STOCKTON, Calif.—The Dons had multiple opportunities to break the rubber match against Pacific open but were unable to take advantage as they dropped the third game of the series 3-2 on Sunday afternoon.
 
"Our inability to score the second run in the third inning cost us," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "If we get that run, we play with a little more relaxation offensively. We started putting a lot more pressure on ourselves. We had some bad at bats in the bottom of the order. We struggle when we're behind."
 
The Dons put together a late rally in the eighth and it was started by Brendan Hendriks. The senior led off the inning with a double that one-hopped the centerfield wall and moved over to third on a ground out to set it up for Derek Atkinson.
 
With the Dons trailing 3-1, Atkinson hit a ground ball to first to bring home Hendriks and make it a one run game.
 
"Hendriks is really the only player we can count on offensively right now," said Giarratano. "You've got to have five guys to help produce stuff. I wish the rest of the guys could join him."
 
The senior is hitting .400 with a home run, five RBI, and carries a 1.040 OPS in West Coast Conference play.
 
USF will return to action on Tuesday when they play host to UC Davis at 2 p.m. at Benedetti Diamond.
 
San Francisco had a two-out rally going when, with two outs, Pacific starter Michael Benson hit two straight batters but then struck out Kyle Nixon to get out of the jam.
 
After a single and a hit by pitch in the third, Hendriks came up and hit one to deep right that was just off the glove of the Pacific rightfielder and allowed Connor Hofmann to score from second to give USF a 1-0 lead.
 
Hendriks went 3-for-4 on the afternoon and was 7-for-13 with a home run and four RBI during the three-game set.
 
The Dons has a chance to add on with runners at the corners and no outs but Pacific induced two pops up and got a strikeout to end the inning.
 
USF had runners aboard in each of the first four innings and multiple runners in two of those innings.
 
Pacific responded in the bottom half of the inning and, following a steal of third by Tyler Sullivan, Gio Brusa singled past a diving Ross Puskarich at third to bring home the run and put the Tigers up 2-1.
 
In the sixth, Pacific got a two-out single and, following a wild pitch to advance the runner to second, hit a fly ball to left center that was dropped by Nixon and brought home the run, making it 3-1.
 
Dons starting pitcher Jeider Rincon battled through six innings and allowed three runs, two earned, on seven hits and three walks. It was his second longest outing of the season.
 
"I'm happy with what [Rincon] did today," Giarratano said. "A dropped fly ball and a leaned over tapper made it a 3-2 game. When he starts to eliminate those free bases, he'll be really good."
 
The trio of starters (Anthony Shew, Christian Cecilio, Rincon) combined to go 23 innings on the weekend against Pacific.
 
"Our starters this weekend were nothing short of marvelous. You should win three games when you have one guy go 8.1, another go 8.2, and one go six."