Box Score Follow the Diamond Dons: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM MALIBU, Calif.—The Dons had ample opportunity to take a lead against No. 19 Pepperdine but were unable to capitalize and fell 4-3 on Saturday afternoon, dropping the West Coast Conference series.
"We were in a great position to take the lead and win," San Francisco head coach
Nino Giarratano said. "It came down to not making fundamental baseball plays, just not being able to see the ball down, not being able to knock the ball down and throw it to the plate.
"That's a game we should have won today. We outhit them. We had plenty of opportunity to score more runs."
The Dons (18-20, 7-11 WCC) will hit the field again on Tuesday as they take on Nevada in Reno at 6 p.m.
Pepperdine was able to get on the board in the third inning. After a leadoff double by Devin Carter and an infield hit by Manny Jefferson moved Carter to third, Hutton Moyer hit a sacrifice fly to right to bring in Carter and give Pepperdine a 1-0 lead.
Later in the inning with two outs, Austin Davidson tripled just over the glove of
Zack Turner to right and was driven on a single by Bryan Langlois to put the Waves up by two.
In the fourth, the Waves loaded the bases with no outs and the Dons brought the infield in and got a ground ball to
Bob Cruikshank, which he knocked down but bobbled and he threw to first for the out, allowing a third run to score.
"They're down 4-0, very easily could have been 2-0," Giarratano said. "We didn't catch the ball down the first base line and gave up an extra run. Definitely could have thrown out the guy on the ground ball to third base."
Christian Cecilio (4-5) went eight innings for the complete game and gave up four runs on nine hits while walking two.
After Pepperdine tacked on one more in the fourth, the Dons finally answered in the fifth. With runners at second and third,
Derek Atkinson dribbled a ball up the middle for an infield single to score Micahel Eaton and make it a 4-1 game.
The Dons loaded the bases in the sixth and scored on a RBI single by
Nico Giarratano to cut the lead to two. Atkinson followed it with a double to center but only one was able to score and it cut the lead to one at 4-3.
Giarratano went 4-for-5 in the contest with a RBI.
Michael Eaton was at second on the play and held close to the base to make sure the ball dropped over the head of Langlois and once he did take off, he was thrown out at the plate. The run would have tied the game.
"When we had bases loaded, the ball gets over the centerfielder's head and we only score one," Giarratano said. "It was a really bad read at second base by
Michael Eaton. He had an easy read in front of him. If he extends and scores, it's 4-4, runners at second and third with Bradley [Zimmer] up."
San Francisco had one final chance in the ninth when Giarratano led off the inning with a single. But the Pepperdine closer Eric Karch struck out Atkinson and
Bradley Zimmer consecutively and got Turner to fly out to end the contest.
Turner, Zimmer and
Brendan Hendriks went a combined 1-for-14 with seven strikeouts and left seven on base.
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