STOCKTON, Calif.—Senior left hander Christian Cecilio was his usual stellar self and powered the Dons into the ninth but Pacific stayed alive into extra innings and got a walk off hit in the 10th to beat USF 3-2 on Saturday afternoon.
 
"We played well but we didn't play well enough," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "I was pleased with what we did early and it really didn't go our way after that."
 
Upon entering extra innings, the Dons looked primed to mount a rally. Michael Eaton led off the inning with a single and was moved over on a sacrifice bunt to give USF a runner in scoring position with one down. After a groundout moved Eaton to third, Nico Giarratano flew out to end the inning.
 
The Dons were 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position on Saturday.
 
"We didn't swing the bats particularly well with runners in scoring position," Giarratano said. "You're going to get beat when you can't do that."
 
It was the final scoring chance for the Dons.
 
In the bottom half of the inning, Pacific got the leadoff man aboard on a groundball between Giarratano and Ross Puskarich on the left side of the diamond. A sacrifice bunt moved the runner to second and Tyler Sullivan singled to right center to bring home the game-winning run.
 
San Francisco will play the rubber match of the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. Jeider Rincon will be on the mound.
 
The game quickly looked like it was going to mirror Friday's contest as the Dons got on the board in the first. After a stolen base by Connor Hofmann put him on second with two down, Brendan Hendriks singled into left to bring home the run and give USF the early 1-0 lead.
 
Pacific answered in the bottom half of the inning and scored on a 6-4-3 double play to tie it at one.
 
Freshman third baseman Ross Puskarich untied the game in the second and hit a solo home run to give USF the lead. The Tigers got a home run of their own in the third and drew even at two.
 
San Francisco got hits from Hendriks and Puskrich in the fourth to set up runners at first and second with one out but Michael Eaton grounded to third for the 5-3 double play.
 
"We got started again, took the lead in the first and we just gave it back," Giarratano said. "We couldn't score for seven innings. We had runners in scoring position in seven of the innings."
 
After two lead changes and two ties within the first three innings, it looked as if the Dons were in for another back and forth battle but that is when Cecilio settled in.
 
Pacific had gotten their leadoff man on in the fifth and attempted to bunt him over but the attempt went back to Cecilio and he fired to second for the force out.
 
The senior left hander retired 10 straight batters between the fifth and eighth innings and lasted 8.2 innings with one earned run on six hits. Friday starter Anthony Shew and Cecilio have combined to throw 16.2 innings over the last two days.
 
"He did a great job," Giarratano said of Cecilio. "Any time you give up two runs over nine innings and you don't win a conference game, it's disappointing. He gave us a great opportunity to win and we didn't take advantage of it."
 
With the game still tied in the eighth, the Dons had runners at first and second with two down for Derek Atkinson but he went down on strikes to end the inning.