The Cal Poly baseball team dropped the ball against the Santa Clara Broncos Tuesday at Stephen Schott Stadium.
The Broncos came out strong for only having won two of their last 18 games. On the contrary, things were a bit messy for the Mustangs in the beginning innings.
Junior right-hander Cam Schneider didn’t quite make it eight innings at the mound like senior left-hander Trent Shelton and freshman right-hander Darren Nelson did over the past weekend.
In fact, Schneider was relieved by freshman left-hander Matt Arens after the starting pitcher lost control of a fastball and nailed a Broncos player in the left shoulder.
The Mustangs played four other pitchers including junior right-hander Austin Dondanville and sophomore left-hander Thomas Triantos.
The Mustangs remained scoreless, trailing 4-0 by the bottom of the third, but they were able to do some catching up during the fourth.
Senior designated hitter Elijah Skipps put the Mustangs on the scoreboard with a double to right field bringing in sophomore right-fielder Bradlee Beesley.
Skipps went on to score off a double from junior catcher Nick Meyer followed by a groundout by sophomore second baseman Scott Ogrin to score freshman first baseman Tate Samuelson.
Cal Poly tied the score 4-4 as Meyer crossed home plate thanks to a base hit from senior outfielder Colby Barrick.
The Mustangs wouldn’t score again until the eighth with an RBI double from senior outfielder Josh George to score Ogrin.
With a chance to tie the game 7-7, senior Alex Mckenna hit a ball short to left field, but the Broncos tagged first base in time, stranding two runners. Samuelson stepped to the plate with two outs in the ninth and sent the 1-0 pitch out of the park to bring the score 10-7.
Samuelson’s team-leading fifth homer would not be enough to steal the victory as the Santa Clara Broncos maintained the lead throughout the game and ended with a 10-7 win.
The Mustangs return to Baggett Stadium April 27-29 for a three-game non-conference series against UCLA with the first game of the series at 6 p.m. Friday.