SAN DIEGO — Brandon Gomez threw the second complete game of his Santa Clara career and first this season, only allowing two runs and one extra-base hit, but the Broncos offense was stifled on the road by the best pitching staff in the conference, as first-place San Diego clinched a West Coast Conference series victory with a 2-0 win at Fowler Park.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Gomez (2-3) went the distance with four strikeouts and only one walk. He surrendered six hits across eight innings, but five of those were just singles. The only extra-base hit he surrendered, a double by Peraza in the fifth, was left stranded. It was the first complete game of the year for any Santa Clara pitcher, and the first since Gomez threw his last one at Saint Mary's on March 18, 2023.
   
• San Diego (32-13, 16-4 WCC) had to claw and scrape just to get the two runs it did get against Gomez. An infield single in the fifth inning followed by a sacrifice bunt put a runner in scoring position for the Toreros, and it took a two-out RBI single from Worthington to score the first run of the game and put USD up, 1-0, in what had been a scoreless battle up to that point.
   
• San Diego added its only other run of the game in the seventh with more small ball. Two singles put two runners on, and another sacrifice bunt moved them both into scoring position. Then, Worthington again brought home a run, this time with a safety squeeze bunt that bounced right in front of home plate and allowed Allen to score, making it 2-0.
   
• Santa Clara (21-22, 8-9 WCC) had a couple of chances to score Saturday. It left eight runners on, though only two of them in scoring position. Five of those eight base runners came with two outs already in the inning, leaving little space for a rally to start afterwards.
   
• San Diego's Logan Reddeman (6-3) struck out nine and only allowed four hits across eight innings of shutout work. Conner Thurman pitched a scoreless ninth for the save.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 2: Gomez's two complete games, one in each of the past two seasons, are the only complete games thrown by any Broncos pitcher in the past seven years (since 2018). No other Bronco has thrown a complete game since Jacob Steffens threw five in 2017.
• 4 for 5: Reigning WCC Freshman of the Week Kai Cunningham pinch hit for the Broncos in the ninth and promptly singled. He's now 4 for 5 (.800) with two RBIs this season as a pinch hitter.

NEXT UP

• The series wraps Sunday with a 1 p.m. first pitch. The Broncos return to the Bay Area Tuesday to begin their final home stand of the year.