SANTA CLARA, Calif.—For the second straight night, the Dons got a solid pitching performance and broke out the bats late as they scored nine times in the eighth to beat Santa Clara 13-4 in West Coast Conference action on Friday night.
 
With the win, the Dons (13-18, 7-4 WCC) secured their third series win in West Coast Conference play and go for the sweep on Saturday with Sam Granoff (1-2, 1.63 ERA) on the mound at 1 p.m.
 
"We didn't do a good job with runners in scoring position early in the game," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We stayed with it, just like we have all year, and we put nine runs up in the eighth inning.
 
"We had nine runs with no outs, which we've been waiting to score a lot of runs and hopefully that is the trigger. Last night was good for us to score six late. Tonight, we scored 10 late. I can't say enough about what we did throughout the lineup."
 
After allowing three runs in the first four innings to put Santa Clara up 3-2, Dons starting pitcher Christian Cecilio settled in and cruised over the next four innings and face only one batter above the minimum.
 
"I was really impressed by Christian," Giarratano said. "He's been cruising all year long and I knew that there would come a time when he wouldn't be as sharp and I wanted to see how he would react and he reacted just like a champion tonight.
 
"It was Christian being able to keep us in the game all the way until the eighth inning that allowed us an opportunity to open it up. That says a lot about what he is doing for us as a team."
 
Cecilio (3-1) earned his third win of the season and finished the night with three runs on nine hits in eight innings. It is his fifth straight start of at least eight innings. In the process, he passed his former teammate Abe Bobb to move into fifth place on the school's all-time innings list with 282.
 
The Dons got even in the seventh when Brendan Hendriks came up with Zack McCoy at second and he slapped a single through the left side to score the run and tie it 3-3.
 
Dominic Miroglio led off the eighth and hit a high hopper up the middle, which was fielded by Jose Vizcaino, Jr. but the Dons' designated hitter beat it out and the throw went into the Santa Clara dugout to move him to second.
 
After a Kyle Norman bunt to move the runner to third, Justin McCullough came in as a pinch hitter and hit the first pitch past the diving second baseman for a base hit to bring home Miroglio and put USF up 4-3.
 
Two batters later, Connor Hofmann came to the plate with the bases loaded and laced the 0-2 pitch into the right centerfield gap to bring home all three runs and slide into third with a one-out triple.
 
Hofmann went 3-for-5 with three RBI on the night.
 
Hendriks came up two batters later and he brought home Hofmann on a looping fly ball that dropped into leftfield for his second hit of the night.
 
Miroglio came up and crushed a ball into the left center gap to bring home two more to make it a 10-3 game. Norman was next and followed Miroglio with two RBI of his own on a single to center and gave the Dons a nine-run lead.
 
The Dons are in a tie with Loyola Marymount for second place in the WCC at 7-4 and sit one game ahead of Pepperdine and Saint Mary's in the conference race. Sunday's game against Santa Clara could provide some separation from the rest of the conference pack.
 
"We're in a great position," Giarratano said. "We were here last weekend. We won the first two and didn't play particularly well on Sunday. Hopefully we can get that switch turned and play a good game of baseball. We've got to go one inning, one pitch at a time."
 
NOTES
Santa Clara scored in the first inning off Cecilio when, with runners at the corners with no outs, TJ Braff grounded into a fielder's choice at short to bring home the run and put them up 1-0. It snapped a 15-inning scoreless streak for Cecilio that dates back to the third inning against Pacific on Mar. 21… Nico Giarratano reached base four times and went 3-for-3 for the game. He has had multiple hits in three of his last four games.