MORAGA, Calif.  – Dan James hit his third home run of the season and Anthony Shew matched his season high with eight strikeouts, but it was not enough as USF suffered a 5-1 loss to Saint Mary's on Friday afternoon at Louis Guisto Field.
 
Shew (3-6) missed out on his chance to earn his third consecutive win, but registered his sixth quality start in his last seven outings as he went six complete innings, allowing five runs (two earned) on seven hits while issuing three walks.
 
USF's four hits were scattered among four different players as the Dons (16-27, 10-9 WCC) tried to get to Saint Mary's ace Corbin Burnes.
 
USF had runners in scoring position in the second, fourth, fifth and eight but was unable to take advantage of the opportunities. The Dons started the eighth with three consecutive walks, but a fly out by Ross Puskarich and a line out by James ended the inning before a USF run could score.
 
Saint Mary's (23-16, 11-5 WCC) got on the board when Anthony Gonsolin led off the bottom of the second with a triple and the Gaels got RBI singles from Charles Zaloumis and Edward Haus.  
 
Jackson Thoreson drove in a pair with a two-out, two-run double in the third to put the Gaels up 4-0.
 
With two outs in the fourth, James cut into the SMC lead with solo home run to right field on the first offering from Burnes, bringing it to 4-1.   
 
A leadoff walk to Zach Kirtley in the fourth followed two batters later by an Anthony Villa RBI single helped the Gaels move out to a 5-1 lead.  
 
Connor Brewster came on in relief of Matt Warkentin in the eighth with a runner on second and one out before getting the final two outs to strand the runner and keep the game at 5-1.
 
Burnes (7-0) allowed just one run on four hits in the win, but allowed five walks while striking out eight.
 
Drew Strotman took over for Burnes in the eighth and ended up closing out the game by retiring the Dons in order in the ninth.
 
Villa, Thoreson and Zaloumis each tallied two hits apiece for the Gaels.
 
NOTES: SS Nico Giarratano extended his on-base streak to 17 games - the longest such streak for the Dons this year – with a walk in the top of the eighth… OF/IF Matt Sinatro drew a pair of walks, extending his on-base streak to 13 games… RHP Anthony Shew leads the Dons' pitching staff with seven quality starts on the year.
 
UP NEXT: The Dons and Gaels continue their three-game series at Louis Guisto Field on Saturday at 2 p.m. Freshman righty Thomas Ponticelli (2-4, 5.57) will take the mound against SMC left-hander Johnny York (4-4, 3.16). Each game of the series can be followed via live stats on SMCGaels.com and a live video stream on TheW.tv.