Wrapping-up the first year under head coach Dan O'Brien and his staff with senior day at Schott Stadium, Santa Clara baseball lost its final game of 2012 vs. LMU by a final score of 4-2. The loss gives the Broncos a final record of 26-28 with a 5-19 record in West Coast Conference play.
"It was about a month ago that we talked about competing to the last pitch of the season," said O'Brien. "That's exactly what we did today. Andrew [Biancardi] didn't get a knock in the ninth but there's nobody I'd rather have at the plate in that situation than a senior and a guy whose been a great leader for us all year. It was a tough loss but I was really proud of the way the guys competed."
"It is a great honor to be recognized by the WCC," said Harisis. "I wasn't thinking about individual awards this year, I just wanted to help the team in any way I could. To get an award for that is very special. I wouldn't have expected this at the beginning of the year but the new coaching staff has taught me a lot and I have so much more knowledge about the game now. I owe a lot of credit to my coaches for helping me get to where I am. Next year I want to continue to work on my defense and become an even better player. My number one goal for next year, however, is to help the team win a lot of games by doing whatever it takes."
Getting ready to finish up a successful first season under head coach Dan O'Brien and his staff, Santa Clara baseball had three players named to the West Coast Conference All-Academic team, the conference announced Friday. Senior Paul Twining, junior Brock Simon and sophomore Zach Looney were all honored for the first time.
"I could not be more proud of those three guys for getting it done in the classroom, especially during a tremendously rigorous college baseball season," said O'Brien. "Sometimes these awards come and go without people truly understanding what an impressive accomplishment it is. I'm just very proud of the ball players in our program, especially those three."
Following their 18th West Coast Conference baseball title the Pepperdine Waves are headed to the NCAA Regionals for the first time since 2008. WCC runner-up San Diego will head north to compete in the UCLA Regional. This marks the first time since 2008 the WCC has had multiple postseason teams.
The regional's double-elimination format will pit the No. 2-seeded Waves (34-21, 16-8 WCC) against the No. 3 seed Michigan State Spartans (37-21, 13-11 Big 10) in game one on Klein Field at Sunken Diamond on Friday, June 1 at 1:00pm Pacific Time. The other game features the host, No. 1 seed Stanford who will face off with the No. 4 seed Fresno State.
Great ExpectationsBY JAMES SMITH (www.RDbaseball.org)
Expectations. We all have them. The 2012 Broncos were no exception. They had them too, and it is for this reason that the season did not go as planned. Going into the 2012 regular season, if there were expectations in the mind of the Broncos, they were bad. We had won only 17 games in the 2011 season, we had lost much of our great talent to our graduating seniors the previous spring, and we had a brand new coaching staff, all of which left us unsure of how our year would play out. After a late September night meeting, however, the team's five seniors - myself included - knew something was going to be different.
After finishing the season with 26 wins, the most since a 33-win season in 2008, Santa Clara baseball 
