SAN FRANCISCO—In close games, some of the strangest occurrences can change the outcome of the game and that is what happened on Friday afternoon.
 
With the Dons trailing Loyola Marymount 3-2 in the ninth, they were able to put a rally together and get two runners on with two outs with the middle of the order coming up. Nico Giarratano stepped to the plate and grounded a ball that looked like it was heading for rightfield but it kicked off the heel of Zack McCoy for the final out of the game.
 
"There was a two-out base hit, a two-out error, a two-out base running mistake were three played that changed the game," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We got into a situation a couple of times with guys on base and we didn't do what we're capable of. We just needed one thing to go our way right there to relax us and then we had [Brendan Hendriks] and [Derek Atkinson] coming up and we have a chance to win the game.
 
"It just wasn't meant to be today."
 
Despite the loss, San Francisco (23-29, 15-10 WCC) has two more chances to get the one win it needs to clinch a berth in the West Coast Conference Championship tournament nest weekend. The series will resume on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Benedetti Diamond.
 
Senior left hander Christian Cecilio will make his final start at Benedetti Diamond.
 
"Christian been great for us all year. We'll lean on him again tomorrow," Giarratano said.
 
In the bottom of the first, the Dons had a chance to break onto the board. With a runner on first and two down, Derek Atkinson laced a double into the left center gap to give USF runners at second and third.
 
It brought up Miroglio but he popped it up to short to end the inning.
 
LMU cashed in on their chance in the second when the Lions had runners at the corners and got a sacrifice fly to center to bring home the first run of the game.
 
Justin McCullough led off the next inning for the Dons and he belted one high off the net in left center for a leadoff double. He moved over to third on a groundball but a strikeout and a groundball to first ended the frame.
 
LMU tacked on another in the third when, with runners at the corners and two down, Sean Watkins grounded a ball towards the middle and Nico Giarratano had it kick off his glove to allow the run to score to put the Lions up 2-0.
 
Dons starter Anthony Shew had runners on base most of the day and stranded 10 Lions on the basepaths as he went seven innings and allowed two earned runs on nine hits.
 
After getting numerous chances early on, the Dons finally were able to break through in the fourth. Miroglio led off the inning with a double and moved over to third on a ground ball to Michael Eaton. The redshirt junior had some of the longer at bats of the game against LMU starter Colin Welmon and, on the seventh pitch of his at bat, he grounded the pitch to second to bring home Miroglio and make it a one-run game.
 
Welmon, a two-time All-WCC first teamer, only lasted 6.1 innings and walked a season-high five batters on 117 pitches.
 
After LMU added another run in the seventh, the Dons offense began to come to life. With a runner at third and one out, Connor Hofmann hit a high hopper towards second base and he beat out the throw and the run scored to cut the deficit to 3-2.
 
NOTES
Derek Atkinson and Dominic Miroglio both went 2-for-4 on the day with a double.