SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — It finally came to an end.
The Santa Clara University baseball team's eight-game winning streak – the second-longest active streak in the country – came to an end Wednesday in the first round of the 2026 West Coast Conference Tournament, as No 3 seed San Francisco took an early lead and held off the Broncos' red-hot offense to win, 10-4, at Scottsdale Stadium, eliminating the Broncos and ending their season.
HOW IT HAPPENED
- The Broncos (25-29) kept things close early on despite several things going sideways from the start. Ace starter Max Bayles (5-4) only lasted 1 1/3 innings after walking three and allowing a run in the first inning, then walking another in the second. He threw 15 pitches to the first two batters of the second inning and was already at 48 pitches in the game when he was relieved.
- San Francisco (25-28) took advantage of chasing the Broncos' ace so early in a big way. Jared Lewis hit a double to start Josh Johnson's relief appearance, and two batters later Trevor Harmon popped a three-run home run over the left-field wall to put the Dons up, 4-0. San Francisco No. 1 starter Gabriel Barrett (4-5) backed up the Dons' offense with five shutout innings, striking out four and not issuing any free passes.
- Barrett retired 13 in a row from the first through the fifth, silencing the Broncos' bats with three strikeouts, five groundouts and five fly outs in that stretch. Santa Clara finally chased him in the sixth, getting the first two runners on. Ben Cleary was hit by a pitch after Barrett departed to load the bases, but a strikeout, a first-pitch foul out to the catcher, and a groundout to first base ended the threat and kept the Broncos off the board.
- Thomas Ferroggiaro had Santa Clara's biggest hit of the day. The senior infielder hit a three-run homer to right field in the seventh after fouling off four consecutive pitches. His long ball made it 7-3 at the time. Luke Devine extended his hitting streak to nine games with a two-out RBI double in the eighth, making it 10-4.
- But San Francisco added insurance runs in both the sixth and seventh innings, keeping a comfortable space between it and the Broncos. Zack Ramppen drove in one of his four RBIs on the night with a double in the sixth to make it 5-0, and Isaiah Landry – who went 2 for 4 with two RBIs, a walk and a run scored from the nine-hole – knocked in two more with a seeing-eye single, making it 7-0. Ramppen then effectively wiped out Ferroggiaro's homer in the bottom of the seventh with a two-out, bases-clearing, three-run double to put the Dons back up by seven, 10-3.
- Eight of San Francisco's 10 runs were scored with two outs, and seven of them were scored on extra-base hits. Santa Clara left six runners on base Wednesday – four of them in scoring position. Ferroggiaro finished his career going 2 for 5 with a home run, three RBIs and a run scored. Will Anderson also had a multi-hit game for SCU, going 2 for 4 with a double and a run scored. Jackson Nystrom led all players with a 3-for-3 day at the plate. Quentin Pohorski earned his eighth save of the year with four innings of relief for USF, allowing four runs on three hits and a walk.
NOTABLE NUMBERS
- 5: Santa Clara's 25 wins in 2026 marked the fifth consecutive season it has won 20 or more games, the first time the program has done that in 18 years.
- 6th: Bayles' two strikeouts on Wednesday gave him 259 for his career, ranking him sixth all-time at Santa Clara at season's end.
- 115: The Broncos finished with 115 doubles on the year, their most in a single season since hitting 144 in 2010, a span of 16 years.
