University of San Francisco Athletics

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SAN FRANCISCO—Bradley Zimmer and Brendan Hendriks left their mark in the USF record books on Friday but the Dons fell behind early and were unable to recover as the Dons fell to UC Santa Barbara 10-4.
 
With two down in the seventh, Zimmer tripled into the rightfield corner for his seventh three-bagger of the season. It also tied him with Larry Arrington (1984) and Tad Tassone (1971) for the most in a single season at USF.
 
He went 3-for-5 on the day and came a home run short of hitting for the cycle.
 
"It was good to see him get back on track today," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said of Zimmer. "That was the best I've seen him swing the bat in a while. Aggressive, getting through some balls. Even the out he made in the first inning was a pitch that he hit really hard. He's a dynamic player. He's a great player."
 
This feat was the second of the day with record book implications. In the bottom of the fourth, Hendriks ripped a 3-2 pitch into the right center gap for his 19th double of the season, which tied him for sixth on the USF single season list. The school record is held by Chris Genung (2004) and Dustin Delucchi (2000) with 22.
 
"Hendi's had a really good bounce back season offensively," Giarratano said. "He's got a lot of things to work on but happy for him to bounce back."
 
San Francisco will play again on Saturday when it sends Christian Cecilio to the mound against UC Santa Barbara.
 
The Dons found themselves down early and gave up six runs in the first three innings but only three of the runs were earned but help came from the bullpen. Brock Larson kept the Dons hanging around after coming into the game for Grant Goodman. In the longest outing of his career, Larson went into the eighth inning with allowing one run in 4.2 innings out of the bullpen before giving up a pair in the eighth.
 
"He threw strikes. He mixed his pitches. He got tired there in the eighth. All in all, pretty good job by him," Giarratano said of Larson.
 
With the Dons down 7-1 in the fifth and two outs, Zimmer singled to keep the inning alive for Nico Giarratano. The Dons shortstop then singled to right center and advanced to second on a throwing error to set up runners at second and third for Derek Atkinson.
 
Atkinson then drove the runs home on a single to right to make it a 7-3 game.