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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.—Nothing has come easy for the Dons so far this season and that proved true again on Sunday as big hits from Ryan Matranga and Michael Eaton highlighted a four-run eighth inning rally for the Dons and they needed every bit of it as Utah Valley scored five times in the ninth but fell short as USF held on for the 7-6 win in their final game of the Lobo Classic.
 
"It was big to get a win," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We've got to take them one game at a time. It was good to take the pressure off of us."
 
The Dons broke it open in the eighth when, with two on and one out, Eaton doubled down the left field line to score two. Matranga was next and he homered to left to give USF a commanding 7-1 lead.
 
"Michael Eaton had a big day. The home run by Ryan really lifted us up," Giarratano said. "We put some really good at bats together in that inning. Any day you can score seven runs, you stand a pretty good chance of winning."
 
It was Matranga's first home run since May 11, 2013 against BYU.
 
Utah Valley mounted a rally but were aided by four walks from Dons pitchers and they scored five times and had the bases loaded with two down but Anthony Buonopane got a fielder's choice groundball to Nico Giarratano end it.
 
"We've got to do a much better job of throwing strikes in the ninth," Giarratano said.
 
The Dons will head back to the Bay Area to take on California on Wednesday before opening their home slate in a series against UC Riverside on Friday.
 
Jeider Rincon made the start for the Dons and was challenged out of the gate. Utah Valley's first the batters reached base and gave it bases loaded with no outs but the freshman lefty battled back and was able to induce a fly ball, pop out, and a strikeout to end the inning.
 
Matt Sinatro put the Dons on top in the second inning when, with runners at the corners and two down, he singled up the middle to plate Dominic Miroglio and gave USF a 1-0 lead.
 
Utah Valley got the run back in the third on an RBI single to left to tie the game at one.
 
With Eaton standing on second and one down in the seventh, Giarratano went to his bench and brought up Manny Ramirez, Jr. to pinch hit. The sophomore then ripped the 3-1 pitch into left center to score Eaton and gave the Dons a 2-1 lead.
 
Two batters later, Connor Hofmann grounded one to second but the second baseman could not handle it and it allowed pinch runner Cody Snider to score and give USF a two-run lead.
 
Rincon had to battle again in the fifth when Utah Valley loaded the bases with one out. He would get the next batter to fly out and that is when Giarratano went to Brock Larson out of the bullpen. Larson would get Jake Atkinson to line out to second and end the inning.
 
The sophomore right hander had one of the better outings of his career. He went 3.1 innings, allowed no runs on one hit, and retired the first eight batters he faced.
 
The starting pitchers went 19.2 innings over the weekend and surrendered all of five runs.
 
"I'm excited about the starting piece of it," Giarratano said. "I thought Larson and Matt Narahara did what they needed to do. I thought we had six guys that did a pretty good job of pitching this weekend."