Team effort earns baseball success

By Matthew Cucuzza

The Santa Clara baseball team is enjoying one of their best seasons in five years with a three-game sweep over St. Mary's this past weekend.

If they defeat No. 13 Pepperdine in two games this weekend, they can earn a berth to the West Coast Conference Championship.

The Broncos (32-19, 12-6 in the WCC) sit in third place in the WCC and are just half a game behind the Waves.

"The whole team is looking forward to getting at it this weekend," said freshman pitcher Thain Simon.

Santa Clara's 32 wins are the most ever under Head Coach Mark O'Brien.

One factor in the team's turnaround this season is that second-year Assistant Coach Chad Baum's batting strategies have finally started to hit home with players.

"We now know his hitting philosophy, and that's why our offense has been so good," junior outfielder Matt Long said.

Long also added that Baum's coaching experience has taken some stress off of O'Brien, and that as a result he "has let us play baseball more instead of trying to coach so much."

According to Long, this Santa Clara team has the best chemistry of any Bronco squad he has played on.

"The group we have is a lot more tight-knit then we've had in the past," said Long. "We've had some cancers on the team the past two years I've been here."

Infielder Brady Fuerst is not surprised by the Bronco's success so far this season.

"Coming in as freshmen we knew we had a good recruiting class," said Fuerst. "I think we all thought we could get to where we are today."

Simon has been a pleasant surprise for the Broncos this season. He holds the team's best record at 9-2, and leads the team with 65 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.80.

"I trust in my ability and I trust and my teammates," said Simon. "I'll make good pitches and they'll make good plays behind me."

Fuerst was much more blunt about Simon's abilities.

"He just throws strikes. He doesn't walk anyone," Fuerst said.

This season has been a re-emergence of sorts for Fuerst.

The junior has rediscovered his swing after being unable to play last season because of a fracture in his back.

Fuerst notched his 14th double in the 10th inning Saturday to drive in three runs and lead the Broncos to a thrilling 9-8 win over St. Mary's.

While many in the WCC wrote Fuerst off because of his injury, his teammates knew all along he was capable of playing like this.

"Freshman year he was our best clutch hitter. He can play," said Long. "I'm not surprised. I've played with him for seven years."

Simon agrees. "He's been one of the most clutch guys for us. He's always the guy who comes up with the big hit in games to help us win."

Fuerst is not the only contributor to the potent Bronco offense. Eight players are batting over .300 and junior Evan LeBlanc leads the team with a .376 batting average.

Santa Clara has made up for their disappointing start to the season, which culminated with four straight losses to UC Davis.

The Broncos have fought their way back into contention with sweeps of Hawaii-Hilo and Saint Mary's, and big wins over Stanford, UC Berkeley and Fresno State.

Santa Clara has also defeated WCC leader and No. 9 San Diego in three of their four meetings.

With numbers comparable to other ranked teams, talk has surfaced that Santa Clara deserves a national ranking.

"We have to prove ourselves if we want to get the recognition that we deserve," said Long.

Santa Clara opens a three-game series at home tomorrow at 7 p.m. against No. 13 Pepperdine. Their final game of the season is May 20 versus University of the Pacific.

Contact Matthew Cucuzza at (408) 551-1918 or mcucuzza@scu.edu.