just need to do the three things that we have always talked about and that's throwing strikes, playing defense and getting some situational hitting."

The players have been waiting for this weekend just like most of America has been waiting for the Super Bowl, with feverish anticipation, knowing that something exciting is about to begin.

"We're definitely ready to go," Chiarelli added. "We've been getting a little antsy to get going, and we're excited to play someone besides ourselves."

If the Broncos hope to play into the summer months, they need to establish a winning attitude starting this weekend in Riverside.

"We like to set high standards, so we're gonna shoot for nothing less than winning our conference," Chiarelli said. "We're not gonna be satisfied unless we win our conference. We want to go to Omaha; we want to play in the College World Series. I think the sky's the limit with this team. If we play the way I know we're capable of playing, if we play Bronco baseball, then we should win a lot of baseball games this year."

û Contact Blake Twisselman at (408) 554-4852 or jtwisselman@scu.edu.