Mike Mooney then advanced runners to second and third on a well executed sacrifice bunt. Ralph Gentile and John Mangiante followed by driving home one run each: Gentile with a single and Mangiante with an infield ground out. Both teams then traded runs with each other through eight innings as the score stood at 8-6 with USF in favor. Things were not meant to be however, as the first three Gator batters reached base before an out was recorded.
St. Mary's loaded the bases with a single and two walks. The next the inning without any further damage, but the next batter hit another grounder to the third base side that took a bad hop and rolled off the arm of Ralph Gentile, and the result was two more unearned runs and a 3-2 loss for the Dons.
The Dons scored four times in the fifth inning, breaking a scoreless game up to that point. The key hits of the inning were Greg Miles' two run double to left center, and third baseman Ralph Gentile's two run single to right. That 4-0 lead held up until the bottom of the sixth when Fresno struck for two runs on Greg Funk's two run homer off Dons starter Chuck Natt. But in the top of the seventh USF shortstop Monico Corral got both of those runs back with a two run homer, giving the Dons a 6-2 lead (TheFoghorn).
