University of San Francisco Athletics

Box Score

Follow the Diamond Dons: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM

SAN FRANCISCO—The Dons jumped out to a quick lead but had it erased in the third and were unable to recover as they dropped their West Coast Conference opener to Gonzaga 6-5 on Friday afternoon.
 
"Any time you got a 3-0 lead in the first and you give five back, it's tough on your club," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We came back and got one and then they manufactured a run to make it 6-4. We could never get anything going with our lineup."
 
USF (8-7, 0-1 WCC) will be back in action for the second of the three-game set with Gonzaga on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Benedetti Diamond.
 
Gonzaga (5-12, 1-0) had lost our of its last five games coming into the series with San Francisco and has started the season 4-12 after winning the WCC regular season title in 2013.
 
"They were struggling coming in. It's a new start for them. They played like it," Giarratano said. "We weren't ready for the challenge."
 
Gonzaga pitchers also made life difficult on the USF lineup. The 4-5-6-7 hitters in the order went a combined 2-for-13 on the day with two walks.
 
"They did a good job of making pitches to Turner and they were able to get Atkinson out for most of the day," Giarratano said.
 
One of those hits, however, came in the first and put the Dons on the board early.
 
With two outs, Gonzaga starting pitcher Taylor Jones hit Bradley Zimmer and Zack Turner before walking Derek Atkinson to load the bases. That brought Brendan Hendriks to the plate and, on the first pitch, he drilled it into deep left centerfield and it one-hopped the wall, clearing the bases to give USF a 3-0 lead.
 
It was his team-high sixth double of the season.
 
The Dons had only scored three runs in the first inning all season prior to Friday's game.
 
Gonzaga came right back and erased that early strike. After getting two walks and a fielder's choice to set up first and third with one out, Gonzaga strung together three straight singles to cut the Dons lead to 3-2. The big hit came two batters later when Jimmy Sinatro, Matt Sinatro's brother, hit a double to left center, clearing the bases to give Gonzaga a 5-3 lead.
 
With the Dons trailing 5-4 in the seventh, Gonzaga found its way back on the scoreboard. Payden Lamb doubled to lead off the inning and a sacrifice bunt put him at third with one out. That is when Caleb Wood dropped down a suicide squeeze bunt to score Lamb and put the Bulldogs up 6-4.
 
Dons starter Abe Bob (2-2) went seven innings and allowed six runs on 10 hits with three walks. It was the fourth consecutive start of at least seven innings for the senior.
 
The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for San Francisco and broke a streak of 23 scoreless innings thrown by Dons pitchers.
 
Jones settled down after the first and went 7.2 innings and allowed five runs (four earned) on four hits and two walks.
 
"I think their guy pitched well after he got out of the first inning," Giarratano said. "He kind of settled down, we didn't knock him out of there. We didn't put real good swings on him but they played very emotional today."
 
Zimmer cut into the lead in the eighth when he hit his fourth home run of the season.