RENO, Nev. – An early deficit started a back-and-forth contest that forced the Dons to rally back to re-take the lead twice before holding off Nevada, 9-6, on Tuesday afternoon at Peccole Park.
 
Matt Sinatro helped spark the offense by going 2-for-5 with three RBI and hitting his first collegiate home run, while Michael Perri went 2-for-4 and added his first long ball of the year and Aaron Ping added some insurance with a pinch-hit homer in the ninth. Nico Giarratano also collected a pair of hits and scored a run.
 
Left-hander Scott Parker (2-1) picked up the win with 2.1 innings of shutout relief work where he allowed two hits while striking out two.
 
USF (14-11) fell into a 3-0 hole after the first three innings before stringing together a pair of three-run innings in the fourth and fifth frames, but not before Nevada evened it up with three runs of their own in the seventh. That's when Sinatro stepped up and broke the tie with the deciding two-run single with one out in the top of the eighth. 
 
"Matt Sinatro was great today," head coach Nino Giarratano said. "It was great to see him get his first collegiate home run and he had a big hit for us to put us up in the eighth."
 
Nevada (7-18) took advantage of a Ross Puskarich fielding error in the bottom of the first to tack on a pair of runs against USF starter Sam Granoff, whose balk helped put a Nevada runner in scoring position just prior to the miscue.
 
The Wolf Pack added to their lead with a sacrifice fly in the third that followed a pair of singles and a sacrifice bunt.
 
"I was disappointed that we got down early, but excited to see us get back into it like we did," Giarratano said. "We just gave up free bases. It was the same thing in seventh. We've got to do a better job of holding that lead."
 
Granoff lasted four innings, allowing just one earned run before handing it over to the bullpen.
 
The Dons finally got on the board with Dominic Miroglio's one-out RBI groundout in the top of the fourth. Two batters later Perri evened it up at 3-3 with his two-run blast to left center.

USF followed that up the next inning by taking the lead on Sinatro's solo shot. Puskarich later plated a run on an RBI groundout and Miroglio picked up an RBI with a two-out single through the left side.
 
After a one-two-three sixth inning, freshman lefty Grant Young ran into trouble in the bottom of the seventh, allowing a single and a walk to start the inning that helped setup run-scoring singles by Grant Fennell and Cole Krzmarzick that tied it at 6-6.
 
Parker helped get the Dons out of the jam by inducing a double play to end the inning.
 
In the eighth, Perri setup the go-ahead hit from Sinatro by ripping a one-out double down the left field line before coming around to score two batters later along with Brady Bate, who had been hit by a pitch.
 
With the lead back in hand, Parker and Joey Carney teamed to close it out. Carney picked up his third save of the season by striking out the final hitter with runners on first and second.
 
"I thought Scott Parker came in and pitched really well," Giarratano said. "Joey Carney did his job and got a big strikeout to hold the win for us. Overall, we had four two-out RBIs today, which was what really helped us."
 
The Dons travel to San Diego for a three-game WCC series with the Toreros beginning at 6 p.m. on Friday from Fowler Park. Right-hander Grant Goodman (2-1, 4.84) will toe the rubber in the series opener.