Box Score Follow the Diamond Dons: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM SAN FRANCISCO—Timely hitting, including a three-run first inning home run from
Brendan Hendriks, and a gutsy performance from the Dons bullpen was enough as they took the West Coast Conference opener against Santa Clara 6-5 on Friday afternoon.
"The home run was big. We were down 2-0 and the way we have been playing, it was tough. Hendriks hit the home run to put us ahead and we never really gave the lead back," San Francisco head coach
Nino Giarratano said. "I'm happy with how we battled."
The Dons (21-23, 9-13 WCC) fell behind in the first when Santa Clara put up two to begin the game but USF battled back immediately.
Nico Giarratano singled and
Derek Atkinson reached on an error to give the Dons runners at first and second with two outs for Hendriks, who crushed a 0-1 pitch high off the net in right for the three-run home run and give them a 3-2 lead.
Santa Clara tied the game in the third but San Francisco retook the lead in the fourth. Henrdiks led off the inning with a double and scored two batters later on another double, this one from
Ryan Matranga. Later in the inning, Matranga scored on a
Bradley Zimmer single and the Dons had a 5-3 lead.
Hendriks went 2-for-4 with three RBI on Friday.
With the game tied 5-5 in the seventh, Zimmer tripled to left with one out for
Nico Giarratano and he promptly hit a fly ball to left to bring home Zimmer and gave the Dons a 6-5 lead.
Both Zimmer and Giarratano collected two hits and a RBI on the afternoon.
San Francisco has won 10 straight games and 14 of the last 15 against its South Bay rival and will return to action on Saturday against the Broncos with left hander
Christian Cecilio on the mound. He has gone at least 7.1 innings in each of his last three starts.
The bullpen kept Santa Clara at bay, despite getting into some late trouble. With two down in the eighth, Jose Vizcaino, Jr. doubled and it was followed by walk to Stevie Berman, which brought in
Houston Hibberd and he got out of the jam to hold onto the one-run lead.
In the ninth, Santa Clara got a one-out single from Quinton Perry but Hibberd retired the next two to end the game. Hibberd was one of three relievers used by the Dons in the contest, along with
Ben Graff and
Logan West, and they combined to throw 4.1 shutout innings.
"They put up a lot of hits," Giarratano said. "I'm really happy for Logan coming in and being able to put up two zeros. Ben coming in and getting his outs and a really good bounce back for Houston. For Houston to come back and bounce back, I'm really happy for him."
Hibberd gave up both walk-off hits to Portland last weekend but rebounded on Friday by going 1.1 innings to pick up his eighth save of the season.
Â
