The Dons will become road warriors once again this weekend as they travel to Arizona to battle Grand Canyon University (3-6). The start of the season has challenged USF (8-5, 0-0 WCC) as this will be the third weekend in a row on the road following trips to Hawaii and South Carolina. Each of the first three weekends were also four-game series which is its own unique challenge. While on the road again this weekend, it will only be for three games for the first time this season.
At least this week will not see the Dons play a mid-week game, giving them a chance to regroup, practice and prepare for the weekend.
"Three different time zones in three weeks and now we're headed into our fourth, the guys needed to rest," Head coach Nino Giarratano said. "They were weary from traveling, the bats slowed down last Sunday. We will get some great practices in this week. You kind of take for granted, once the season starts and you play so many games, that these guys need to practice and we have things to practice."
It has been an interesting start to the year for the Lopes. While the record only reads 3-6, the season started by taking two out of three games from Oklahoma St., which was ranked 22nd in the country at the time. They were then swept by Wichita St. and just this past weekend were nearly swept by Saint Mary's in Moraga despite some major battles.
"Saint Mary's has been playing great," Giarratano said. "It looked like three really close games between those two. (Grand Canyon) really started getting their bats going. I watched most of Sunday's game online and I really liked what I saw from (Grand Canyon's) starter, Jake Wong (2-1, 1.89 ERA). I'm expecting for them to play really well at home. They have a great coach in (Andy) Stankiewicz. I've known him for a long time and he does a wonderful job."
Grand Canyon has an offense to keep an eye on with six players batting .300 or higher. This was evidenced by the runs they scored on the Gales staff despite only winning one game. Grand Canyon managed 11 runs in game one and six runs in the following two games. This will put the pressure on the Dons pitchers who for the second weekend in a row will go into battle without Thomas Ponticelli.
"It'll be nice to condense down to a three-game series and give our bullpen a chance to stock up," Giarratano said. "I'm hoping that we can get five to six innings from all of our starters and be able to get Joey Carney a couple appearances."
The burden of strong outings from the starters will be placed upon Grant Goodman (1-0, 2.00 ERA), Daniel Slominski (1-1, 2.55 ERA) and Sam Granoff (1-2, 4.70 ERA).
Offensively for USF, the bats really got going over the weekend in South Carolina. Outside of the last game of the long road trip, the Dons were putting up runs and hitting the ball out of the park.
Nico Giarratano has seen a major uptick in production over the past two weeks as the senior is leading the team in batting average (.352), on base percentage (.426), runs scored (12), hits (19), doubles (6), and total bases (31). He's also second in slugging percentage (.574) and home runs (2). Not to mention he is doing all of this while sporting a 1.000 fielding percentage in 56 chances with six double plays turned in the field.
Brady Bate also kept the hot bat going over the weekend as he ranks in the top two on the team in five categories: batting average (.343), slugging percentage (.600), on base percentage (.425), doubles (4), and triples (1).
But perhaps the most notable takeaway from the trip to South Carolina was the emergence of the clean-up hitting catcher Dominic Miroglio who seemed to get back on track. Over the weekend he launched three home runs which vaulted him to the team lead.
Also over the weekend, Allen Smoot became the first Don in double-digit RBI this season when he knocked in his team-leading tenth of the year. And the hitting streak for Ross Puskarich was finally broken at an astounding 29 games dating back to last season.
It is also time to start keeping an eye on Pepperdine transfer Michael Perri has he started racking up hits in South Carolina with seven over the weekend including four against Winthrop.
The opening game on Friday will be at 6 p.m. PST and Saturday will be at 1 p.m. PST. before wrapping up the series and heading home on Sunday at 1 p.m. PST.
The Dons will return home on March 15th to take on Fresno St. back at the friendly confines of Benedetti Diamond at 2:30 p.m. You can buy a ticket to that game by clicking here. And then that weekend WCC play will open as the Dons play host to LMU. You can buy a ticket to the Conference opener by clicking here.
