SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. - It was another day, and another pair of games for the Dons as they looked to finish out a four-game set with Northern Colorado. The first game of the day looked like a continuation of the last one on Saturday: an offensive explosion.

The early lead came courtesy of Allen Smoot who doubled home Matt Sinatro with a slicing laser into the left-center gap. Nico Giarratano would then score on a wild pitch before Michael Perri singled Smoot home. After one, the Dons held a commanding 3-0 lead.

The Bears would not go quietly, however, as Evan Johnson blasted them right back into a tie with a three-run home run that went towering through the rain.

The tie was incredibly short lived as the Dons would come right back in the bottom half of the second inning when Sinatro tripled home Aaron Ping on a ball that was nearly a home run off the right field fence (the second time this has happened to Sinatro in this series).    

It was the bottom of the third inning that ultimately gave USF the lead which it would not relinquish. With the bases loaded, Sinatro walked, scoring one. Then Smoot did the same. Then it was Dominic Miroglio who singled through the left side driving in both Harrison Bruce and the speedy Sinatro. Ross Puskarich (who extended his hitting streak to 21 games on the day) then threw in one last dagger as his single to center field scored Miroglio and Smoot putting the Dons up 10-3.

The score went final at 11-4 and had head coach Nino Giarratano pleased with his offense. "We swung it good with runners in scoring position," he said. "But more importantly they gave us a lot of free bases (USF walked 11 times and had three players hit by pitch). That certainly helped but we were swinging it good."

Game two was a different story. With the Dons offense finally drying up, along with the weather, it was newcomer Daniel Slominski who stood out by only allowing two runs in seven innings while striking out six in his Dons debut.

"I thought Daniel was great all day," Giarratano said. "If a guy is going to go out there and go seven and only give up two runs, that's going to give you a chance to win every time."

The game was suspended due to a lack of light after the ninth inning with the score tied 2-2. Right before the inning ended, though, Brady Bate thrilled the crowd by obliterating a ball high up the net in left field that managed to hook foul. The Dons got the two runs in game two via RBI from Tyler Villaroman and Bate.

When play resumed on Tuesday, Giarratano called on closer Joey Carney just as he had in the resumption of game one on Saturday. Carney came out aggressive and got left fielder Dan Reese to strike out, but the ball found its way to the backstop and Reese reached. After two failed bunt attempts, Alex Kiel was able to ground a ball softly enough back to Carney that his only play was to first. Lead-off hitter Dean Lawson was then able to dump a ball into right field, scoring Reese and giving the Bears the lead.

The Dons will leave behind the dreary San Francisco weather as the head out to play four games in Hawaii. The first game is scheduled for Thursday at 9:35 p.m. The Dons will return home on February 28th to host Utah Valley. You can but tickets to watch that game by clicking here.