SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The Santa Clara University baseball team is back in the postseason for the second consecutive year after punching its ticket to the 2024 West Coast Conference Tournament Sunday thanks to an 11-2 blowout, series-clinching win over LMU on Senior Day at Stephen Schott Stadium.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Santa Clara (24-24, 10-11 WCC) left no doubt in booking its second trip to the WCC Tournament in as many years after it scored runs in each of the first four innings. An RBI double in the first from Efrain Manzo, a bases-loaded triple in the second by Robert Hipwell, and an action-filled, five-run inning in the third put the Broncos up 9-0 before anyone could blink.
   
• Meanwhile, Blake Hammond (3-4) threw a gem on the mound to seal Santa Clara's trip to Las Vegas in 10 days. Hammond pitched the longest outing of his career, throwing eight innings, allowing just one earned run and striking out seven. He only allowed three hits in his entire outing. Hammond faced the minimum through 6 2/3 innings with only two base runners allowed during that entire time. He retired 12 in a row from the second through fourth innings, and 19 of 22 batters he faced from the 1st through the seventh.
   
• Four Broncos logged multi-hit games, led by Coleman Brigman's three-hit day with three runs scored. Brigman scored on Payton Lambert's two-run single to start the big rally in the third, scored again in the fourth inning on a balk to make it 10-0 Santa Clara at the time, and scored again in the bottom of the eighth on Thomas Ferroggiaro's pinch-hit RBI double to make it 11-2. Lambert, Michael O'Hara and Malcolm Williams each also had multiple hits.
   
• LMU (22-28, 7-14 WCC) got its only runs of the day in the form of a one-out, two-run home run in the top of the eighth from Grant Weiss. Outside of that homer, the Lions only had seven other at-bats with runners on base all game. They had only five hits a day after scoring 20 runs on 19 hits Saturday.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 10: Santa Clara scored double-digit runs with double-digit hits for the 10th time this season Sunday. The last time they accomplished the feat, they also scored 11 runs in a narrow, 12-11 defeat at USC on April 20. The Broncos are 8-2 this season in games which they scored at least 10 runs with at least 10 hits.
• 13: A total of 13 Broncos seniors were honored in a pregame ceremony Sunday. That included 10 student-athletes and three student managers. There were five seniors in the starting lineup, with all five reaching base and four of them tallying at least one hit.

NEXT UP

• Santa Clara hits the road next week for its final regular season series of the year. It'll take on Pacific in a three-game WCC series starting Thursday. Fans can find all live coverage links at SantaClaraBroncos.com.