Feb. 10, 2007
SAN DIEGO - Josh Chasse's double to left center in the bottom of the eighth inning drove home the winning run as San Diego State defeated Santa Clara, 2-1, Saturday afternoon at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The freshman's timely hit broke a 1-1 deadlock and made a winner of SDSU reliever Aaron Brady, who evened his record at 1-1 as SDSU improved to 3-2 on the young season.
Aztec pitching continued to excel as Brady and starter Bruce Billings allowed the Broncos a single unearned run while striking out six and walking none.
Santa Clara (5-4) also got excellent pitching from starter Nate Garcia, who gave up just one run on three hits over his seven innings of work. The freshman right-hander recorded eight strikeouts and retired the final 12 batters he faced from the fourth through seventh innings.
The only blemish on Garcia's day came in the third inning when Aztec catcher Chris Anderson led off with a walk and advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt by first baseman Mike Willeford. Junior Troy Hanzawa then laced a two-out RBI single to right center to give the home side a 1-0 lead.
The Broncos broke through in their half of the fifth to knot the score at 1-1. A two-base error put DH Patrick Glenn on second to start the inning. He moved to third on a sac bunt by David Hoffmire and came home on a two-out single by shortstop Jon Karcich.
In the next inning, Santa Clara put its first two hitters on via base hits and moved both runners over on a sacrifice bunt. Brady was then summoned out of the bull pen and he proceeded to get the next two hitters to pop out to shortstop to preserve the 1-1 score line.
In the bottom of the eighth, Anderson again started the inning with a walk and moved to second on Willeford's second sacrifice of the game. Chasse then stepped up and drilled a pitch from Bronco reliever Alex Rivers (o-1) into the gap in left center to bring home the winning run.
Santa Clara and San Diego State wrap up their three-game weekend series on Sunday (Feb. 11) at 1:00 p.m. at Tony Gwynn Stadium. The Broncos will send right-hander Justin Kuehn to the mound while sophomore lefty Lance Sewell will get the starting nod for the Aztecs.