SAN FRANCISCO—After jumping ahead by five in the middle innings, the Dons watched Portland battle back and put the tying run on in the eighth but held on with some timely hits as they completed the sweep of the Pilots with a 8-4 win on Sunday afternoon.
 
San Francisco (18-18, 11-4 WCC) has won seven straight games and eight of their last nine West Coast Conference games.
 
"Anytime you win like we have, you can put yourself in a pretty good situation," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We have to keep trusting ourselves and we've got to keep playing. We want to figure out how to get better as a team each day and hopefully we are doing that."
 
San Francisco got some breathing room in the fifth. With runners at first and second and one out, Brendan Hendriks lined a ball into right for a base hit and the Portland rightfielder booted the ball, which allowed Michael Eaton to score and give USF a 3-0 lead.
 
After a fly out by Derek Atkinson to score Hofmann, Dominic Mirolgio brought in one of his own on an RBI single to center and the Dons went up 5-0.
 
USF left hander Sam Granoff gave the Dons a strong outing and held Portland scoreless through the first five innings and allowed four hits but got in trouble in the sixth.
 
After a leadoff triple and an error had runners at the corners, Turner Gill turned on a pitch and drove it over the rightfield fence for a three-run home run to cut the USF lead to two.
 
"These guys battle back as soon as they are down," Giarratano said of Portland. "The same thing happened on Friday. They were down 6-0 and all of a sudden it was 6-5. Today, we had them down 5-0 and all of a sudden it was 5-3. You can't stop playing in this league. If you do, bad things are going to happen."
 
Granoff settled down and got through seven innings as he allowed three runs (two earned) on five hits.
 
The Dons answered the Portland home run with a run scoring extra base hit of their own. With Kyle Nixon at second and one down, Nico Giarratano laced one into the left center gap and raced all the way around to third for an RBI triple.
 
With San Francisco leading 6-3 in the eighth, Portland had a chance to even the score when it loaded the bases with no outs. Logan West entered the game for the Dons and was able to get out of the inning with only one run coming across after getting a fielder's choice, a strikeout, and a fly out.
 
USF added some insurance runs in the bottom half of the inning when Eaton doubled to left to bring home Blake Valley and Giarratano followed it with his second triple of the day on a shot into the right center gap and pushed the Dons advantage to four.
 
Eaton reached base three times and went 2-for-2 with two runs scored.
 
"I thought Mike had some great at bats," Giarratano said. "The two strike bunt, the base hit to start the rally to get us up 5-0, the base hit to extend the eighth. Mike has been the difference. I like what he's doing in the nine hole, flipping the lineup over and giving us a chance to score."
 
In nine games while batting ninth, Eaton is hitting .360 (9-for-25) with five RBI.
 
San Francisco will have little time to rest as it will take on No. 19 Nevada for the second time within a week on Monday and UC Davis on Tuesday. Game time on Monday at Benedetti Diamond is 3 p.m.
 
The Dons struck in the first when Hendriks ripped a single into rightfield to bring home Connor Hofmann and it put USF up 1-0.
 
Atkinson led the fourth off with a single and moved to third on a stolen base and a fly out for Justin McCullough. The Dons designated hitter swung at the first pitch and hit it off the leftfield wall, which scored Atkinson, and moved the lead to two.
 
NOTES
Six Dons hitters recorded multiple hits on Sunday, including the first three batters in the order (Connor Hofmann, Nico Giarratano, Brendan Hendriks)… Sunday was Brendan Hendriks' birthday and he went 2-for-4 with an RBI.