The baseball team took off for San Diego at 5:30 a.m. Friday morning (economical, yes; conducive to good baseball, no), and less than 36 hours later came home with three more disheartening losses. All three games were decided by one run in the late innings, and a 5 '7" little rat of a relief pitcher collected all three victories. At least we were inventive with our methods of losing: Game I, pinch-runner "Pistol" Pete Columbo scores from second base on a clutch single by the Dons leading hitter, John Zachos, to tie the game at six in the eighth inning, but misses third base in his haste. Umpire does not miss call: Diamond Dons lose. Game 2, Don relief pitcher Derek Dowd, who has pitched in terrible luck all season, gets absolutely squeezed by the ump on a 2-2 fastball to USD's best hitter with the bags loaded, and then loses him on the full count pitch to bring in the winning run in the Toreros last-at-bat. Game 3, Eton left-hander Ted Langowski throws yet another whale of a ball game before handing things over to reliever/second baseman Jon French in the eighth inning of a 2-2 game, only to watch helplessly from his spot in the outfield, as a tenth-inning home run handily clears the left field fence. Would you like some salt with those wounds, sir?
Amie Sambel is leading the charge hitting .414 in WCC play. Rick Dardis and Brian Dakin are both at .333, with Jon Zachos, Jim West, and Ted Langowski also over .300. "These are the guys that have to hit if we're going to have any success, and they're finally coming through for us," says Bowman on the recent surge in offense. This past weekend USF traveled south to face the Lions of LMU, ranked 15lh in the country by Baseball America, for a WCC series. After squandering the first game in the ninth, losing the second game fairly handily, the Diamond Dons came through in the third game. Powered by home runs from Sambel and Dakin, San Francisco carried a 9-5 lead into the bottom of the ninth, before Loyola rallied to tie the game at nine (TheFoghorn).
