SAN FRANCISCO — Free passes came back to bite the University of San Francisco baseball team Saturday, something it had avoided during its four-game winning streak entering the day, as visiting California got half of its runs from free base runners to even the weekend non-conference series with a 6-1 win at Benedetti Diamond.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED

• San Francisco starter Riley Ornido (1-3) had perhaps his strongest outing of the season to date, going a season-long 5 1/3 innings and striking out a season-high seven. But walks at the beginning and end of his appearance shrouded an otherwise efficient day.
   
• Ornido struck out the first two batters he faced in the top of the first inning, but then issued a two-out, five-pitch walk. He fell behind 3-1 to the next hitter, cleanup batter Nathan Martorella, before Martorella launched a ball off the high netting in right-center field to give California (4-10) a 2-0 lead. In the sixth, he struck out Martorella to start, but walked the next two batters before exiting the game. Both runners would later score on back-to-back RBI hits, giving the Bears a 6-0 lead at the time.
   
• After Martorella's homer in the first, Ornido settled down and cruised into the fourth inning, retiring nine of the next 12 batters he faced – including five in a row at one point – with three Ks. But on the other side, San Francisco (7-8) couldn't provide him any run support despite getting itself in position to do so multiple times. The Dons had runners in scoring position in seven of nine innings, only managing an infield single in the seventh that scored their only run. They stranded a runner at third in the first and third, and left them loaded in the seventh.
   
• California starter Grant Holman (1-3) earned his first win of the year with 6 1/3 innings of one-run ball, striking out five and only issuing one walk. The Dons had seven hits against him but couldn't score until chasing him in the seventh and getting an RBI infield single from Brandon Greim off of reliever Ian Villers.

NOTABLE NUMBERS

• 0-6: San Francisco is now 0-6 this season in games it allows five or more walks in. It is 7-2 in all other games.
• 11: It took until his final at-bat in the eighth inning, but Robert Emery was able to slap a seeing-eye single through the right side of the infield to extend his hitting streak to 11 games. He's batting .452 during the streak with nine RBIs and a .667 slugging percentage.

COMING UP

• The series concludes with a rubber match on Sunday at 2 p.m. in Berkeley. The Dons will send Grant Nechak to the mound in game three. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.