Men's baseball battles the Cardinal
By Philip Keck
Santa Clara baseball outscored the No. 1 team in the nation this weekend, and had a legitimate chance of sweeping the series.
The top-ranked Stanford Cardinal began battling Santa Clara last Friday at the Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto. Sophomore Chad Filinger started for the Broncos against Jeremy Guthrie of the Cardinal. Both pitchers pitched scoreless baseball until the sixth inning when Bronco bats came to life.
With senior Pat Peavey on second and senior Joey Gomes on first, junior second baseman Jack Headley hustled out an infield hit that scored Peavey and advanced Gomes to third. This was quickly followed up by a wild pitch that brought Gomes home giving Santa Clara a 2-0 lead.
Stanford answered right back, tying the game with two unearned runs in the bottom of the sixth. In the seventh, Chris O'Riordan of the Cardinal scored to give Stanford a 3-2 lead.
A late Bronco rally was not enough as the Broncos dropped the heartbreaker in the bottom of the ninth, 5-4.
The second game of the series was a shootout at Buck Shaw Stadium. Stanford jumped out to an early lead, scoring six runs in the top of the first inning off of sophomore pitcher John Redmond.
Redmond then settled down allowing only one more run in his 6.1 inning performance.
Santa Clara immediately began to chip away at Stanford's lead, scoring two runs in the first, five runs in the second and three runs in the third while going through three Cardinal pitchers through that time.
Each team scored three more runs, and when the dust cleared the Broncos won the contest 13-9.
"It felt great to beat the No. 1 team in the nation," sophomore Kellan McConnell said.
The rubber match of the series moved back to the Sunken Diamond with junior Joe Diefenderfer taking the mound against Tim Cunningham. The Cardinal had the Broncos figured out for the first seven innings, going into the eighth with a 6-2 lead. However, this lead would be soon eliminated.
With the bases loaded in the top of the eighth the Broncos began scoring when Peavey was hit by a pitch. Headley came up and singled, scoring one on the hit and another on an errant throw by the centerfielder.
The Broncos then managed to load the bases one more time in the inning. Junior David Mandley came to the plate and hit a quick single, scoring two. When the inning was over, the Broncos were in the lead 7-6.
Unfortunately, a two run walk-off homerun in the bottom of ninth won the game for the Cardinal, again by one run, 8-7.
"We knew going in that we had a good shot at beating them at least a couple times. In fact we felt we should have swept them," McConnell said. "We keep getting better every weekend. We've lost some close games, but as the season goes on we're going to win those close games."
The Broncos continued their strong play of late with a 7-5 victory over Sacramento State Tuesday afternoon at Buck Shaw. The victory moved the Broncos to 6-8 on the season with a 5-5 record at home. Senior Grant Feichtmeir got the save and sophomore Patrick McBride notched the victory.