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BERKELEY, Calif.—The Dons had been in the hunt in most of the games they have played this season but Wednesday's game got away from them as Cal scored three times in the first and USF was unable to recover as they lost 11-0.
 
"It was tough," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We got down in the first and we didn't give ourselves an opportunity there in the fourth to keep it close. Had we kept it close, we might have gotten back into it but Cal played great. They pitched well. He had command of his pitches, kept us off balance.
 
"We just didn't compete like we're capable of."
 
The game against Cal marks the end of a 12-game road trip to begin the season and the Dons will aim to rebound when they open their home schedule against UC Riverside on Friday.
 
"It is going to be nice to play at home and have an opportunity to get our starting pitching in there which has done a pretty good job," Giarratano said.
 
Anthony Shew will throw on Friday, followed by Christian Cecilio and Jeider Rincon. Shew and Cecilio have combined to throw 30.2 innings over the last two weeks and have allowed five runs.
 
Sheldon Lee seemed to have settled in early and retired the first two batters in the first but then a flare down the leftfield line and a hit batsman set it up for Cal first baseman Chris Paul had he turned on one and hit it off the scoreboard in left center for a three-run home run.
 
Cal put together another rally in the fourth, when with runners at second and third and one out, Preston Grand Pre singled up the middle to bring home two, advanced to second on a throw home, and moved to third on a throwing error.
 
Trailing 6-0, the Dons tried to put together a two-out rally in the fifth and got two runners on for the top of the order but Connor Hofmann bounced out to second to end the threat.
 
Cal starter Jeff Bain went six innings and allowed no runs on three hits.
 
In the seventh, San Francisco looked like it might break onto the scoreboard when Ross Puskarich reached second on an error with one out but a line out and a strikeout ended the inning.
 
Puskarich went 1-for-3 on the night but was much more impressive that the box score indicated.
 
"I thought Ross played well offensively," said Giarratano said. "I was glad he got in there and did his thing."
 
Sam Granoff was also a bright spot as he came in for one inning of relief in the fifth and sat down the middle of the Cal order 1-2-3.
 
Cal tacked on five more runs in the final three innings to take an 11-run lead. It was the most lopsided game for the Dons this season.
 
"We were in games all the way to the end. This is the first night we came to the yard and soundly got beat," Giarratano said.