March 29, 2008
Box Score
SAN DIEGO, Calif. - The 14th-ranked University of San Diego baseball team (19-9, 1-1 WCC) lost a wild 12-10 four hour and five minute West Coast Conference game to Santa Clara University (13-9, 1-1 WCC) Saturday afternoon at Cunningham Stadium.
The Broncos jumped out to a 6-0 lead in the first inning as they scored all their runs on five hits. The Bronco runs came on a Brady Fuerst RBI single, a Matt Long RBI single, a Tommy Medica two-run double, and a Ryan Conan two-run single to give the Broncos a 6-0 advantage.
San Diego then took back two runs in their half of the inning on a two-run Zach Walters single that scored Ryan Davis, who was hit by a pitch, and Kevin Hansen, who had doubled.
After the Broncos took back one run in the top of the third inning, the Toreros pulled to within one with a four-run fourth inning. Logan Gelbrich got things started with a single up the middle and moved to third on a Davis single through the right side. Walters then drove in Gelbrich with a RBI single to the shortstop. Kevin Muno was hit by a pitch to load the bases. Sean Nicol then hit an RBI single to the shortstop to bring in Davis, and Josh Romanski drove in the final two runs with a single to right field to move the score to 7-6.
USD would then tie the game in the fifth inning on a Hansen sacrifice fly to centerfield, which scored Meador, who had singled.
A crazy sixth inning then occurred as the Broncos put up three runs on four hits. SCU led off the frame with back-to-back triples by Long and LeBlanc to push across the first run. Medica then hit an RBI sacrifice fly to right field to push across the second run. The Broncos put one batter on with a Conan single, then one of the strangest plays of the season happened. Geoff Klein hit the ball deep into right field, the ball bounced off the outfield fence, but the umpires called it a home run. After a Rich Hill argument with the umpires, they gathered together and changed it to a triple, which scored the third and final run of the inning for SCU.
San Diego responded with three runs of their own in their half of the inning. Walters got things started with a single up the middle and moved to second on a Muno single. After Nicol flew out to right, which moved Walters to third, Romanski then grounded out to the shortstop which scored Walters for the first run of the inning. Victor Sanchez then hit an RBI single to left field which scored Muno from second and Sanchez advanced to second on a fielding error by SCU. Meador then brought in Sanchez with a run-scoring double to again knot the score up at 10-10.
The Broncos then took advantage of a USD miscue to score two runs in the top of the seventh inning to claim the win.
Offensively for the Toreros, Gelbeich led the way as he went 4-for-5 with one double and Walters was also solid at the plate as he went 3-for-4 with three RBI.
Luke Roniger (0-1) was saddled with the loss for the Toreros as he allowed one unearned run on no hits in 0.2 innings of work. Justin Kuehn (1-0) picked upi the win for the Brooncos as he allowed no runs on one hit in 0.1 innings of work.
The two teams will now battle it out in a rubber game on Sunday at 1 p.m. inside the friendly confines of Cunningham Stadium
