SAN FRANCISCO — Crisp pitching and clutch hitting on a cool afternoon carried the San Francisco baseball team to a series-opening victory Friday over CSU Bakersfield, a 2-0 win riding the arm of Riley Ornido and the bat of Jack Winkler in the Dons' 2019 home debut at Benedetti Diamond.


 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• A deadlocked pitchers' duel between Ornido and CSU Bakersfield's Darius Vines finally broke in the seventh inning. Vines had gone over the 100-pitch mark after throwing six shutout innings with nine strikeouts, so he was lifted for Roadrunners reliever Graham Kuck to start the bottom of the seventh. Kuck looked to be carrying Vines' torch by striking out the first batter he faced, but then he hit a batter and Jonathan Allen reached on an infield error and the Dons (2-2) had something going.
   
• Jack Winkler – who finished the day a perfect 3 for 3 with a walk and an RBI – drove home the Dons' first run of the game with a solid RBI single to right-center field. Riley Helland followed with an RBI groundball, running out a potential inning-ending double-play ball to allow Allen to score from third and put USF up 2-0.
   
• Ornido (1-1) struck out the side in the first and the sixth innings, but he ran into trouble in the fourth when CSU Bakersfield (2-4) put runners on the corners with one out. That's when the USF defense came through, getting out of the jam with a 6-4-3 double play, one of two double plays the Dons turned on the day. Ornido would finish with an impressive performance of seven shutout innings with 10 strikeouts, scattering three hits and two walks for his first win of 2019.
   
• Vines also struck out the side in the fourth and wiggled out of jams like his USF counterpart. San Francisco loaded the bases with one out in the third after back-to-back leadoff walks. It was Vines who started his own escape, fielding a chopper and starting a 1-2-3 double play to keep the game at 0-0.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 0 for 9: CSU Bakersfield went 0 for 9 with runners on base, including 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position. The Roadrunners left five runners on base.
• 2: Joey Steele recorded his second save of the season with two innings of shutout relief. He induced a key double play in the ninth after allowing the leadoff batter to reach and bringing the tying run to the plate, and he ended the game on a swinging strikeout.
• 11: San Francisco left 11 runners on base Friday. That included leaving the bases loaded twice (fifth, seventh) and leaving two on in the third after drawing two leadoff walks.

COMING UP

• The series continues at 1 p.m. Saturday with game two pitting USF's lefty Scott Parker (0-0) against CSUB righty Ethan Skuija. The series finale is also set for 1 p.m. on Sunday with San Francisco lefty Grant Young facing a yet-to-be-named starter for the Roadrunners. Fans can purchase tickets and find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.