SAN FRANCISCO—Thirty-seven players used. Fifteen innings played. Nearly four and a half hours burned off the clock. The Dons and UC Riverside played a marathon contest on Saturday afternoon but some critical errors late hurt USF as they dropped the game 6-3.
 
 "We're just trying too hard, trying to do too much. We're trying not to lose and that's why we lose," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "If we play the game at the right speed, they probably don't score today."
 
The Dons had hit the ball hard early on but nothing had dropped for a hit until the sixth when Nico Giarratano led off the inning with a hit. Two batters and a wild pitch later had Giarratano at second with two down when Dominic Miroglio ripped a single to right center to plate the runner and cut UC Riverside's lead to one.
 
USF tied it up in the eighth when, with Derek Atkinson on first, Miroglio laced a ball into right and it skipped under the glove of the UC Riverside rightfielder, which allowed Atkinson to score and push it to extra innings.
 
With a runner at first in the 11th, the Highlanders scored when, on a double to right, Connor Hofmann's throw from right skipped by two cutoff men and nearly went into the Dons' dugout but Matt Narahara finally cut the throw off, threw home himself and it was off line, which allowed the run to come across and give them a one-run lead.
 
But USF responded in the bottom half of the inning. Manny Ramirez, Jr. singled to lead it off and he was pinch ran for by Blake Valley. After a sacrifice bunt, Valley stole third and scored on the throw that flew down the left field line to tie it back up.
 
Sam Granoff came in for relief and struck out four of his first five batters and went three innings for get the Dons to the 15th. In the 15th, Granoff walked the leadoff man and then threw the ball away on a sacrifice bunt attempt to put runners at second and third with no outs.
 
Both runners scored on a single and the Highlanders put three runs on the board in the inning to take a 6-3 lead. The Dons got two on the bottom half of the inning but were unable to mount a rally.
 
San Francisco will play the rubber match of the series on Sunday at 1 p.m. on USFDons.com. Jeider Rincon will make the start.
 
Dons starting pitcher Christian Cecilio picked up right where Anthony Shew left off on Friday.
 
Cecilio was in a rhythm early on and faced the minimum through the first three innings but got into some trouble in the fourth. UC Riverside started the inning with a single and two infield singles to load the bases and with one out got a single to right to bring home one to take a 1-0 lead.
 
Cecilio was able to limit the damage by retiring the next two to get out of the inning.
 
The senior lefty went eight strong innings and allowed two runs on six hits and picked up nine strikeouts. He has gone his last three starts with a 1.98 ERA.
 
"Great outing from Christian," Giarratano said. "Our starters have been great. Between [Cecilio] and Anthony Shew, we shouldn't be losing games. Those two have pitched well enough to do everything for us."