University of San Francisco Athletics

Box Score

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FULLERTON, Calif.—A night after a 19-inning affair that ended just before midnight, the Dons bats went silent against No. 2 Cal State Fullerton as they were shutout 11-0 on Saturday night.
 
"We really only had two guys in the lineup tonight who were aggressive and that was Zack [Turner ] and Bradley [Zimmer]," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "Outside of those two guys, we really didn't put that much together. Every time we had a runner in scoring position or we had a chance to make the game close, we struck out."
 
Zimmer and Turner combined for four of the team's five hits off Fullerton starting pitcher Justin Garza and the only other hit came from pinch-hitter Harrison Bruce in the seventh inning. The Dons struck out 16 times and were 0-for-10 with runners in scoring position and left nine on base.
 
"For us to strikeout 16 times, that's just a collapse mentally and physically offensively," Giarratano said. "We weren't strong enough to bounce back after 19 innings. We were a little tired. It's not an excuse, they should have been just as tired as us. They were just more prepared to play every day and we need to get there."
 
It was the second straight night San Francisco (3-3) went up against a preseason All-America selection and Garza showed why he earned that honor. He threw seven shutout innings on five hits while striking out a career-high 12.
 
The final game of the series will be at 1 p.m. on Sunday.
 
Christian Cecilio (1-1) made his first start of the season and first appearance since coming out of the bullpen to throw 5.1 innings for the 6-3 win over UC Riverside last week. Unlike that day, Fullerton got to Cecilio early.
 
Fullerton got on the board first when following a Tanner Pinkston double in the first, Matt Chapman hit a comebacker to Cecilio, which ricocheted off his glove and into leftfield for an RBI single.
 
Fullerton tacked on three more in the third. The first came on a high hop back to Cecilio who tried to get Chapman at the plate but he slid under the tag of Justin McCullough to give the Titans a two-run lead. Then Zimmer misread a liner to center and it shot over his head, allowing another run to score.

"He threw agressively, fielded his position. He held runners, held them in the game. We threatened ne time and he picthed out of trouble," Giarratano said. "That's why he's as good as he is"
 
After the three-run inning, the Dons looked primed to respond. Zimmer singled and Turner doubled, setting up second and third with no outs. Bob Cruikshank walked after a fielder's choice giving USF bases loaded with one out but they could not capitalize.
 
Zimmer had three hits on the night and two of them came off of Garza. In the last two days, Zimmer has four hits with eight total bases off two fellow All-Americans. His third hit came off of Fullerton's Phil Bickford, who was the 10th overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft.