The Santa Clara Bruins varsity baseball squad all but clinched an El Camino League title with a 5-1 victory over the second-place Fremont Firebirds last week. Tuesday, May 6, was the third and final matchup between the league rivals, and the Bruins were in control from the very first inning.
Jaxton Chao got things going in the first inning with a single and a stolen base, eventually scoring the opening run of the game. It was his second inning RBI single with two outs that put the Bruins up 2-0, which was all the offense that Santa Clara would need.
Right-handed ace Drew Diffenderfer started on the mound and was magnificent in his five innings of work, shutting out the Firebirds with a nasty combination of a high 80’s fastball, slider and changeup. After striking out in the bottom of the second, Fremont’s Kishan Shah had high praise for Diffenderfer. Walking back to the dugout, one could hear Shah exclaim, “That was *bleeping* nasty.”
“I have played with him before; he’s a really good pitcher,” remarked Shah after the game. “I know he’s coming back from injury, so total credit to him for putting in the work.”
“That was a changeup, I believe,” remarked Bruins’ catcher Charles Conley on the pitch to strike out Shah in the second. “It was nasty because it looks like a fastball and then it just dives out of the zone.”
“I felt good,” chimed Diffenderfer on his performance. “I was trying to just stay in the zone, coming off injury and on a pitch limit. Not trying to waste any pitches and just attack.”
The Bruins’ offense added additional run support for Diffenderfer in the top of the sixth, putting the game away with a three-run barrage. Shortstop Andrew Traffas led things off by driving the first pitch he saw over the right-field fence for a home run. John Kepner followed up with a walk and eventually came around to score on a single through the 5.5 hole by Conley. Greg Salgado would also draw a free pass before Dominick Chavarria delivered an RBI single and a 5-0 lead.
While Fremont managed a run in the sixth, that is all the Firebirds would get off of Kepner, who came in for relief of Diffenderfer. The Bruins extinguished the Firebirds rather quickly in the seventh, closing out the team’s 22nd win of the season.
As of Wednesday morning, May 14, the Bruins find itself with a 23-3 overall record and 16-1 in league. Santa Clara has won 14 games in a row and has won multiple games this season over A-league teams. A case can be made that the school’s program is stronger than it has ever been since the turn of the century.
“Our program has come a long way,” chimed Bruins Manager Pedro Martinez, who began as the JV coach in 2016. “That was a really good JV team that first year I coached here. And then they won league as seniors in 2019.
“This team this year is a little deeper, though. I think we have gotten some respect now. Over my time here, we’ve gotten our first win over Wilcox in 15 years, Palo Alto was 18 years,” continued Martinez. Obviously beating Leigh, a first-place team, we beat King’s Academy who was a defending CCS Champ. We’ve beaten some big teams.”
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If you want them to continue to be successful, SCUSD needs to do a better job of supporting the programs they come from like Westside and Briarwood LLs.
And also not fire coaches that are great at their jobs.