STOCKTON, Calif. — The regular season has concluded, and now it's time for what every team works towards all year…
 
The postseason.
 
The Santa Clara University baseball team led for 8 1/3 innings Saturday before host Pacific was able to put together a come-from-behind rally to win its final game of the season and avoid a West Coast Conference series sweep at the hands of the Broncos with a 4-3 walk-off win at Klein Family Field.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• For the third day in a row, Santa Clara (26-25, 12-12 WCC) and Pacific (11-44, 5-19 WCC) were locked in a scoreless tie through the early innings. And like the first two days, it was the Broncos who got on the board first.
   
• Efrain Manzo hit a monster solo home run over the left field wall in the fourth inning to give Santa Clara a 1-0 lead. Coleman Brigman was practically given home plate for the Broncos' second run of the inning after he was hit by a pitch, then moved to third on a failed pickoff throwing error, and scored on a wild pitch, making it 2-0 Broncos.
   
• Robert Hipwell added to the Broncos' lead in the eighth with his second home run of the year, a solo shot over the right-center field wall, making it 3-0. Pacific was finally able to put together a scoring rally for the first time all weekend in the bottom half, starting with a leadoff single. The rest of the rally was done all with two outs, as an RBI double from Otis and an RBI single by Sloan made it 3-2.
   
• The Tigers' first two batters of the bottom of the ninth reached safely on a walk and a bunt single, and were sacrificed into scoring position to put the winning run on second. Victor Martinez entered in the ninth in relief and got two outs on the sac bunt and a strikeout, but Bicknell came through in the clutch, getting a pinch-hit, two-out double deep into the left-center field gap to score both runners and win the game for Pacific.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 2: The Broncos hit two home runs in the game, marking their 11th multi-homer game of the season. Santa Clara is 7-4 in games it has hit at least two homers, having lost its last two such contests.
• 26: The Santa Clara pitching staff's scoreless innings streak ran to 26 innings before Pacific scored in the eighth. It's the staff's longest scoreless streak in at least the past 35 years (since 1989). The previous long streak over the past 35 years was 25 innings from Feb. 28 to March 5, 2021.

NEXT UP

• The Broncos open the 2024 WCC Tournament at 7:05 p.m. Wednesday in Las Vegas. As the No. 5 seed, they'll face No. 4 seed Gonzaga for a chance to advance into the double-elimination portion of the tournament, which starts Thursday.