Box Score Follow the Diamond Dons: FACEBOOK | TWITTER | INSTAGRAM SAN FRANCISCO—The Dons battled back against Santa Clara but a four-run sixth inning was too much as they fell 12-6 in West Coast Conference action on Saturday afternoon.
"It was a rough deal to start 3-1. We were down yesterday and then we battled back. We had plenty on runs had we not given up the four runs in the sixth," San Francisco head coach
Nino Giarratano said. "Once we gave up those four runs, it was hard to battle back from that."
The Dons (21-24, 9-14 WCC) trailed 7-4 going into the sixth inning and Santa Clara collected four runs on five hits, including scoring two runs on a walk and a hit-by-pitch. USF used three pitchers in the inning.
San Francisco will wrap up its home conference slate with
Sheldon Lee (4-1) on the mound on Sunday against the Broncos.
"We have to find our way right now. We have to find a way to win two out of three," Giarratano said. "We've got to start trying to get to two out of three and we'll figure out how to move back after that but right now, [this] would be a good series for us."
With Santa Clara already leading 3-1 in the third inning, the Broncos tacked on more. Casey Munoz tripled to bring home one and he scored a batter later on a sacrifice fly to give the Broncos a 5-1 lead.
The Dons fired back in the bottom half with two of their own. With a runner on second and one out,
Brendan Hendriks tripled to deep right center to bring home
Derek Atkinson and cut the led to three. Two batters later, Hendriks scored on a sacrifice fly by
Justin McCullough and made it a two-run game. Hendriks went 2-for-5 with a double, triple and two RBI.
After Santa Clara scored two more in the fourth inning, the Dons found a way to score again in the fifth. Atkinson doubled to lead off the inning and scored two batters later on a sacrifice fly by
Zack Turner, which made it a 7-4 game. Atkinson went 3-for-4 on the day.
"I thought Derek was great today," Giarratano said. "It just shows how much character he has there in the ninth when he had an 11-pitch at bat, down 12-5. He could have just caved in and gave away that at bat. Same thing with [Hendriks]. He had a seven-pitch at bat."
"Those guys have great character."
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