Huskies Beat Broncos, 4-1, To Win Series

Sunday, March 6

Seattle, WA

12:00 PM

University of Washington

6-4

Santa Clara

6-6

Santa Clara

Washington

Photo by: Washington Athletics

March 07, 2016 | Baseball

Box Score

By: Washington Athletics

SEATTLE – The Washington Baseball team scored three times in the seventh inning to break a 1-1 tie and held on Sunday to beat Santa Clara 4-1 at Husky Ballpark. The Huskies (6-4) used solid pitching, strong defense, timely hitting and withstood a two-hour rain delay to win two-out-of-three games against the Broncos (6-6).

Senior pitchers Spencer Jones, Alex Nesbitt and Troy Rallings combined to hold Santa Clara to four hits and struck out 12 Broncos' batters.

Jones, who learned he would be starting Sunday while out to dinner Saturday, pitched a career-high six innings and struck out a career-high equaling eight batters. He allowed just two hits – both in the third inning when the Broncos struck for their lone run. TC Florentine doubled to lead off the inning and scored on a two-out bunt base hit by Grant Meylan.

The Huskies got the run back in the bottom of the inning when AJ Graffanino scored from third on a passed ball. Graffanino reached on an infield single, moved to third on a two-out base hit by Jack Meggs and scored when catcher Kyle Cortopassi let a swinging strike to the batter MJ Hubbs go off his glove and get to the backstop.

The score remained 1-1 until the eventful seventh inning. UW's winning pitcher Nesbitt (2-1) replaced Jones on the mound and was the recipient of some outstanding defense behind him. Cortopassi tried to score all the way from first base on a double into the left-center gap by Kert Woods, but left fielder Kyle London played the ball perfectly off the wall, hit the cut-off man, shortstop AJ Graffanino, who made a perfect relay home to nail Cortopassi at the plate and preserve the 1-1 tie.

In the bottom of the inning, the Huskies sent nine men to the plate. Against three different Broncos' pitchers, they walked three times, had two singles and were hit by a pitch. Losing pitcher Ryan Budnick (0-1) loaded the bases without recording an out before giving way to Freddie Erlandson, who uncorked a wild pitch to score the first run of the inning. Pinch-hitter KJ Brady scored another run with a RBI single and Kyle London drove home the final run of the inning with a sacrifice fly.

The 4-1 advantage proved to be enough for Troy Rallings, who pitched the final two innings to earn his third save of the season. Rallings, who was the winner in Saturday's game two, now has 18 career saves to take over sole possession of fourth all-time on UW's career list.

Washington had eight hits – all singles – with Meggs (2 for 3) and Hubbs (2 for 3) each picking up a pair of hits.

Washington returns to action next week at Husky Ballpark with a four-game series against Pacific, starting Friday at 5:00 p.m.

Washington 4 (6-4), Santa Clara 1 (6-6)

SC 001 000 000 –- 1 4 0
UW 001 000 30x –- 4 8 0

LOB: SC 5, UW 8. Jason Seever, Ryan Budnick (7), Freddie Erandson (7), Peter Hendron (7) and Kyle Cortopassi; Spencer Jones, Alex Nesbitt (7), Troy Rallings (8) and Joey Morgan, Willie MacIver (8). W – Nesbitt (2-1). L – Budnick (0-1). Sv – Rallings (3). HR – none. 3B – none. 2B – SC, Kert Woods, TC Florentine. Time – 2:30. Attendance – 410.