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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—The Dons battled frigid temperatures and got a complete game from right hander Anthony Shew but a three-run inning from Utah Valley was enough as they fell to Utah Valley 3-1 in the opener of the Lobo Classic on Friday.
 
"The big inning has killed us," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "[Shew] pitched well enough to win. We just left two balls in the middle. He was on 29 pitches going into the inning and had 29 pitches in the inning.
 
"I just wanted them to keep playing and keep attacking. I thought we did a pretty good job of that."
 
First pitch was pushed back two hours for the field to be cleared of snow and game time temperature was 27 degrees but Shew, who went eight shutout innings last week against Tulane, came out on fire and mowed through the first four innings without allowing a base runner and threw all of 29 pitches.
 
He had his second straight eight-inning outing and allowed three runs on five hits.
 
"It was 20 degrees, snowing. If it's sunny outside and we're going to roll today," Giarratano said. "It was cold enough to keep us down and one big hit from them changed the game."
 
Because of the inclement weather, the tournament schedule has been modified. The Dons will play a double header on Saturday with the first game coming at 10 a.m. against New Mexico followed by USF taking on Utah Valley. Christian Cecilio will pitch the first game and Sheldon Lee will wrap up the day.
 
With Nico Giarratano at first and two down in the first, Brendan Hendriks ripped a double down the right field line to give the Dons runners at second and third.
 
This brought up Dominic Miroglio but he went down swinging to end the inning.
 
But in the fifth, Shew got into trouble. With two on and two down, Greyson Bogden crushed a ball to center that hopped over the wall for a ground rule double to plate one and give Utah Valley a 1-0 lead. Zac Fuller followed with a single to left, which scored two, to give the Wolverines a three-run lead.
 
San Francisco responded in the top of the sixth. Connor Hofmann led off the inning with a single and it was followed by a walk to Giarratano. Two batters later, Hendriks walked to load the bases for Miroglio.
 
The sophomore catcher, who leads the team in RBI, grounded out to third to score Hofmann and cut the Utah Valley lead to two but that would be all the Dons could get.
 
"We haven't gotten the big hit or gotten the big pitch to get where we wanted to be," Giarratano said. "We're just not getting good production out of the offense."
 
NOTES
It was a homecoming for Albuquerque native Michael Eaton. He played for four years at Sandia Prep where he was a four-time all-state performer with a career .560 batting average… Dominic Miroglio picked up his team-high eighth RBI of the season… Connor Hofmann went 2-for-4 on Friday and now has three multi-hit games… Derek Atkinson had his streak of reaching base in 25 of 26 games snapped.