Rocky Gale

SANTA CLARA, Calif. --- The Portland Pilots capitalized on a key error by the Santa Clara Broncos in the 10th inning and pulled off a come-from-behind 6-4 victory in the opener of a three-game West Coast Conference series Friday night at Stephen Schott Stadium.

After the Pilots battled back from a two-run deficit to tie the score, Portland had runners on second and third with two outs in the top of the 10th inning when sophomore C Rocky Gale hit a bouncer to the Broncos’ shortstop for what would have been an inning ending groundout. The throw to first was off line though, allowing both runners to score and giving the Pilots a 6-4 lead.

Portland freshman reliever Zach Varce sat down the Broncos in order in the bottom of the 10th to secure the victory. Varce tossed two innings of scoreless relief and improved to 2-0 this year with the win.

Portland moved its season record to 15-15 overall and 1-3 in WCC play. The Broncos dropped to 16-10, 2-2 in league action.

Junior DH Paul Crowder led off the 10th inning with a hit by pitch, and after a fielder’s choice, Danny Meier doubled to left putting the go-ahead run at third base with one out. Freshman 3B Kevin Armijo lined out to short, setting up Gale’s game-winning at bat.

Portland senior right-hander David Gruener started and went 5.2 innings, allowing four runs (two earned). Freshman Tyler Thompson was stellar out of the bullpen, allowing just one hit in 2.1 innings.

Nate Garcia went 6.1 innings for the Broncos, striking out three. Thain Simon took the loss in relief.

Portland got on the board in the top of the first inning after freshman Riley Henricks singled, was sacrificed to second and later scored on an RBI groundout by Kraus.

Santa Clara answered in the bottom of the first with an RBI double by Ryan Conan after Andrew LeBlanc led off and reached on a Pilot error. The Broncos added another unearned run in the second, but the Pilots evened the score with a run scoring single by Kraus, again plating Henricks.

The Broncos made it 4-2 in the fifth with another Conan RBI double and a sacrifice fly by Geoff Klein.

Danny Meier cut the deficit in half with an RBI single in the sixth and Kraus knocked in his third run of the game in the seventh to even the score at 4-4.

Kraus finished 3-for-5 with three runs batted in, while Gale also collected three hits for the Pilots.

Conan was 3-for-4 on the night with two RBI, while Brady Feurst finished 2-for-4 and was the only other Bronco to collect multiple hits.

The teams will square off in the second game of the three-game set on Saturday at 6 p.m. and conclude the series Sunday at 1 p.m.