University of San Francisco Athletics

THIS WEEKEND
USF (7-16, 2-1 WCC) vs. Pacific (7-12, 1-2 WCC)    

Thursday, Mar. 24 | 5 p.m. (following the SI/Sacred Heart game) | AT&T Park | San Francisco, Calif. (Dante Benedetti Classic)
Coverage: Live stats | Audio (Pat Olson, USFDons.com)
USF: RHP Anthony Shew (0-3, 6.17)     UOP: RHP Will Lydon (0-4, 5.59) 
Buy tickets for the Dante Benedetti Classic

Friday, Mar. 25 | 7 p.m. | Klein Family Field | Stockton, Calif
Coverage: Live stats | Video (TheW.tv)
USF: LHP Chase Gardner (0-2, 5.57)      UOP: LHP Ricky Reynoso (1-2, 7.56)

Saturday, Mar. 26 | 2 p.m. | Klein Family Field | Stockton, Calif
Coverage: Live stats | Video (TheW.tv)
USF: RHP James Kannenberg (2-1, 3.49)      UOP: RHP Jake Jenkins (1-1, 2.96)

Complete Game Notes [PDF]

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SAN FRANCISCO – For many, it's a thrill just to be inside a Major League ballpark, let alone to be among the fortunate few to actually play in one. Most of the USF and Pacific players who will meet in Thursday's Dante Benedetti Classic at AT&T Park will enjoy the thrill of stepping into a big league batter's box and fielding ground balls on a perfectly manicured infield for the first and only time in their lives.
 
But the Benedetti Classic is about more than just giving amateur players a taste of the big time – it's about spreading the gospel and the values of baseball through the legacy of one of San Francisco's most benevolent ambassadors, Mr. Dante Benedetti.

 
"Dante embodied the Jesuit ideal of living a life in service of others," said Kevin Cronin, senior vice president and managing director at The Mehigan Company and co-founder of The Dante's Boys Foundation, the charitable organization behind the Classic aimed at supporting under-served youth in San Francisco through participation in sports. "I had a tremendous father and great relationship with him. But when you're an 18 year-old boy attempting to become a man, you need another voice; Dante was that voice and he validated my upbringing."
 
Benedetti compiled a lifetime's worth of accomplishments before ever even making his greatest impact on the USF baseball program.
 
After his standout prep career at San Francisco's Saint Ignatius High School, who also plays in the annual Benedetti Classic each year; after he was a three-sport letterwinner in football, boxing and baseball at USF from 1937-1940; after he served in the Coast Guard during World War II; after opening the New Pisa restaurant in San Francisco's North Beach neighborhood with his father; after coaching and sponsoring decades-worth of Little League and American Legion teams in the City; that's when Benedetti got around to taking over as the Dons' head baseball coach in 1962, a post he held until 1980 after overseeing the resuscitation of the USF baseball program.
 
"Baseball on the Hilltop simply would not exist if it weren't for Dante Benedetti," said Tom Lounibos, CEO and co-founder of IT firm SOASTA, and one of the Dante's Boy's Foundation officers vital to the execution of the DBC each year. "Dante Benedetti is USF's patron saint of baseball."
 
Sure, Benedetti was named West Coast Athletic Conference Coach of the Year in 1971 after leading the team to a 32-12 record and its best finish to that point; sure, he piled up an official total of 373 career wins - but it's likely his total was really somewhere north of 400 (records from his first six years are incomplete); sure, he was inducted into USF's athletic hall of fame in 1972, where his legend will forever reside alongside Hilltop legends like Bill Russell and Pete Rozelle.
 

All of these accolades speak to the immense success Benedetti had on the field, but they fall short of defining the man who helped pave the way for future West Coast Conference championships, NCAA Regional appearances, MLB draft picks and the generations of virtuous young men that would follow in his wake.     
 
"He inspired me to be better," said Cronin, a captain on the last team that Benedetti coached in 1980. "Our work at The Dante's Boys Foundation is dedicated to honoring Dante's legacy."
 
The first Benedetti Classic had its genesis in the summer of 2005 when Benedetti's health was in decline and a collection of his former players felt the push to honor the man who had helped provide so much for them, the University of San Francisco and the City of San Francisco. How do you re-pay a man who stepped up to coach the team for annual salary of $1 back in 1961 when the financially strapped university was about to drop the program? How do you properly honor a selfless patron who kept the USF baseball program afloat by paying out of his own pocket for 18 years?
 
There is no easy answer to that, but the Dante Benedetti Classic at AT&T Park and the Dante Benedetti Golf Classic are two ways in which the Dante's Boys Foundation pays homage to the noble benefactor who opened up so many doors for others.  
 
Coming up with the idea was the easy part, figuring out how to get the game played at the home of the San Francisco Giants was another hurdle.

Inspired by his own experience getting to start at shortstop for the Dons at Candlestick Park during a charity game between USF and USC as a freshman in 1975, Lounibos proposed the idea to Giants' president Larry Baer at a Silicon Valley venture capitalist event in that summer of 2005. When Lounibos asked Baer whether or not he was familiar with Benedetti, Baer proclaimed, "Of course, Dante is a legend to every kid who grew up in San Francisco in the 50s, 60s and 70s".
 
The seed was planted, but it wasn't until the day of Benedetti's funeral in November of that year that Lounibos received a call from Baer pledging to make the event happen.
 
From there, Lounibos had little convincing to do when it came to getting USF's then-eighth year head coach Nino Giarratano on board. 
 
"Tom Lounibos approached me after watching us play for a couple years and really liked how hard the kids were playing," said Giarratano.  "He said that for him getting to play at Candlestick was one of the greatest experiences of his life, and he really wanted to help build something like that."
 
Four months later, the first Dante Benedetti Classic was played at then-SBC Park as USF defeated Baer's alma mater, Cal, 7-6 in front of 1,775 fans. Since then, USF and Cal have met three different times in the Classic.
 
"About six years ago we came up with the idea of having Saint Ignatius and Sacred Heart play before us because it would really help with awareness of the event and raising money for the inner city kids and programs," said Giarratano. "So we used that as a vehicle and it's become a great experience."

 
Despite the good intentions from everyone involved, putting the event on year in and year out has often proven a difficult task, juggling weather, scheduling, cost and everything in between.
 
"Name it, we have had it," said Lounibos on the challenges the Foundation has faced in putting the game on every year. "The Foundation hasn't always been able to afford the cost to hold this kind of an event but somehow - thanks to some very generous sponsors and individuals - we have always found a way to keep this tradition alive. 
 
"It's the faces of the players, coaches, parents and friends as they watch their kids play at AT&T Park that keep us going each year. God willing, we hope that we can keep it going for another 25 years." 
 
Eleven years later the Giants and the Dante's Boys Foundation have created a San Francisco tradition, as the Dante Benedetti Classic has become, in Lounibos' estimation, the unofficial Opening Day at AT&T Park.
 
"Over the last 11 years, you just hear people talk about what an amazing experience it is to play at AT&T Park, so it's become a wonderful situation," said Giarratano. "It's always been a momentum time for us – this game has always catapulted us through the rest of the season and kind of jumpstarted us. Hopefully this year is no different; hopefully this game jumpstarts us into conference and gives us a chance to get in the race and have a great second half."
 
While the competition on the field between USF and Pacific will take center stage on Thursday, the spirit of the event will always be woven into the fabric of the game. 

"Baseball is a tremendous vehicle for teaching life lessons and the lessons I learned on the field and in the classroom at USF were some of the most valuable experiences of my life," said Cronin. "The Dante Benedetti Classic is important not just for the kids on the field, but to serve as a catalyst for the kids in the stands to dream." 
 
"It's a lesson in how one man's sacrifice paved the way for generations of USF athletes to have the opportunity to play the game they love on the greatest baseball field in the world," added Lounibos. "It's also a lesson in the power of giving back to society. Every player that plays in the Dante Benedetti Classic will do so standing on the shoulders of one man's sacrifice.
 
"On March 24th, we all stand on Dante's shoulders."
 
Learn more about The Dante's Boys Foundation
Buy tickets for the game
 
Dante Benedetti Classic History
Mar. 28, 2015 - USF 2, Saint Mary's 0
Mar. 22, 2014 - USF 5, BYU 2
Mar. 23, 2013 - Portland 5, USF 1
2012 – No results available
2011 – No results available
2010 – No results available
Mar. 31, 2009 - Cal 4, USF 3
Apr. 1, 2008 - USF 5, Cal 1
Apr. 6, 2007 - USF 6, Santa Clara 2
Apr. 25, 2006 - USF 7, Cal 6
 

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SERIES PREVIEW 
ABOUT PACIFIC: The Tigers come into the weekend sporting a 7-12 overall record and a 1-2 mark in West Coast Conference play after dropping their first WCC series at BYU this past weekend. Pacific lost the first two games of that series by scores of 19-3 and 11-4 before bouncing back to take the series finale 10-8. Among the Tigers' key victories are an extra-inning win at Washington and a pair of home wins over Northwestern.
 
Infielder Louis Mejia (.352, 4 2B, 10 RBI) leads the Tigers at the plate, while infielder Kevin Sandri (.333, 2 2B, 9 RBI) has chipped in offensively and outfielder Danny Mayer (.280, 5 HR, 18 RBI) has supplied the power.
 
As a team, UOP comes into the series hitting .277 with eight home runs and a 14-for-18 success rate stealing bases. On the mound, the Tigers carry a 6.57 team ERA, recording 119 strikeouts in 163 innings of work.
 
KEEP AN EYE ON: The Dons have started putting multiple aspects of their game together lately, hitting .296 with a 2.44 team ERA over their past five games, while opposing batters are hitting .307 against a Pacific pitching staff that has a 6.57 ERA this season. 
 
THE SERIES: The Dons are 15-16 against Pacific during head coach Nino Giarratano's tenure (since 1999). Pacific took last year's series in Stockton, winning two of the three contests, all of which were one-run games.