SAN FRANCISCO — Jonathan Allen's and the University of San Francisco baseball team's historic power season continued Tuesday, but visiting California was able to stay ahead once the Dons' offense woke up, scoring runs in each of the final five innings to sweep the season series with a 10-5 non-conference victory at Benedetti Diamond.


 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• Allen bombed the first pitch he saw in the fifth inning over the yellow tape high up on the right-centerfield wall for his 17th home run of the year. His home run made it a one-run game again at 5-4 after California (28-15) had gotten a two-out run in the top-half of the inning. His 17th longball of 2019 tied him for fourth all-time on the single-season list at USF with Arnie Sambel, who led the West Coast Conference with 17 home runs in 1990.
   
• Jacob Westerman also hit a home run for the Dons (27-22) Tuesday, a solo shot in the fourth that made it a one-run game for the first time at 4-3 after the Golden Bears had scored four in the first inning to lead 4-0. It was his second home run of the year and, combined with Allen's homer the next inning, gave the Dons 36 on the season. It's the most home runs San Francisco has hit as a team since the 2010 squad hit 52 – a stretch of nearly a decade at nine years.
   
• Half of the Bears' runs on Tuesday came with two outs in the inning, including three in the first during a four-run rally. Cal had two runners in scoring position after an RBI double from Korey Lee that made it 1-0, but a groundout to the left side kept the runners in place and put two outs on the board. The Dons were one strike away from getting out of the inning when Darren Baker singled up the middle on a full count to bring both runs in and make it 3-0. He scored two pitches later on an RBI single from Sam Wezniak and it was 4-0 before USF had come to bat.
   
• San Francisco got on the board in the third and cut the lead in half with two runs. Tyler Villaroman started the rally by getting hit by a pitch, then stealing his 18th base of the year and 47th of his career – moving him into sole possession of ninth place on the USF career list. Jack Winkler singled him home and also stole a base before later scoring on a wild pitch to make it 4-2.
   
• California slowly pulled away in the late innings with single runs in the fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth, and a two-run home run by Cole Elvis in the ninth. Most of Cal's late runs were just good timing for the Bears and bad luck combinations for San Francisco. After two quick outs in the fifth, a single through the hole, a walk and another single got them a run. A leadoff double, wild pitch and then a sacrifice fly got them a run in the sixth. The Dons got a double play to erase a leadoff walk in the seventh, but an infield single, stolen base, wild pitch and then another steal – this time of home by Baker – on a pickoff throw to first gave Cal another run. In the eighth, it was again an infield single, a walk and another infield single that got Cal a run – all with two outs.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 5: Robert Emery went 2 for 5 Tuesday to extend his team-leading hitting streak to five games. He is batting .412 during his streak with two doubles, three RBIs, three runs scored and back-to-back multi-hit games now.
• 10: Tuesday marked the second straight game USF had given up 10 runs to an opponent, and the fifth time in the last eight games. Cal's 16 hits were also the seventh time in the last eight games a USF opponent had at least 10 hits.

COMING UP

• San Francisco concludes WCC play this weekend with a pivotal three-game road series at first-place BYU, starting Thursday. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.