University of San Francisco Athletics

Box Score  
 
SAN FRANCISCO – Some say the road to the West Coast Conference championship goes through Pepperdine, with their storied hardball tradition and numerous conference championships. The San Francisco Diamond Dons begged to differ this weekend, beating the Waves, 5-2, Sunday at Benedetti Field and sweeping the three-game series. The win keeps the Dons in strong position in the playoff race, where they sit alone in second place behind Gonzaga.
 
After a Senior Day ceremony honoring USF's seven seniors – Andrew Pulido, Mitchell Rowan, Bob Mott, Adam Cimber, Haden Hinkle, Justin Maffei and Jason Mahood – the Dons picked up where they left off yesterday, outplaying Pepperdine in every aspect of the Sunday's game.
 
USF (29-19, 14-7 WCC) struck first, as it had the previous two games, scoring a pair of runs in the second inning on a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch by Ryan Matranga and a Justin Maffei RBI infield single.
 
After Pepperdine knocked Dons starter Christian Cecilio out of the game with a pair of runs in the sixth, the Dons answered back with two of their own in the top of the inning on an RBI single from Ryan Matranga and sacrifice fly from Bradley Zimmer.
 
The Dons held the Waves scoreless from then on, as Abe Bobb, Bob Mott, Andrew Pulido and Adam Cimber shut down the Waves.
 
“Christian was great for us today,” said USF head coach Nino Giarratano. “Ryan Matranga had two RBIs from the nine-hole which is always good to see. Today is really all about the seniors, I'm happy for them that they go out as winners and happy that they swept Pepperdine. It's one day at a time for us, we need to go to BYU and get it done after we play Stanford. We want to get into the NCAA tournament, we have bigger goals than just getting into the conference tournament.”
 
Abe Bobb picked up the win for USF to move to 4-5 on the season. Aaron Brown fell to 5-2 as the losing pitcher for Pepperdine. Adam Cimber notched his seventh save of the season.
 
The Dons head south to take on Stanford Tuesday at 6 p.m. before heading to Provo, Utah to take on BYU in their final conference series of the season next weekend.
 
Inside the Numbers
 
Bob Mott entered the game in left field in the seventh inning, came on to retire the only batter he faced, then returned to left field.
 
Line of the Game
 
Bullpen
 
Abe Bobb – 1.1 innings, 0 hits, 3 strikeouts
 
Bob Mott – 0.1 innings, 0 hits
 
Andrew Pulido – 0.2 innings, 1 hit, 1 strikeout
 
Adam Cimber – 1 inning, 1 hit, 1 strikeout