BERKELEY, Calif. – The Dons only mustered three hits and Cal scored the game's only run with an RBI single in the bottom of the seventh as USF lost by a 1-0 margin at Evans Diamond on Tuesday night.
 
Allen Smoot recorded two of the USF's hits on the night.
 
Cal (21-21) pushed across the go-ahead run with two outs in the seventh on Matt Ruff's bouncer up the middle that scored Tanner Dodson, who had reached on a bunt single and advanced to second on an obstruction call against USF second baseman Michael Perri.
 
That proved the difference as USF (22-24) was unable to take advantage of a strong collective outing on the mound by Sam Granoff, Joey Steele, Scott Parker and Benji Post, who only allowed Cal runners in scoring position in two innings. Granoff again threw well against the Bears after earning the victory in last week's win over Cal, scattering four hits over 5 1/3 scoreless innings while striking out one.
 
"It was a well-pitched game," head coach Nino Giarratano said. "I thought Sam pitched great. I thought [Cal] pitched really well tonight. We had a base open right there on the base hit up the middle, but we left a pitch over the middle; kind of a mental mistake by us. It was probably one of the very few pitches we didn't make all night."
 
Steele (0-3) took the loss during his 1 2/3 innings of work.
 
Perri helped give USF one if its best scoring opportunities on the night with his one-out double in the second, but was stranded as Tyler Villaroman grounded out.
 
In the top half of the ninth, USF put runners on first and second after walks to Smoot and Riley Helland before Cal's top save man, Erik Martinez, closed the door by getting Perri to ground out to third.
 
"It's one of those things, when you lose so many games by one run, you pitch but you don't hit; you hit but you don't pitch," added Giarratano. "That's been the story of this team. In these close games there's one thing missing every night."
 
USF returns home this weekend to host Pepperdine in West Coast Conference action. The first of three games is slated for a 3 p.m. start on Friday at Benedetti Diamond.