DAVIS, Calif.—After trailing going into the middle frames, the Dons mounted a rally against UC Davis and scored five times in the sixth and seventh innings to take the nonconference matchup 9-4 on Tuesday afternoon.
 
It was the fifth game in five days for San Francisco (19-19) and was able to rebound after a rough 16-4 loss to Nevada. The Dons have won eight of their last nine games.
 
"When you look at the five games in five days, it gave all of our pitchers an opportunity to sharpen up," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We had not really been using a lot of guys out of the bullpen. Our starters have been going deep into games and we wanted to make sure we got out bullpen an opportunity. Today they were a little sharper."
 
After UC Davis tacked on another run in the fifth, the Dons came through with a couple of runs of their own. With runners at first and second and one out, Dominic Miroglio blooped a ball down the rightfield line for a base hit to bring home Nico Giarratano to make it a one-run game.
 
Two batters later, Blake Valley came up with the bases loaded and he singled through the right side to score Derek Atkinson and tied it up 4-4.
 
San Francisco kept the pressure on in the seventh and got a leadoff double from Michael Eaton. The Dons second baseman moved over to third on a wild pitch and saw the next two batters be retired to bring up Brendan Hendriks.
 
The Dons first baseman battled and, on an 0-2 pitch, hit a high hopper deep into the hole at short for an RBI infield hit and USF retook the lead 5-4. Derek Atkinson followed the infield single with a triple to center to bring home Hendriks and give the Dons a two-run cushion.
 
USF added another on a passed ball and went into the bottom half of the seventh with a 7-4 lead.
 
Logan West, who had entered the game in the sixth, got some help from his defense in the late innings. After the leadoff man reached in the seventh, West induced a 5-4-3 double play to end the UC Davis threat.
 
The Aggies had another chance in the eighth when they put runners at the corners with no outs but the next batter grounded one right to Hendriks at first and he caught the runner off of third for a fielder's choice. With one down, West wiggled out of danger and got a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning.  
 
West went three innings and allowed no runs on three hits.
 
The Dons added some insurance in the ninth and got an RBI double from Hendriks and an RBI single from Miroglio to push the lead to five.
 
San Francisco pounded out 13 hits and has had at least 10 hits in seven of its last nine games. Five Dons had multiple hit games, including Eaton and Miroglio who each finished with three.
 
"When Mike chips in and the at bats that Blake had, which were fabulous, takes some pressure off [Hendriks] and Derek and they can just do their thing and will eventually get to people," Giarratano said. "Derek got to them. Hendi got to them late. We had six, seven guys in that lineup today that really provided some good at bats for us. That's how you score nine runs."
 
The Dons will head south for the weekend when they will take on San Diego at Fowler Park in a battle for first place in the West Coast Conference. The Dons (11-4) trail the Toreros (12-3) by one game entering the series.
 
"At this point last year, we weren't playing these kinds of series," Giarratano said. "We've got a lot of guys on this team that played for the conference championship [in 2013] and understand what it's like to play in the championship series. We've got enough people around here that understand how to play in a race and do it.
 
"The last 12 games in conference are definitely going to mean something and that's what you want."
 
UC Davis put runners on the corners with no outs in the bottom of the first and Dons starter Matt Narahara induced a groundball to short where Giarratano started the 6-4-3 double play, which allowed a run to score and give the Aggies a 1-0 lead.
 
One inning later, the Dons loaded the bases with two down for Eaton and he ripped the 2-1 pitch into leftfield for a base hit, which plated Miroglio and Blake Valley, to give the Dons a 2-1 lead.
 
With one down in the third, UC Davis had a chance to tie the game against Narahara when they had runners at first and second but a double steal cost the Aggies a base runner as Miroglio gunned down the Davis runner trying to take second. One pitch later, Narahara got a line out to third to end the inning.
 
He went three innings and allowed one run on two hits, despite issuing four walks.
 
Anthony Bunopane came on in the fourth and retired the first two batters but then two slow hoppers allowed the next two to reach and gave UC Davis runners at the corners. After a stolen base to make it second and third, Evan Heptig laced a single up the middle to bring home both runs to move the Aggies ahead 3-2.