Softball Takes Game From Army
Broncos snap losing streak in Sunday’s game
John Brussa
The Santa Clara
February 21, 2019
Broncos Softball spent President’s Day weekend looking to pick up their first win of the season in CSU Northridge’s Early Bird Classic.
The Broncos faced Army in the first game of Saturday’s doubleheader. But an impressive complete game, two-hit shutout by the Black Knights’ pitcher blanked the Broncos and gave Army an 8-0 win.
During their second contest of the day, Santa Clara faced tournament host CSUN. Tied at 1-1 in the fifth inning, the game was suspended due to a lack of sunlight.
Sunday had more softball in store. With another two-game day ahead of them, the Broncos took the diamond first against the Binghamton University. Despite scoring a run in the first inning, the Broncos’ 1-0 lead disappeared after a threerun homerun by the Bearcats in the second. In the bottom of the third, Santa Clara scored twice more to even things out at 3-3, but a four-run fourth for Binghamton gave the Bearcats an insurmountable lead and they defeated the Broncos 8-3.
In their final game of the tournament, Santa Clara had the opportunity to rematch Army.
Sophomore Sammy Needham kicked off the Broncos’ offense, knocking a double to right after a walk to first-year Regan Dias. A single to left field from first-year Alexandria Hale followed by an infield single by junior Taylor Burns put Santa Clara ahead 2-0 in the first. In the fourth, a solo homerun by senior Morgan Modesto and another run later in the inning would put the Broncos ahead 5-2. Santa Clara tacked on one more before picking up their first win of the season.
Santa Clara will host the Silicon Valley Classic beginning tomorrow. Their first contest is against CSU Bakersfield at 2 p.m.
Men’s Basketball
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Going into halftime ahead by 20 points, Men’s Basketball had to fight to hang on when their lead dipped to just three points in multiple instances during the final minutes of the game against Pacific. But the Broncos—led by sophomore Josip Vrankic and first-year Guglielmo Caruso—held on to win 64-59.
Vrankic, averaging 13.4 points per game, led Santa Clara’s offense with 18 points and Caruso was close behind with 15 of his own, which included three 3-pointers. The Broncos were 11-24 from beyond the three-point line—10 of which came in the first half.
Pacific’s hot shooting in the second half combined with zero field goals from Santa Clara in the final nine minutes of the game resulted in the Broncos’ lead trimmed to three-points twice. With less than 30 seconds to play, Santa Clara hit four of six free throws to clinch the victory.
Sophomore Tahj Eaddy and first-year Keshawn Justice each tallied 11 points and senior Josh Martin pulled down 10 rebounds.
The Broncos will play their final home game of the season Saturday at 8 p.m. against San Francisco.
Men’s Tennis
SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Slated to take on UC Davis on Saturday and Nevada the following day, Men’s Tennis was forced to rearrange its schedule when inclement weather intervened. After postponing the Nevada game to March 3, the Broncos could concentrate on facing UC Davis Sunday afternoon.
The result was a decisive 5-2 victory for Santa Clara that included five singles victories, four of which in straight sets. Although the doubles point was awarded to the Aggies, the Broncos saw singles wins from seniors Connor Garnett, Andrew Gu and Robert Seby as well as from junior Vasileios Iliopoulos and first-year Arthur Neuhaus. Santa Clara was ahead 2-1 when Seby and Iliopoulos each won just moments a part from one another to secure a Brwping the Aggies was an important momentum shift for the Broncos. Men’s Tennis lost two matches in a row prior to Sunday and had limited practice time due to last week’s rain. The Broncos will travel to Sacramento State to take on the Hornets Saturday at 1:30 p.m.
Contact John Brussa at jbrussa@scu.edu or call (408) 554-4852.