University of San Francisco Athletics

Box Score

Follow the Diamond Dons: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM
 
FULLERTON, Calif.—The Dons' offensive woes continued against No. 2 Cal State Fullerton and two two-run home runs made the difference as USF fell 5-1 on Sunday afternoon.
 
"We had high expectations to win after we won Friday night," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We thought we could take the momentum but right now if we don't pitch better out of the bullpen, we're going to put a lot of pressure on our guys. That 19-inning thing kind of stretched us out and our depth just wasn't capable of doing that."
 
San Francisco (3-4) dropped its second straight series and will return to action on Tuesday when it takes on Stanford at Sunken Diamond at 5:30 p.m. USF has played six of its first seven games on the road.
 
USF was befuddled by Fullerton starter Grahamm Wiest. The junior right hander threw a complete game and gave up one run (unearned) on five hits and struck out a career-high 10. USF had only two batters advance to second base and has now scored two runs since the sixth inning of Friday night's 19-inning contest.
 
"Their guy was good," Giarratano said. "All three of their starters were really good. He kept us off base, he didn't give us an opportunity by walking anybody or hitting anybody. No free bases."
 
The Dons scored first for the first time in the series when, with Matt Sinatro at second, a pitch got by catcher A.J. Kennedy and his throw to third went high, allowing Sinatro to come home and give USF a 1-0 lead.
 
Fullerton finally broke through in the fourth. After a hit-by-pitch to Matt Chapman, J.D. Davis came up and hit a fly ball to right that got a bit of help from the wind and was pushed just over the wall for a two-run home run as the Titans went up 2-1.
 
That would be the only damage given up by Matt Narahara, would made his second start of the season. He went five innings and gave up two runs on seven hits and 52 pitches.
 
The Titans gained some separation after Narahara left the game. Sheldon Lee walked the leadoff batter and then Greg Velazquez hit a booming home run to the parking lot over the leftfield wall to give Fullerton a 4-1 lead.
 
The Dons did have a chance to tie the game in the fifth. Derek Atkinson led off the inning with a single and the Dons attempted to move him up on a sacrifice bunt but Bob Cruikshank's attempt went right back to the pitcher and he was able to gun out the lead runner.
 
Ryan Matranga singled two batters later, which would have been an RBI chance.
 
"We compound the trouble sometimes," Giarratano said. "The walk then the home run. Sheldon did the same thing. The walk then the home run. It boiled down to two pitches today. If we execute those two pitches, it's a 2-1 game. If we execute the bunt, it's a 2-2 game but we got to be better to play a team of this caliber."