University of San Francisco Athletics

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SAN FRANCISCO—The Dons fell behind early in both games of their double header against San Diego, managed to come back to win the opener but dropped the West Coast Conference series in the finale on Sunday.
 
"We battled back offensively, down from a 3-0 game to tie it. We got a big hit and we took the lead," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We had the same opportunities in the second game when we made it 5-5, bases loaded no outs and we hit into a double play. We just didn't get enough offensive production from our guys."
 
San Francisco (13-13, 3-6 WCC) has dropped two of its first three conference series and finds itself in seventh place as they hit the road for three of their next four weekend series, including trips to Loyola Marymount and Pepperdine.
 
"It all goes back to the first series with Gonzaga when we got swept," Giarratano said. "This was going to be a tough series and anybody could win one or two games… I'm not disappointed in doing this with these guys… This is the best team in our conference."
 
"I'm disappointed that we started out 0-3 and could only win two from BYU. That's why we put ourselves in such a bad situation. We haven't played for three weeks like we're capable of."
 
The Dons will return to the field on Tuesday when they will take on Sacramento State at Raley Field at 6:35 p.m.
 
GAME  1: San Francisco 6 – San Diego 4
 
After falling behind 3-0 after the third inning, the Dons began to chip away at the San Diego lead. In the fourth, Atkinson singled, stole second and scored after two groundouts to get USF on the board. The Dons got another in the fourth on a RBI single to center by Atkinson and cut the lead to one.
 
San Francisco finally broke through in the sixth. The Dons had the bases loaded with one out and Ryan Matranga at the plate when he grounded to third but the throw home from Andrew Daniel went wide and allowed Zack Turner to score to tie the game and extend the inning.
 
Michael Kathan grounded out to second to put the Dons up 4-3 and , after an intentional walk to Bradley Zimmer, Nico Giarratano drove in two with a double down the left field line and gave USF a three-run lead.
 
Christian Cecilio settled down after a rough first inning and went 7.2 innings while allowing four runs (three earned) on eight hits. Houston Hibberd picked up his fifth save of the season.
 
"Christian pitched great. He got us into the eighth. Houston came in and did his job."
 
GAME 2: San Diego 7 – San Francisco 5
 
The Dons had two opportunities to get some runs on the board but was unable to capitalize.
 
In the first inning, the Dons had the bases loaded with no outs but were only able to get one run home on a groundout by Brendan Hendriks. Again in the fourth inning, USF got the first two runners on but could not advance the runners and left two runners on base.
 
After getting out of danger in that first inning, San Diego created some offense of its own. The Toreros got two two-out singles from Connor Joe and Louie Lechich to put them up 3-1.
 
The Dons battled back and got two in the fifth. Atkinson drove home Zimmer on a single and two batters later, they got a sacrifice fly from Hendriks to tie the game at three.
 
The Dons had another chance in the sixth when, with USF trailing 5-4, they had the bases loaded with no outs and Giarratano grounded into a double play to score one but that would be all they could get.
 
The Dons and Toreros battled back and forth until the eighth when Lechich, who started on the mound for San Diego, hit his second home run of the weekend and put the Toreros up 7-5.