University of San Francisco Athletics

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Game No. 8
Opponent: Stanford (3-4, 0-0 Pac-12)
Dates: Feb. 25 (5:30 p.m.)
Location: Sunken Diamond (Palo Alto, Calif.)

2014 SCHEDULE
2014 ROSTER

GAME NOTES - STANFORD

SAN FRANCISCO—The Dons are coming off a trying weekend that saw the team go 19 innings in their first game of a three-game set against No. 2 Cal State Fullerton and come up just short of winning its first series of the season.
 
San Francisco will look to rebound against its South Bay rival Stanford on Tuesday evening.
 
The Dons scored six runs in the opener against Fullerton then scored one run the rest of the weekend. The team went 0-for-11 with runners in scoring position on Saturday and Sunday and this is where the Dons will need to improve to take one from the Cardinal.
 
Grant Goodman will make his second start of the season and showed glimpses of his potential. The freshman right hander struck out five in 3.1 innings against Kansas State last week but walked three.
 
THE .400 CLUB
Bradley Zimmer is the only Don still hitting above the .400 mark and went 6-for-15 on the weekend with a home run, triple and four RBI against No. 2 Cal State Fullerton. His hits came off of Preseason All-Americans Justin Garza and Thomas Eshelman as well as Phil Bickford, who was the 10th overall pick in the 2013 MLB Draft.
 
SPREADING THE LOVE
The Dons have six players with at least three RBI on the young season with Derek Atkinson leading the club with six.
 
WCC PITCHER OF THE WEEK
Houston Hibberd garnered the team's first in-season honor as he was named the WCC Pitcher of the Week on Monday. He went 7.1 no-hit innings in relief during the team's 19-inning win over No. 2 Cal State Fullerton. The senior struck out six along the way.
 
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICAN
Bradley Zimmer was named to three All-America first teams in the preseason, including the Louisville Slugger and Baseball America teams. The junior hit .320 with seven home runs and 37 RBI last season and went onto play for the USA National Collegiate Team and Cotuit Keetleers of the Cape Cod League over the summer.
 
GIARRATANO LEGACY
Head coach Nino Giarratano enters his 16th season at the helm of the USF baseball team and is the winningest coach in the program's history with 435. He is also the third winningest coach in WCC history, behind John Cunningham (USD, 524) and current San Diego coach Rich Hill (657). With the win over Kansas State on last week, Giarratano passed Santa Clara's John Oldman for third on that list (433).
 
ABOUT STANFORD
The Cardinal come in having played a brutal schedule to this point in the season. Stanford opened at NCAA regular Rice and then faced off against Texas this past weekend. Stanford has hit the ball well and has a team batting average of .297. Both Anthony Blandino and Brett Michael Doran are hitting above .400 and Blandino is slugging at a .750 clip. Stanford pitching has also not been overpowering teams. They have 32 strikeouts in 60.2 innings and have walked 38 batters.