SAN FRANCISCO — The Santa Clara University baseball team's pitching staff dazzled Saturday, throwing its second shutout of the weekend and only allowing one run across 18 innings, as the Broncos swept a West Coast Conference doubleheader – and the series – from San Francisco with two wins by scores of 2-1 and 2-0, respectively, at Benedetti Diamond.
 
The series sweep marked the second year in a row the Broncos (15-10, 3-3 WCC) have swept the Dons (15-13, 0-3 WCC). Santa Clara has won six in a row against USF and nine of the last 10. That includes seven wins by three runs or less.
 
GAME ONE
How It Happened

• Cade Pilchard (2-1) kicked off the "Day of Pitching" for the Broncos in the opener with a career-high eight strikeouts across six innings, matching his season long outing. He shattered his previous career high of five Ks while navigating through danger all game, only allowing one run.
   
• San Francisco had runners on in five of Pilchard's six innings, and had five runners in scoring position, but was only able to scratch across one run in the fifth. Pilchard only needed six pitches to retire the first two USF batters in the fifth, but he'd hit back-to-back batters to put two on with two out. Then he fell behind Ramppen 2-0, who took advantage with a two-out, game-tying RBI single to score Amaral and make it 1-1.
   
• Santa Clara redeemed Pilchard and got him the victory with a go-ahead run in the top of the seventh. It was a two-out rally for the Broncos, which started with Ben Steck getting hit by a pitch. Malcolm Williams poked a single through the left side of the infield to move Steck into scoring position, and Dylan Joyce doubled him home to put SCU up, 2-1. Joyce's go-ahead knock came on the very next pitch following a checked swing call to the first base umpire, which kept his two-strike at-bat alive.
   
• Victor Martinez earned his third save of the year with six strikeouts in three innings of work. He retired seven straight to end the game, and kept San Francisco off the scoreboard in the seventh after it moved a runner in scoring position for the sixth time in the game.
   
• Efrain Manzo's eighth home run of the season gave Santa Clara an early 1-0 lead in the second inning.

Notable Numbers

• 0: Santa Clara did not draw a walk for the first time all season. It was the first time they didn't have at least one walk in a game since the opening round of the 2023 WCC Tournament against Gonzaga on May 24 in Las Vegas. The Broncos are 3-1 in the past two seasons in games which they had zero walks.
• 0: The Broncos didn't steal a base in game one, making it the second consecutive game with no stolen bags. They hadn't gone back-to-back games without a stolen base since May 12-13, 2023, at Portland.

GAME TWO
How It Happened

• Cole Kitchen (3-1) lowered his season ERA by nearly two runs in Saturday's nightcap, throwing five shutout innings with three strikeouts to earn his team-leading third win. Max Bayles came in and shut the door for Kitchen, throwing four shutout innings with four strikeouts and no walks to earn his second career save.
   
• San Francisco threatened to score in the second game even more than the first with base runners on in eight of nine innings, and runners in scoring position in six of those. Kitchen stranded two runners in scoring position in the second, one in the third, one in the fourth and one in the fifth to keep the Dons off the board.
   
• Bayles did the same dancing act in his outing, leaving a runner in scoring position in the seventh, and one on third base in the eighth. He got two strikeouts in the ninth to nullify a leadoff infield single and seal the sweep for the Broncos.
   
• The Broncos played small ball in game two to scratch across their two runs. JonJon Berring led off the game with a double, was bunted over to third, and then Michael O'Hara singled him home to make it 1-0. The next inning, redshirt Caden Thompson recorded his first career hit and RBI with another seeing-eye single to bring home Malcolm Williams and push the Broncos' lead to 2-0.

Notable Numbers

• .000: San Francisco went 0 for 9 with runners in scoring position in game two (a .000 batting average). They batted .308 (4 for 13) with two outs, but couldn't drive in any runs.
• 13: The Dons left 13 runners on base in the nightcap, more than double what the Broncos left on (6).

NEXT UP
Santa Clara returns home Tuesday for a single game versus crosstown rival San Jose State before embarking on the road again for another WCC road trip, this time at Gonzaga for a three-game series starting Friday. Fans can purchase tickets for Tuesday's game and find all live coverage links on SantaClaraBroncos.com.