SAN FRANCISCO — Freshman Josh Mollerus threw the longest outing of his young career Tuesday and logged a career high in strikeouts, but visiting Nevada jumped all over the University of San Francisco baseball team's bullpen in the late innings to complete a season series sweep with an 8-1 midweek non-conference victory at Benedetti Diamond.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• With yet another important West Coast Conference series looming this week at Pacific for the Dons (21-15) – and starting a day earlier with the Easter holiday on Sunday – Mollerus (0-3) was charged with ensuring the USF pitching staff got enough rest for the weekend. He answered the call, eating up 5 1/3 innings of work while only allowing two runs and striking out a career-high five in what was just the second collegiate start of his career.
   
• Mollerus stranded a runner in scoring position in the second inning and stranded two more in scoring position in the fourth after giving up the game's first run on an RBI double to Nevada's Daniel Perry. He induced two double plays to help him face the minimum for the first 1 2/3 innings and again in the third and fifth.
   
• Tyler Villaroman extended his hitting streak to 10 games with his fourth multi-hit performance in his last six contests. He singled in the third and again in the eighth, both after getting ahead in the count, but was stranded both times. USF loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth inning, already trailing 6-0, but could only get a single run on a sacrifice fly from Riley Helland sandwiched between two strikeouts.
   
• Nevada (19-17) took advantage of five free passes (three walks, two hit-by-pitches) and three base hits in the top of the eighth to grow its lead from 2-0 to 6-0. Matt Clayton singled home a run with one out to make it 3-0. He was thrown out to trying to steal, putting two outs on the board, but two doubles and four of the frame's free passes all came with two outs to bring home three more runs.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 1 1/3: Mollerus' fellow rookie, lefty Ryan Cowdrey, recorded his first collegiate outs in his second appearance, throwing 1 1/3 innings Tuesday. He had previously made his debut on March 16 versus Portland but did not record an out. Tuesday, he struck out three and walked only one.
• 12 for 17: Nearly all of Tuesday's damage came from Nevada's No. 4 through 7 hitters, who went a combined 12 for 17 with a home run, five doubles, seven RBIs, a walk and a hit-by-pitch.
• 90: Villaroman has raised his season batting average by 90 points during his 10-game hitting streak, from hitting .187 after March 30's game at Santa Clara to batting .277 after Tuesday's game. He has hit .432 (19 for 44) and slugged .568 during his streak.

COMING UP

• San Francisco travels to the Central Valley to face Pacific in a three-game West Coast Conference series starting at 6 p.m. Thursday. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.