University of San Francisco Athletics

Box Score

RIVERSIDE, Calif.—The Dons kept the game close but struggled to keep UC Riverside off the board and, in the sixth inning, allowed two critical runs to score to put the game out of reach as they fell 8-5 on Sunday afternoon.

"Twenty-two runs in the three games; it's hard for us to win the series," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano sais. "I thought today offensively we were pretty good. We weren't good enough to win and score nine runs but we were good enough to keep us in the game."

"We just could never stop them. We couln't keep them from getting base hits with runners in scoring position. We couldn't keep the leadoff guy off base... a couple of breaks here and there."
 
Beginning in the bottom of the fourth, the two teams began trading single runs for the next four half innings with neither able to separate from the other. But in the bottom of the sixth, UC Riverside got the cushion it needed.
 
They scored twice in the inning, first on a single to leftfield by Matthew Ellis and again on another single by Devyn Bolasky, putting the Highlanders up 7-4.

"Had we pitched better and got a couple of breaks, we probably win 10-1 today."

San Francisco (1-2) dropped its first series of the season and will return to action on Tuesday against No. 18 Kansas State at 2 p.m. at Benedetti Diamond in the team's home opener.
 
"It doesn't get any easier for us," Giarratano said. "It was a good weekend for us to start build as a team. Starting out 1-2, nobody wants to do it but this is a good enough team and there is enough leadership on this team that if we start to pitch, we're going to be pretty good."

Riverside took a 1-0 lead in the first and the Dons immediately fired back. In the top of the second, they struck for three straight hits and it was a Brendan Hendriks single to center that scored Derek Atkinson to tie the game 1-1.
 
Riverside came right back with two more in the third.
 
With runners on second and third and one out, Matthew Ellis doubled to left but Matt Sinatro's ability to track down the ball only allowed one of the two runs to score, giving the Highlanders the 2-1 lead. They picked up the other on a groundball to make it 3-1.
 
With San Francisco trailing 3-2 in the fourth, the Dons had a chance to do serious damage when with two outs they had the bases loaded for Giarratano but he would fly out to right ending the threat.
 
A home run in the fourth by Riverside's Nick Vilter made it a 4-2 game but USF answered in the fifth.
 
After a Bradley Zimmer single and a Turner hit-by-pitch, Atkinson found the whole on the left side of the infield for a single, which scored Zimmer to cut the lead to one. It was Atkinson's fourth RBI on the weekend.
 
NARAHARA'S DEBUT
Dons starter Matt Narahara made his first career appearance and lasted four innings, giving up five runs on eight hits. Thomas Cox came in for relief and threw one inning allowing a run on no hits.