SANTA CLARA, Calif. — The ball has been rolling for the University of San Francisco baseball team, and Friday it continued to pick up momentum.
 
Senior right-hander Landen Bourassa went seven innings for the second straight week, Alex Pham climbed the USF career records list with four strikeouts, and the Dons won their seventh straight game with a series-opening, 4-1 West Coast Conference win over South Bay rival Santa Clara at Stephen Schott Stadium.
 
Bourassa (3-2) didn't allow a hit until the fifth inning, a leadoff double by Matt Jew that was also the Broncos' first runner in scoring position. A walk to follow gave Santa Clara two runners on and nobody out, but Bourassa escaped the jam with a strikeout and two groundouts. It was the only real threat Santa Clara (11-16, 4-6 WCC) posed all day outside of bringing the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but Alex Pham got three strikeouts in the final frame to seal the victory.
 
"Wonderful," said San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano of Bourassa. "Two Fridays in a row where he went out there and gave us seven solid innings. He keeps getting sharper with the fastball, sharper with the breaking ball. Wonderful outing by him."
 
The Dons' offense wasn't as potent as it has been in recent games, but it was opportunistic. San Francisco (12-15, 7-3 WCC) took advantage of eight free passes (seven walks, hit-by-pitch) and three Santa Clara errors to score four runs across the fourth and fifth innings. A bases-loaded walk in the fourth broke a 0-0 tie with the Dons' first run. A wild pitch, a sacrifice fly and a Santa Clara throwing error brought home three USF runs in the fifth to make it 4-0.
 
"We weren't particularly sharp offensively, but eight or nine walks by them helped," said Giarratano. "They didn't' throw a lot of balls in the strike zone for us to hit. We were one big hit away from opening the game up and scoring seven or eight, but we didn't need it."
 
Bourassa only allowed one unearned run on two hits to earn his third victory of the season. He struck out four and walked two in his third seven-inning outing of 2021. Pham's four strikeouts in two innings gave him his second save of the year and 195 Ks for his career. He now stands alone in ninth place all-time on the Dons' career records list for strikeouts.
 
Santa Clara tried to rally late, getting a leadoff walk and a two-out single up the middle from Mike Bowes to bring the tying run to the plate. But Pham got Tony Boetto to strike out swinging to end the threat and the game.
 
"Santa Clara is physical," said Giarratano. "They're very talented, the'yre mature, they have old players. It's gonna be a tight series for us. We need to get the offense going tomorrow if we're gonna get this done."
 
Game two of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.