SAN FRANCISCO—Senior Christian Cecilio continued his recent dominant performance by stifling the Saint Mary's bats and threw a complete game shutout as the Dons picked up the 2-0 win at AT&T Park on Saturday afternoon.
 
"He's just been spectacular," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "He's been able to locate, he's been able to get out of trouble, he's been able to get outs. He's worked hard, prepared well. He deserves the opportunity to have this success."
 
Cecilio entered the eighth inning with his pitch count nearing 100 and gave up a one-out single but the Dons defense helped the southpaw out when he struck out one and the runner was thrown out trying to steal for the double play.
 
San Francisco added an insurance run in the eighth.
 
Connor Hofmann struck out looking but the ball bounced off the catcher's glove and went to the backstop, which allowed the senior outfielder to reach first base. After a sacrifice bunt had Hofmann at second, Derek Atkinson came up and hit a fly ball down the rightfield line for a double and gave USF a 2-0 lead.
 
Atkinson drove in both runs for the Dons.
 
Cecilio retired Saint Mary's in order in the ninth to pick up his third career complete game. It is also the third straight game in which he has gotten into the ninth inning.
 
Over his last four starts, he has thrown 34.2 innings and allowed three earned runs (0.77 ERA).
 
The game was part of the 10th annual Dante Benedetti Classic, an event the Dons have participated in each year.
 
"You look at the idea by Tom Lounibos and then the effort by the Dante Benedetti Foundation to put this game on," Giarratano said. "To have the courage to put this game on for the kids for the last 10 years is quite the investment.
 
"I'm really happy for the kids to get on this field and build a memory. Ten years, 15 years down the road, they'll always remember the Dante Benedetti Classic, whether they played in year one or year 10 or anywhere in between that, they'll always remember it."
 
San Francisco has now taken the first two games of the series against Saint Mary's and will go for the sweep on Sunday with Jeider Rincon on the mound.
 
"If we want to win this conference and get into the conference tournament, tomorrow is a day where we have to play well," Giarratano said. "Tomorrow is a day where we need to look at it as a one-day opportunity. Tomorrow we need to play like it's the game that gets us into the tournament."
 
Hofmann got the Dons started again in the first when he hit a ball deep into the hole, beat the throw, and advanced to second on an overthrow. After a sacrifice bunt and a walk, Atkinson rocketed a one-hopper back to the mound that ricocheted off the Saint Mary's pitcher and allowed Hofmann to score to put USF up 1-0.
 
"We put together some better at bats," said Giarratano said. "We executed, we bunted the ball well to get guys in scoring position, and we got the hits we needed to score them. Big hits by Derek both times to get both RBIs."
 
Saint Mary's had a chance to answer in the second when they got runners at first and second with one down but Cecilio got a liner to Michel Eaton at second and he flipped it to Nico Giarratano for the double play.
 
The Gaels had a runner in scoring position with one out again in the third but Cecilio induced a groundball to third and a pop up caught down the leftfield line by Giarratano to end the frame.