PROVO, Utah—A seven-run second inning for BYU encapsulated the Dons' struggles on the mound and in the field as they dropped the series opener to the Cougars 14-4 on Thursday night.
 
The loss snapped the Dons' nine-game winning streak in West Coast Conference play with the last one coming on Mar. 29 against Saint Mary's. They will look to rebound tomorrow when Jeider Rincon takes the mound against BYU at 5 p.m.
 
"We weren't sharp," San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano said. "We made five mistakes in the first two innings and we can't do that if we want to be successful in this conference."
 
Already ahead 2-0 in the second, BYU took advantage of some poor defense from the Dons. The Cougars got three consecutive singles to load the bases with one out and Dons starting pitcher Anthony Shew appeared to get a tailor-made double play groundball to short but it kicked off the glove of Nico Giarratano and rolled into centerfield and brought two home to make it a four-run game.
 
The next batter dropped down a bunt and Shew had trouble with the hop as he moved towards first base, allowing another run to come across. BYU tacked on three more runs in the inning and went up 9-0 after the second.
 
Three USF errors led to five unearned runs in the inning.
 
San Francisco had a chance to answer back in the third and moved runners to second and third with two down but with Brendan Hendriks at the plate but he went down swinging to end the inning.
 
However, the Dons were able to chip away in the fourth. After a walk to Derek Atkinson and singles from Dominic Miroglio and Zack McCoy loaded the bases with two down, Michael Eaton came up and ripped a single into left to drive in one.
 
Eaton, who won WCC Player of the Week on Monday, had another multi-hit game and went 2-for-3 on the night and reached base three times.
 
Connor Hofmann was next and he slapped a single into left that plated two more to make it a 9-3 game.
 
BYU starter Kolton Mahoney got through six innings and allowed three runs on seven hits. The Dons made the right hander work hard for his outs as he threw 114 pitches in those six innings.
 
"We wore him out," Giarratano said of his offense. "The offense was pretty good tonight. We had some pretty good swings but when you're down 9-0 in the second inning, it's going to be hard for your offense."
 
The Dons seemed to be picking up some momentum but BYU duplicated the USF output in the fourth with three of its own to go up 12-3.
 
Shew went 3.1 innings and allowed 12 runs, six earned, on 11 hits.
 
Mack Meyer came in to relieve Shew and he settled the game down by allowing two hits in 3.2 innings.
 
"I thought Mack did a wonderful job," Giarratano said of the sophomore right hander. "Mack gave us a chance to get back in the series. I thought that was a very positive thing… He gave us 11 outs tonight to let us save some of our arms for the rest of the series."
 
NOTES:
Dominic Miroglio went 2-for-4 on Thursday and has seen his average rise to .371… Brendan Hendriks hit a tape-measure home run in the seventh inning. It tied him with Derek Atkinson for the team lead with five.