STANFORD, Calif.—In a game that saw the lead change hands five times and three ties, the Dons came up just short as they dropped their final nonconference game against Stanford 6-5 on Tuesday night.
"I was pleased by what we did offensively," San Francisco head coach
Nino Giarratano said. "We took the lead, we gave it back. We took the lead again and gave the lead back. We took the lead for a third time and gave it back on a big three-run home run. I'm pleased with that effort."
San Francisco and Stanford had traded leads through the middle innings and were tied at three entering the top of the seventh when the Dons put together a long rally.
Kyle Norman reached on an errant throw from the Stanford third baseman and, two pitches later, he stole second and had the throw ricochet off his foot to allow him to move to third with no outs.
Matt Sinatro promptly brought him in when he crushed a ball that hopped to the right centerfield wall for an RBI triple.
With the infield pulled in and Sinatro at third,
Michael Eaton battled through a 10-pitch at bat and ripped the 2-2 pitch up the middle for an RBI single to give USF a 5-3 lead.
Eaton went 2-for-4 with two RBI on the night.
"We got good production," Giarratano said. "We had four or five guys with good at bats. It was good to get that started. Excited about that, hopefully we can carry something positive into the weekend and do what we're capable of."
Four batters later, the Dons had the bases loaded with two down for
Derek Atkinson and he grounded out to second to end the inning.
Much like in the previous innings, Stanford fired back in the bottom half of the inning. With two on and one down in the inning, Zach Hoffpauir hit a three-run home run to centerfield and gave the Cardinal a 6-5 lead.
Stanford quickly loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the eighth but
Logan West battled back and got a strikeout, an infield fly to second, and then a groundball to third to end the inning and keep it a one-run game.
The Dons were unable to mount a rally in the ninth and went down in order.
The Dons will return to action on Friday for the final series of the regular season when they host Loyola Marymount for three. One win for the Dons will qualify them for the West Coast Conference Championship tournament in Stockton, Calif. next weekend.
After a single and a groundout had
Brendan Hendriks at second,
Dominic Miroglio singled just over the head of the Stanford shortstop and it moved Hendriks to third to give the Dons runners at the corners with one down.
It brought
Justin McCullough to the plate and he flied out to right to bring home Hendriks and put the Dons up 1-0 in the fourth.
Stanford tied it back up in the bottom half of the inning when Tommy Edman hit a leadoff home run to left.
With two down in the fifth, Eaton made some noise as he hit a fly ball that shot out to leftfield for a solo home run and the Dons retook the lead 2-1. It was Eaton's first career home run.
The Cardinal answered the run with another solo home run when Alex Dunlap hit a towering shot to left to make it 2-2. After a double, a wild pitch, and a walk put runners at the corners with one out, Stanford got a sacrifice fly to left and took a 3-2 lead.
San Francisco got a loud answer in the sixth inning when Hendriks hit a fly ball over the trees beyond the rightfield wall, his sixth home run of the season, and retied the game.
Hendriks reached base four times and went 2-for-2 with two runs scored.
