SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Robert Emery logged his third multi-RBI game in the last six and the pitching stood strong once again for the University of San Francisco baseball team Sunday, as the Dons completed a three-game West Coast Conference series sweep over South Bay rival Santa Clara with a 4-1 win at Stephen Schott Stadium.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• For the second time in the series, the Dons held Santa Clara (4-21, 0-6 WCC) to just four hits. Grant Nechak, who started his career as a freshman at Santa Clara in 2017, held the Broncos hitless until surrendering a game-tying solo home run to Jake MacNichols in the bottom of the fourth. It was his second start of the season after debuting last weekend with only 1 2/3 innings of work at San Diego. Sunday he threw four frames, only surrendering the one hit and run on the home run. He also struck out two and walked just one.
   
• Emery put the Dons (16-11, 6-3 WCC) on the board first in the top half of the fourth with his second home run of the season, a leadoff solo shot to give USF a 1-0 lead. It marked the third straight game San Francisco had at least one home run, and the 11th time in the last 14 games. Emery would later come through with a two-out, two-run bases-loaded single in the seventh to give the Dons some breathing room, turning a 2-1 lead into a 4-1 advantage. That gave him three RBIs on the day, his sixth multi-RBI game of the season and third time tallying three RBIs in his last six games.
   
• Two leadoff singles by USF in the top of the fifth and some smart base running by Tyler Villaroman broke the 1-1 tie. Villaroman moved from first to third on Riley Helland's single behind him, which set up an RBI groundout by Jonathan Allen to make it 2-1. Villaroman went 2 for 5, his fourth multi-hit performance of the year, snapping an 0-for-11 stretch.
   
• Santa Clara left three runners in scoring position and six overall on the day. Alex Pham (2-1) earned the victory for USF in relief, throwing five shutout innings with five strikeouts.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 2: Nechak recorded two strikeouts versus his old team Santa Clara. He made a start against the Dons as a freshman on April 22, 2017, striking out four in seven innings of work during a 4-2 USF victory on the same field.
• 3: Three Dons had multiple hits Sunday (Emery, Helland, Villaroman). It marked the sixth consecutive game USF had at least two multi-hit performances in its lineup, dating to the March 22 series opener at San Diego.
• 6: Helland extended his hitting streak to six games with a 3-for-5 performance Sunday. He has raised his batting average 62 points since starting the streak on March 23, which includes four multi-hit performances.

COMING UP

• San Francisco kicks off a nine-game home stand starting Tuesday versus South Bay neighbor San Jose State. The Dons will face WCC first-place team Loyola Marymount for a three-game series starting Friday. Fans can purchase tickets and find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.