University of San Francisco Athletics

Box Score

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SAN FRANCISCO—After falling behind by four, the Dons cut it to one and, in the ninth, had the tying run in scoring position with one out but could not drive him in as they dropped the second game of the three-game set to Gonzaga 4-3 on Saturday afternoon.
 
"We got down, we pressed a bit," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "Really proud of the guys how hard they played to make it a game. Just too many mistakes. Missed too many pitches offensively. Defensively, we just didn't make the plays we're capable of."
 
"We're going to have to clean it up and we're going to have to start playing better."
 
With the Dons trailing 4-3 in the ninth, Michael Eaton drew a leadoff walk against Gonzaga closer Kenny Smith and was then bunted over by pinch hitter Michael Kathan, putting Eaton in scoring position with one out. But, much like he did on Friday, Smith closed the door for the second straight day.
 
Also, much like Friday, the Dons (8-8, 0-2 WCC) were playing catch-up the entire afternoon.
 
Gonzaga got singles from Mitch Gunsolus and Beau Bozett to lead off the game and, after a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up, Cory LeBrun and Caleb Wood got back-to-back singles to score two and gave Gonzaga a 2-0 lead.
 
An errant throw on a stolen base attempt at third allowed another run to score in the first and put the Bulldogs up 3-0. Two innings later, they tacked on another run on an error by Nico Giarratano to take a four-run lead.
 
"It was really hard to play from behind today," Giarratano said. "We really couldn't get our offense going. We haven't been able to string many hits together. When we did have guys on, we couldn't drive them in. We're struggling to find that guy that's going to drive runners in at this point and give us a lift."
 
The Dons were 4-for-18 with runners on base and 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position on Saturday. They are hitting .226 with runners in scoring position for the season.
 
Gonzaga starter Brandon Bailey held the Dons down for much of the afternoon. The freshman right hander did not allow a base runner until the fourth inning and went 7.1 innings with three runs on six hits.
 
Christian Cecilio settled down after a rough first inning and went seven innings with seven hits, four runs (two earned) and tied a career-high eight strikeouts.
 
San Francisco was able to rally in the eighth. With two runners on, Nico Giarratano singled to right, scoring Matt Sinatro, to put the Dons on the board. The big hit came with two outs when Derek Atkinson doubled into left center which scored Bradley Zimmer and Giarratano to make it a 4-3 game.
 
The Dons have lost consecutive games for the first time since Feb. 23-25.