Santa Clara University’s baseball team lost to the University of San Diego on April 3, with a final score of 6-1 at Fowler Park. The defeat gave San Diego a West Coast Conference series victory.
The game was close for much of the night, as Santa Clara pitcher Max Bayles struck out six batters and allowed only two runs over five innings. However, San Diego’s Diego Gutierrez held Santa Clara to just one run on two hits through six innings. Despite walking six and hitting a batter, Gutierrez kept the Broncos from scoring by stranding seven runners while he was pitching.
Johnny Luetzow doubled for Santa Clara for the second consecutive night and later scored on Mateo Garcia’s sacrifice fly, which accounted for Santa Clara’s only run. Tate Medicoff and Payton Lambert also had hits, but overall the Broncos managed just three hits for the second straight game.
San Diego broke a scoreless tie in the fourth inning with Andrew Gauna’s leadoff home run—his second in as many games—and an RBI single from Cade Martinez. The Toreros added more runs late in the game with two-out RBI singles from Gauna and Jayden Lobliner in the seventh inning and capitalized on an error and an infield single to score twice more in the eighth.
Drake Frize secured his first save of the season by pitching three shutout innings in relief for San Diego. Three Toreros—Gauna, Gonzalez, and Connor Meidroth—each collected two hits during the contest.
The loss marks Santa Clara’s tenth consecutive road defeat since their Opening Day win at California on February 13. Bayles is now just 21 strikeouts away from tying for tenth place all-time on Santa Clara’s career records list.
The series finale is scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m., with live coverage available through SantaClaraBroncos.com.
