
Huskies Drop Home Opener To Santa Clara
March 01, 2024 | Baseball
SEATTLE – Washington took an early lead but couldn't make it stick Friday night against Santa Clara, dropping the home opener at Husky Ballpark by an 8-4 score line.
Despite wearing the loss, starter Grant Cunningham was effective and at times dominant on the mound. The sophomore finished his outing with a career-high 10 strikeouts over 5.1 innings. The righty was saddled with five runs but only two of them were earned.
Patience paid in the first for the Huskies (2-4-1) as a trio of walks led to two runs. A double steal got the scoring started and Michael Brown followed with an RBI double ripped the other way into the gap.
However, a two-run single in the third tied the game at two apiece and an error in the field came back to bite the Huskies as a bases-clearing triple made it 5-2 Santa Clara (5-3).
The Huskies scratched across two runs in the fourth to draw the deficit to one but a two-out rally for the Broncos in the seventh resulted in a pair of their own, restoring the three-run lead.
The Broncos added a run of cushion in the ninth and UW couldn't get a rally going in the home half, ending the night with 13 runners left on.
The Huskies and Broncos will square off again tomorrow afternoon in the second game of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. PT.
DAWG BITES
• Prior to Friday's career-high 10 strikeouts, Grant Cunningham had not struck out more than four batters in an outing
• Aiva Arquette has posted multiple hits in three straight games
• UW put at least two baserunners on in 7-of-9 innings
• The Huskies left double digit runners on for the fourth time this season
For more information on the UW baseball team, follow @UW_Baseball on Twitter and Instagram.
Despite wearing the loss, starter Grant Cunningham was effective and at times dominant on the mound. The sophomore finished his outing with a career-high 10 strikeouts over 5.1 innings. The righty was saddled with five runs but only two of them were earned.
Patience paid in the first for the Huskies (2-4-1) as a trio of walks led to two runs. A double steal got the scoring started and Michael Brown followed with an RBI double ripped the other way into the gap.
However, a two-run single in the third tied the game at two apiece and an error in the field came back to bite the Huskies as a bases-clearing triple made it 5-2 Santa Clara (5-3).
The Huskies scratched across two runs in the fourth to draw the deficit to one but a two-out rally for the Broncos in the seventh resulted in a pair of their own, restoring the three-run lead.
The Broncos added a run of cushion in the ninth and UW couldn't get a rally going in the home half, ending the night with 13 runners left on.
The Huskies and Broncos will square off again tomorrow afternoon in the second game of the series. First pitch is scheduled for 2:05 p.m. PT.
DAWG BITES
• Prior to Friday's career-high 10 strikeouts, Grant Cunningham had not struck out more than four batters in an outing
• Aiva Arquette has posted multiple hits in three straight games
• UW put at least two baserunners on in 7-of-9 innings
• The Huskies left double digit runners on for the fourth time this season
For more information on the UW baseball team, follow @UW_Baseball on Twitter and Instagram.
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: HAMMOND, Blake (1-1)
L: Cunningham, Grant (0-2)
Batting:
2B: LEWIS, Jordan 1 ; CLEARY, Ben 1
3B: LEWIS, Jordan 1
RBI: O'HARA, Michael 2 ; STECK, Ben 3 ; LEWIS, Jordan 3
SH: BRIGMAN, Coleman 1
Base Running:
RUNS: BERRING, JonJon 1 ; O'HARA, Michael 2 ; MANZO, Efrain 3 ; JOYCE, Dylan 1 ; CLEARY, Ben 1
SB: O'HARA, Michael 1

Batting:
2B: Clayton, Cam 1 ; Arquette, Aiva 1 ; Brown, Michael 1 ; Wilson, Blake 1
RBI: Clayton, Cam 1 ; Ybarra, Jeter 1 ; Brown, Michael 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Clayton, Cam 2 ; Arquette, Aiva 1 ; Wilson, Blake 1
SB: Clayton, Cam 1 ; Arquette, Aiva 1
CS: Arquette, Aiva 1
Game Leaders
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