LOS ANGELES — They just kept fighting.
 
The Santa Clara University baseball team erased a 4-0 deficit Saturday, then nearly erased another five-run deficit with a furious rally in the ninth, but ultimately came up short, falling 12-11 on the road at LMU in the finale of the teams' West Coast Conference series at Page Stadium.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• The Broncos (15-21, 4-8 WCC) began their comeback effort in the third inning. They scored at least one run in five consecutive innings from the third to the seventh, starting with an RBI fielder's choice from Johnny Luetzow in the third. Luke Devine doubled home a run in the fourth to make it 5-2. Max Ross followed another RBI groundout by Luetzow in the fifth with an RBI single up the middle to pull Santa Clara within one at 5-4.
   
• The Broncos completed their comeback effort in the sixth, erasing a deficit for the 19th time this season and second time in the series, with two runs to tie it at 6-6. An RBI fielder's choice and a wild pitch did the job after both of the Broncos' leadoff batters reached to start the inning.
   
• Santa Clara finally went ahead for the first time in the game in the seventh. Luetzow led off the inning getting hit by a pitch, and two batters later, Malcolm Williams hit his second triple of the season to score Luetzow all the way from third and put the Broncos up, 7-6.
   
• LMU (22-18, 9-6 WCC) responded immediately in the bottom of the seventh, taking back the lead at 8-7 with two runs on two RBI singles from DJ Ghiorso and Cam Hassert. The Lions scored four more runs (one unearned) to give it its winning margin at 12-7.
   
• But Santa Clara wasn't finished, rallying for four runs of its own in the top of the ninth. The Broncos made LMU go through five different pitchers in the inning just to get three outs. In fact, it took four LMU arms just to get the 27th out of the game. Conner Smith brought home two runs with a pinch-hit double to make it 12-9 and Thomas Ferroggiaro made it 12-11 with a two-run single, all with two outs. A fielder's choice groundout finally stopped the Broncos' ninth-inning comeback rally.
   
• Santa Clara fell behind 4-0 after two innings, with LMU scoring four times on six hits. Two of the Lions' runs in a three-run first inning were unearned. The Broncos got four multi-hit games from its lineup and RBIs from eight different players. Vincent Braga, Henry Stewart and Sebastian Schreiber all had shutout appearances for SCU.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 1: The Broncos' last three losses have all come by only one run. They are 1-5 in their last six one-run games after starting the season 3-0 in such contests.
• 12: Santa Clara's 12 hits Saturday marked its 11th game with 10 or more hits this season. It is 7-4 this season in games when it has double-digit hits.

COMING UP

• The Broncos begin a four-game home stand Friday when they host Pacific for a three-game WCC series. Fans can purchase tickets and find all live coverage links at SantaClaraBroncos.com.