University of San Francisco Athletics

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FULLERTON, Calif.—The first ever meeting between the Dons and No. 2 Cal State Fullerton ended up being one of the longest game in both team's history and was decided on a home run by Brendan Hendriks in the 19th inning as USF won the series opener 6-5 Friday night.
 
San Francisco had not scored since the sixth inning. Cal State Fullerton had not scored since the fourth. Something eventually had to give and in the 19th inning it did.
 
With two outs, Hendriks turned on an inside pitch and hit a towering fly ball over the rightfield wall to give the Dons their first lead of the game.
 
"I think total team effort when you look at it. I think out effort was phenomenal tonight just as far as us staying with it pitch-by-pitch, making pitches," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We had our opportunities to win it a little bit earlier and we didn't execute but then the same guy comes up and hits a home run to win the game for us."
 
This was the second time Hendriks had an opportunity to put the USF on top. In the ninth, following a sacrifice bunt that moved the runners to second and third with one out, Hendriks came up and struck out.
 
The Dons did not score in the inning.
 
"I can't say enough about how they competed," Giarratano said. "We dropped a fly ball and we went back to making a pitch. We got doubled off and we went back to making plays. It's just a remarkable thing."
 
Fullerton threatened in the 12th inning but the Dons were able to escape. But the Titans threatened again in the 13th.
 
With runners at first and third and two outs, Houston Hibberd got Tyler Steib to pop up but miscommunication between Bob Cruikshank and Ryan Matranga in foul territory allowed the ball to drop and give Steib new life. Later in the at bat, the ball got away from Matranga and Austin Diemer appeared to score from third to end the game but the umpire immediately ruled that Steib had been hit with the pitch, awarding him first base.
 
This set up a bases loaded situation and on a 3-2 count, Hibberd got Taylor Bryant to strike out to end the inning.
 
Hibberd (1-0) had the longest outing of his career when he threw 7.1 hitless innings in relief and was part of a four-man relief crew that held the Titans scoreless for 12 innings.
 
"With Houston once we got passed the second inning, there was no return," Giarratano said. "It was like a start for him. When he got to 90 pitches, he wanted to go back out there in the 19th. What a great effort by Houston."
 
The Dons collected a total of 21 strikeouts on the night and 10 of them came from senior Abe Bobb, who set a career-high in the category.
 
Both starting pitchers had little trouble through the first two and a half innings with Abe Bobb and Thomas Eshelman allowing a combined three baserunners but that is when the offenses woke up.
 
With runners on first and third and one out, Matt Chapman ripped a double into the leftfield corner, scoring both runners to take a 2-0 lead. The Titans added another on a single to left to go up by three.
 
One of the highlighted matchups coming into the game was a battle between preseason All-Americans. Eshelman was named to the Louisville Slugger All-America First Team in December along with Zimmer and it quickly became clear who had the advantage in the matchup.
 
With Nico Giarratano on first, Bradley Zimmer hit a towering fly ball to right that cleared the two levels of advertisements for his first home run of the season, cutting the Fullerton lead to one.
 
Zimmer's home run was only the second ever off Eshelman and first since Feb. 15, 2013.
 
Cal State Fullerton then added two more in the bottom half of the inning with it being caped off by another RBI hit by Chapman.
 
But Zimmer continued to steal the show against Fullerton and in the sixth inning with runners at the corners he crushed a ball that one-hopped the wall in right center, scoring two. Zack Turner followed it up with a sacrifice fly that tied the game at five.
 
Eshelman gave up career-highs in hits (eight) and earned runs (five) in seven innings.
 
Bobb settled down, went three straight 1-2-3 innings and threw seven innings allowing five runs on seven hits.