PORTLAND, Ore. – The Santa Clara Broncos scored early and evened the three-game series with an 8-2 win over Portland Saturday afternoon at Joe Etzel Field. The rubber match will be played on Sunday at noon. No public tickets are available for that game as only player guests and essential personnel are allowed inside the stadium at this time.

Santa Clara jumped out to an early 3-0 lead on Saturday with an unearned run in the first and a two-run homer in the second from Matt Jew.

The Pilots pulled one back in the third after Chad Stevens singled and then stole second. He came around to score on a two-out single by freshman first baseman Sam Brown.

The Broncos scored three more runs with a two-out rally in the fourth. Mike Bowes did the damage with a two-run single and a wild pitch scored Jake MacNichols to give Santa Clara a 6-1 lead.

Stevens then hit his team-best fourth home run of the season in the fifth inning. The Pilot shortstop took a 1-2 pitch opposite field down the right field line to make it 6-2.

Santa Clara scored two more in the ninth as the Pilots were unable to string anything together in the late innings.

Cole Kitchen (5-0) picked up the win in relief for the Broncos. He tossed four innings and allowed just one run with five strikeouts. Freddie Erlandson started and was solid in four innings of work. He gave up one run and struck out five. Travis Howard recorded the final three outs to seal it for the Broncos.

Portland got excellent work out of the bullpen from Jacob Dobmeier who went three scoreless innings. Sophomore left-hander Bradley McVay (3-1) took the loss after surrendering four earned runs in his four innings of work.