University of San Francisco Athletics

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MORAGA, Calif.—The Dons scored five in the first two innings and that was enough as they held off Saint Mary's 5-4 on Sunday to take the final West Coast Conference series of the season.
 
"It was a tough game. We're up 5-0 and we give up four in the second inning," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We toughed it out and we put it together."
 
The Dons (24-26, 11-16 WCC) will return to action on Friday when they play host to UC Santa Barbara to begin the team's final four games of the season.
 
With runners at the corners and one out in the first, Zack Turner hit a grounder just past the third base bag and down the leftfield line to bring home two and give the Dons a 2-0 lead.
 
The Dons got on the board again in the second inning. With runners on second and third and two down, Nico Giarratano hit a tailing fly ball to Saint Mary's leftfielder Michael Valentin and it went in and out of his glove, which allowed the runners to score and give USF a 4-0 lead. Derek Atkinson made the miscue hurt even more when he singled to left, which plated Giarratano, to put the Dons up by five.
 
"We used the momentum from [Saturday] and offensively we got some guys on, we got a big hit early. They made some mistakes early and we capitalized on mistakes," Giarratano said. "It's a momentum game and when you get your opportunity to score, you better score and we were able to do that."
 
Saint Mary's starter Brad Nease lasted 1.2 innings while allowing five runs, one earned, on five hits.
 
The Gaels responded in their half of the second. After a leadoff walk and a double, Dalton Fries hit a chopper off the glove of a diving Giarratano and two runs came home to make it a 5-2 game. Later in the inning, Saint Mary's had the bases loaded with two outs and Ricky Boas hit a double off a diving Bradley Zimmer, which brought two more in and made it a one-run game.
 
Dons starter Sheldon Lee settled down after the second but found himself in some trouble in the fifth. He gave up a leadoff double to Darian Ramage, who advanced to third on a fly out, and then walked Anthony Villa to give the Gaels runners at the corners with two down. But Lee got Collin Ferguson to tap the pitch back to him to end the inning.
 
Lee went 5.1 innings and allowed four runs on six hits. Logan West came into relieve Lee in the sixth and retired all eight batters he faced. Houston Hibberd came in and picked up his 11th save of the season.
 
"Our bullpen has done a wonderful job. Early in the year, our bullpen was having trouble and now our bullpen is fixed," Giarratano said.
 
Jake Valdez came in to pitch for Saint Mary's in the second and quieted the Dons' bats. He went 7.1 innings and allowed three hits.