SAN DIEGO, Calif.—After battling through some miscues and fending off San Diego's offense, the Dons moved ahead late on a squeeze bunt and secured the sweep with a 6-4 West Coast Conference win on Sunday afternoon.
The Dons (22-19, 14-4 WCC) have moved two games ahead of San Diego for first place in the WCC with nine conference games remaining. It is the first time the Dons have swept the Toreros in San Diego under
Nino Giarratano.
"It was a great weekend by our guys, the way they stayed with it," Giarratano said. "First place is great right now but the goal is to be in first place at the end of the year. We've got a lot of work to do.
"This is a start and we need to enjoy it today and get back to work on Monday."
With the game tied 3-3 in the sixth inning, San Diego had multiple chances to get on the board. Two batters after a leadoff double, San Diego hit a groundball deep into the hole at short and
Nico Giarratano flipped it to
Aaron Ping at third who dove to make the tag on the advancing runner for the second out.
With a runner at first and two down, San Diego centerfielder Austin Bailey was next and hit a fly ball to right center that one-hopped over the wall for a ground rule double, which held the runner at third. The next pitch was lined right to Giarratano at short to end the inning and kept it a tie game.
Justin McCullough got the Dons started in the seventh with a leadoff double to center. After a sacrifice bunt and an intentional walk put runners at the corners with one down,
Michael Eaton dropped down a squeeze bunt that was fielded by the pitcher but his flip was high and allowed the run to score to give USF a one-run lead.
Derek Atkinson led off the eighth for USF and fell behind in the count 1-2 but turned on the next pitch and launched a ball into right for a solo home run. It was his fifth home run of the season and second on the weekend.
"He's been traditionally really good against San Diego," said Giarratano. "He did a great job today with putting us ahead. He's been doing that all year for us."
The Dons added on another when
Matt Sinatro singled to left to bring home
Dominic Miroglio and gave USF a three-run cushion.
After San Diego put a run across in the bottom half,
Travis Ulvestad came in and settled the game down by getting the final two outs of the inning and pitched a clean ninth to pick up the save.
San Diego drops two games behind the Dons but remain in the conference hunt, now tied in second with Pepperdine.
Said Giarratano, "We're going to see them at the end of the year. They're going to bounce back. They're a good team."
San Francisco will return to Benedetti Diamond on Tuesday for action against Sacramento State at 2 p.m.
The Dons used five pitchers on the day and got solid performances out of the entire group.
Sheldon Lee, who made the start, went three innings and allowed two runs.
Matt Narahara entered the game in the fifth and went 2.1 shutout innings.
Logan West, who allowed five runs in the ninth inning on Friday night, went one inning and bridged the gap to Ulvestad.
"I thought Sheldon gave us a great three innings. [Narahara] was fabulous being able to settle us down," Giarratano said. "After what happened to Logan on Friday, being able to bounce back shows how hard he works.
"I'm really happy about the contributions from the bullpen today."
The Dons continued their hot hitting ways in the top of the first when Giarratano jumped on the first pitch he saw and launched a ball over the rightfield wall for a solo home run, his first of the season.
The blast extended his hitting streak to 12 games.
San Francisco then put a rally of their own together in the third. After back-to-back singles from Eaton and
Connor Hofmann, Giarratano ripped a ball of the right centerfield but Eaton did not get a good read on the ball and he was thrown out at home.
San Diego made a pitching change but it did not slow down the Dons' bats as
Brendan Hendriks crushed the first pitch to the warning track in center as both Hofmann and Giarratano scored to make it a 3-0 lead.
