PROVO, Utah—It was a story of two games for the Dons.
 
The first four innings looked as if the game was going to quickly turn into a slugfest with both teams scoring four times in the first few frames. But following a lengthy rain delay, the pitching staffs dominated and pushed the game to the 10th inning where the Dons dropped the second game of the series 6-5 to BYU on Friday night.
 
"We've got to be able to carry the lead like we have in the past but I thought the kids competed well," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We just made some really bad pitches tonight. We made another couple errors that led to runs. We've got to play better defense in the middle of the field."
 
The loss gave the series to BYU (20-19, 10-7 WCC) and it marked only the second time this season the Dons (22-22, 14-6 WCC) have lost a West Coast Conference series. The other series was at Pacific (Mar. 20-22) where USF dropped two out of three.
 
BYU had a runner at first with one out but the rain quickly became a factor as sheets of water drenched both teams and forced the umpires to call a rain delay. The delay lasted about 90 minutes.
 
Once the team returned to action, both Dons reliever Matt Narahara and BYU starter Brandon Kinser quickly worked through the next three innings and got into the seventh with only three batters reaching base.
 
But in the seventh, BYU began to make some noise. After a leadoff single, Narahara induced what looked like a potential double play groundball but Michael Eaton could not pick up the ball cleanly as he tried to step on second to give BYU runners at first and second.
 
Narahara retired the next two batters but Urry muscled a hit into left to bring home the go-ahead run and put BYU up 5-4.
 
The Dons wasted no time and tied it up in the eighth. Brendan Hendriks led off with a double and moved over to third on a fly ball from Derek Atkinson. Next was Dominic Miroglio and he hit a groundball to the shortstop and the thrown home was not in time as Hendriks crossed the plate to tie the game at five.
 
Miroglio went 3-for-5 with four RBI.
 
Narahara got two quick outs in the bottom half of the inning but then two walks, a steal, and a wild pitch put runners at the corners with two down for Dillon Robinson but the Dons lefty blew a fastball by the BYU three-hitter to end the threat.
 
Narahara went six innings and allowed one unearned run on six hits with six strikeouts.
 
"I thought he was great today," Giarratano said. "Nars executed and did a great job."
 
In the 10th, BYU loaded the bases with no outs and the Cougars got a fly ball over the pulled in outfielders to end the game in a walk-off.
 
San Francisco will play the finale of the series on Saturday morning at 11 a.m. and have Christian Cecilio (5-1) on the mound.
 
One night after BYU jumped on the Dons pitchers in the first couple of innings, USF returned the favor and strung together a two-out rally in the first. With Hendriks at first, Derek Atkinson singled into right and the grounder scooted by the BYU rightfielder to advance the runners to second and third.
 
That extended the inning for Miroglio and he slapped the 2-1 pitch into the rightfield corner for a two-run double and put USF up 2-0. Justin McCullough kept the inning going as he hit a chopper up the middle to bring home another run to put the Dons ahead by three.
 
Jeider Rincon started for the Dons and got into a jam in the first when BYU put runners at the corners with two down for Colton Shaver, who had three home runs in his last two games, and the Dons left hander got a pop up to end the inning.
 
After BYU got a run back in the second, the Dons came up in the third and continued to swing the bats well. Nico Giarratano led off the inning with a double and he moved up to third on a fly ball to center for Miroglio.
 
The Dons catcher, much like in his first at bat, came through with an RBI hit to bring in Giarratano and gave San Francisco a 4-1 lead.
 
BYU evened the score in the third when the Cougars got a two-run home run from Dillon Robinson and then an RBI single from Eric Urry off of Rincon. Narahara entered the game in relief and ended the BYU rally.