SAN FRANCISCO - San Francisco right-hander Landen Bourassa tossed a complete game in the Dons' 5-1 win over Santa Clara baseball to take the nonconference series opener on Friday at Benedetti Diamond.
Bourassa threw 109 pitches, surrendering a run on five hits, a walk and struck out five, to improve to 7-4 on the season.
The difference in the game was a four-run fifth inning. With the Dons (24-27) already up 1-0, Ryan Davis got things rolling with a solo home run to make it 2-0. Thomas McCarthy and Nick Yovetich followed with back-to-back singles and came home on Luke Keaschall's double and Darius Foster's sacrifice fly. Jack Winkler singled home Keaschall for the final run of the inning, all coming against Broncos starter
Cole Kitchen (5-3), who took the loss.
Winkler went 3-for-4 and was the only player with multiple hits in the game.
Kitchen went toe-to-toe with Bourssa over the first four frames, retiring the first 11 batters but ran into some bad luck in the bottom of the fourth. With two outs, Winkler hit a wind-aided triple when the left-fielder
JonJon Berring had trouble with the wind as the ball fell behind him. The next batter, Jordan Vujovich hit a grounder but the shortstop
Jason Dicochea made a fielding error to allow Winkler to score for an unearned run to give the Dons a 1-0 lead.
The Broncos (17-32) scored its lone run in the seventh on
John Hanley's RBI sacrifice fly to plate Dicochea who doubled to lead off the inning.
NEXT UP
The second game of the series will be played on Saturday at Stephen Schott Stadium in the home finale for the Broncos. First pitch is at 1 p.m. With the two schools having faced each other earlier in the season as part of the WCC schedule, this weekend's three game series is counted as nonconference games that will not affect the league standings.
Except for family members of Santa Clara student-athletes, fans will not be permitted in Stephen Schott Stadium. The university will continue to evaluate policies for access to events. While the state of California announced guidance for outdoor seated venues on April 1, the university reserves the right to be more cautious than public health guidance.
