STOCKTON, Calif. — The University of San Francisco baseball team faced just one too many deficits in Friday night's West Coast Conference series opener at Pacific.
The Dons erased three separate deficits, tying the game in the fourth, sixth and ninth innings, but the host Tigers got a walk-off triple in the bottom of the 10th inning to win, 8-7, in the teams' West Coast Conference series opener at Klein Family Field.
Pacific (12-25, 2-11 WCC) got a leadoff single from Wyatt Hoffman that barely squeaked through a hole in the left side of the infield to start the bottom of the 10th. He was facing a two-strike count against the Dons' leading strikeouts pitcher –
Alex Pham (2-4) – before scooting one through the left side. Then, two pitches later, Thomas Gavello deposited a ball into the right field corner, and with the outfield shifted to the left, he and Hoffman had all day to run to clinch the victory.
"They played hard all night," said San Francisco head coach
Nino Giarratano. "They didn't play well, but they played hard all night. We had plenty of chances. We probably made 25 mistakes and we lose 8-7. It was one of those nights where if we made 24 mistakes, or 23 mistakes, or 22, then we win that game."
San Francisco (16-20, 11-8 WCC) had its chance to take the lead in the top of the 10th.
Harris Williams put himself in scoring position to lead off the inning on a two-base fielding error by Pacific left fielder Charles Middleton. Williams then moved to third on a balk, putting the go-ahead run just 90 feet away with no outs. But a strikeout, infield popup, and another strikeout ended the threat and kept the game tied, leading to Pacific's walk-off in the bottom half.
Jacob Munoz provided USF's first game-tying hit of the evening with an RBI single in the top of the fourth. That scored
Jack Winkler, who's RBI double earlier had brought home
Darius Foster after his leadoff triple. Winkler came through with another RBI double in the sixth, scoring Foster again to tie the game at 4-4. And with the bases full of Dons in the top of the ninth, still trailing by one and two outs on the board, the Dons' leading walks man,
Jordan Vujovich, worked a bases-loaded walk to tie it at 7-7.
San Francisco entered the ninth inning trailing by three at 7-4 and scored three runs to tie it and send it to extras. It loaded the bases with no outs, then got RBI singles from
Ryan Davis and
Luke Keaschall. The Dons were set up to score even more runs with their 2 through 5 hitters coming to the plate with no outs and the bases loaded, but two popouts and a strikeout sandwiched Vujovich's game-tying walk and limited the damage.
Keaschall went 2 for 3 with two RBIs and a stolen base. It was his sixth multi-hit game in his last nine. Winkler went 2 for 5 with two doubles, two RBIs and a run scored.
Game two of the series is scheduled for 5 p.m. Saturday. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.
