SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. – Blake Faddoul's squeeze bunt in the top of the 10th inning scored the winning run to give Santa Clara baseball a 7-6 victory over Cal Poly on Tuesday night.  

 

In the 10th, Connor Henriques led off the inning with a double to right-center against Thomas Triantos (0-1) before advancing to third on a wild pitch.  The next batter, Ryan McCarthy drew a walk prompting Cal Poly (12-14) to bring in closer Michael Clark.  

 

Faddoul, who entered the game earlier as a defensive substitute, laid down a squeeze bunt on the first pitch he saw from Clark.  The Mustangs pitcher fielded the ball on the first base side and underhanded it to the catcher Myles Emmerson but Henriques' head first slide beat the tag to put the Broncos up 7-6.  

 

Freshman Alex Reelfs came in the bottom half of the inning and gave up a hit and a walk but closed out the game to earn his first career save.  

 

The game went to extra inning on a late rally by Cal Poly when they scored four runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 6-all.  

 

Broncos reliever Ethan Heinrich, who had not allowed an earned run all season in eight appearances spanning 9 1/3 innings, came in to start the eighth inning.  The 6-foot-3 right-hander walked three of the four batters he faced before Broncos head coach Rusty Filter brought in Keegan McCarville (3-4) who made his first Bronco relief appearance.  

 

Inheriting three runners on base, the normal Friday starter for the Broncos gave up an RBI single to Connor Gurnik, who collected his fourth hit of the evening, to make it a 6-3 game.  McCarville struck out the next batter for the second out and induced a grounder to short that Dawson Brigman mishandled, allowing the fourth Mustang run to score and allowed the rally to continue.  With runners in scoring position, Tate Samuelson singled up the middle to tie the game up at 6-all.  

 

Santa Clara (5-21) showed resolve not only after allowing four runs in the eighth and coming back to win but throughout the game when Cal Poly threatened early and often.  The Mustangs stranded two runners in each of the first three frames and were only able to score once, on John Mackay's solo home run in the second.  

 

With the Mustangs unable to take advantage of its scoring opportunities, Santa Clara broke through in the fourth inning with three runs on two hits, an error and a pair of wild pitches to lead, 4-1.  

 

After the Mustangs cut the lead to 4-2, Santa Clara pushed across two more runs in the seventh on RBI singles by Jake MacNichols and Henriques to go up, 6-2.  

 

Henriques, McCarthy and Gavin Maloney each collected two hits apiece.   

 

For the game, the Mustangs left 14 runners on base.