SANTA CLARA, Calif.—Two early runs were all Dons starting pitcher Sam Granoff needed to finish off the sweep of Santa Clara as he baffled the Bronco hitters and led USF to the 6-0 complete game shutout on Saturday afternoon.
 
It is the Dons' first three-game sweep of the season and is the fourth time in the last five years that they have swept Santa Clara.
 
"He was great today," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said of Granoff.  "He threw pitches he needed to throw, got out of some trouble, got out of some two-out situations. It's a wonderful thing to see a guy like that come in, master his craft, throw strikes, change speeds, and put up nine zeroes.
 
"This is a yard where the ball can get out of here in the air and to pitch nine innings and give up no runs in this ballpark was just wonderful."
 
San Francisco (14-18, 8-4 WCC) has completed four West Coast Conference series with five to go and sits in a tie with Loyola Marymount for second place and only one game behind San Diego for the conference lead.
 
The Dons begin its next conference series on Friday when they host Portland.
 
After scoring 13 runs on Friday night, the Dons kept the offense rolling in the first inning on Saturday. After Connor Hofmann reached third via a single, balk, and a tag up, Dominic Miroglio came up and punched a single past the diving Santa Clara third baseman to bring the run home and give USF a 1-0 lead.
 
One inning later, Nico Giarratano came up in the second with runners at the corners and two down and he ripped the first pitch up the middle for a base hit and bought home Zack McCoy to put the Dons up by two.
 
Santa Clara had chances in each of the first two innings to get on the board but Granoff was able to find ways out the jams.
 
In the first inning, Santa Clara got a double and moved the runner to third on a fly ball but Granoff got the strikeout to end the inning. Santa Clara put another runner at third with one out in the second and Granoff kept the Broncos off the scoreboard as he got a strikeout for the second out and a groundball to first to end the inning.
 
Granoff kept Santa Clara off the balance throughout the game and, after allowing a leadoff single in the fourth, did not allow a hit until the eighth. He went the distance and allowed no runs on five hits.
 
He has gone 31.2 innings and allowed four runs over his five starts with an ERA of 1.13.
 
San Francisco widened the gap in the fifth inning when they loaded the bases with two down and got an RBI single to center from McCoy to bring in two and extend the USF lead to four. Michael Eaton followed McCoy's lead and hit one off his fists into centerfield for a single that scored another run and gave the Dons a 5-0 lead.
 
"Big two out hits," Giarratano said. "It's the first time all year where everybody in the lineup got a hit and gave us an opportunity to score."
 
Brendan Hendriks added to the total when he laced a double into the rightfield corner to score Hofmann to make it a six-run advantage.
 
The Dons will take Easter off but be back in action on Monday when they travel to Reno, Nev. to take on Nevada at 6 p.m.
 
NOTES
Dons starting pitchers Anthony Shew, Christian Cecilio, and Sam Granoff went 25 innings on the weekend and allowed four earned runs (1.44 ERA).