VILLANOVA, Pa. – Villanova (1-10) will finish up their tour of California with a final weekend series against Santa Clara (6-4) starting on Friday, March 10 with first pitch at 6:00 p.m. PST/4:00 p.m. EST. Game two of the series will start at 1:00 p.m. PST/4:00 p.m. EST on Saturday and the series will conclude Sunday with a 12:00 p.m. PST/3:00 p.m. EST first pitch. Fans can follow all three games through the live stats, a stream will not be available.
Series Info:
Friday, March 10 | 6:00 p.m. PST/9:00 p.m. EST | Live Stats
Saturday, March 11 | 1:00 p.m. PST/4:00 p.m. EST | Live Stats
Sunday, March 12| 12:00 p.m. PST/3:00 p.m. EST | Live Stats
Breaking Ground: This will be the first ever meeting between Villanova and Santa Clara.
Dinger Derby: The Wildcats rallied three homeruns resulting in five runs brought in against Cal Berkeley on Tuesday. Freshman infielder,
Collin Quintano, hit a solo home run in the top of the second for the first run of the game. This was Quintano's second collegiate home run. Senior first baseman,
Jack O'Reilly smashed his third homer of the season over the left field wall in the top of the sixth against. Junior infielder,
Cameron Hassert hit a three-run bomb over the fence in the top of the seventh to get the 'Cats back in the game. This tallies the third home run of the season for Hassert as well.
In Cade You Missed It: Junior pitcher,
Cade Udell worked in relief against Cal Berkeley heading into the bottom of the third and tossed for a total of 2.2 innings. Udell was on a role from the third to the fourth fanning seven batters and not allowing a run in. It wasn't until the fifth inning that the 'Cats as a team struggled and let in four runs.
Background On The Broncos
- San Francisco began the 2023 campaign with a split in a four-game series to Washington on opening weekend, another split in two games against UC Davis, they took the three game series win over UC San Diego, and had a huge 10-5 upset over No.2 Stanford on Tuesday.
- Redshirt senior Dawson Brigman is the Broncos leading man offensively. He has started all ten games this season and has gone 11-for-34 slashing .324/.500/.588 and hitting four doubles, one triple, one home run, stolen two bases, with six RBI, and scoring nine runs.
- Senior outfielder Coleman Brigman, younger brother of Dawson, is also a strong force for the Broncos. This season he slashes a .268/.392/.341 with 11 hits, two doubles, six runs scored, has driven in six runs, and stolen six bases for Santa Clara. In the field he has made 31 putouts on 31 chances.
- Junior infielder Efrain Manzo and sophomore infielder Malcom Williams are also players to watch for the Broncos. Williams his clipped one double, one homer, stole four bases, scored seven runs, and driven in eight runs. Manzo is a can get on base for the Broncos with a .408 on base percentage and has also hit two doubles, three home runs, scored nine runs, and driven in six batters.
- The pitcher to keep an eye on for the Broncos is senior Cole Kitchen who is coming off a WCC Pitcher of the Week selection after tossing seven shutout innings, only allowing two hits and fanning eight last week against UC San Diego. This season Kitchen has been pitching a 2.93 ERA with 16 strike outs over 15.1 innings pitched. Recently Kitchen pitched a scoreless eighth inning earning the win over No.2 Stanford on Tuesday.
- Head coach, Rusty Filter, enters his sixth season at the helm for the Broncos. Filter doubles as the pitching coach for Santa Clara as well and is focused on improving his teams ERA and opposing batting averages.
Keep up with the Villanova University Baseball program through social media by following on Twitter (@VUBaseball) and Instagram (@villanovabaseball) and 'liking' on Facebook (/VillanovaBaseball).
