SAN FRANCISCO — The University of San Francisco baseball team never trailed Saturday, though it had to battle all afternoon, evening its West Coast Conference series against Pepperdine with a 7-6 win at Benedetti Diamond.
 
San Francisco (5-13, 1-1 WCC) held multiple leads Saturday, going up 3-0, 4-2, 6-4 and finally, 7-6, en route to snapping its nine-game losing streak. The Dons have become accustomed to playing in close games, with half of their contests (nine) this season decided by one or two runs. USF also scored first Saturday for the second game in a row and only the fifth time this season, this time never falling behind.
 
Jack Winkler continued his hot weekend with a second straight three-hit day and two important RBIs. He drove in the first and last runs of the game. His RBI single in the first put USF up, 1-0, and his second home run of the year – a leadoff solo shot in the fifth – made it 7-6.
 
Alex Pham (1-2) came up big in relief, stopping Pepperdine's continuing comebacks with 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball, striking out six and only allowing three hits. The biggest hit he gave up was to the first batter he faced - a game-tying two-run home run to Reese Alexiades in the top of the fifth. After that, he settled down, retiring five of the next six he faced and seven of the last eight to end the game. Pepperdine loaded the bases against Pham in the seventh, and he went to a 3-0 count against Justin Lutes, but he'd get him to strike out swinging, ending the inning in a burst of celebration and preserving the Dons' one-run lead.
 
"Just kind of the same stuff," said San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano. "Pham was just good enough today to finish it up. I thought he was good all day. One pitch, he left kind of close to the middle and their guy got it up in the wind and got it out of here. Excited to get him in there and excited for him to get over the hurdle. Excited for the team to get the 'W' and have a chance to win the series tomorrow."
 
Jacob Munoz also homered for USF, hitting a two-run shot in the first inning to make it 3-0 Dons. Nick Yovetich's RBI single in the third made it 4-2, and a Pepperdine error in the fourth made it 6-4 after the Waves (6-10, 1-1 WCC) had just tied it up in the top half of the inning. Those insurance runs were even more important as Pepperdine continued to battle back all day.
 
Two small-ball runs (wild pitch, sacrifice fly) in the top of the second pulled the Waves within one. Back-to-back solo home runs in the top of the fourth tied the game at 4-4. And a two-out, two-run home run by Alexiades in the top of the fifth against newly entered-into-the-game relief pitcher Alex Pham, tied the game at 6-6. But it was only minutes later that Winkler answered with his solo shot in the bottom of the fifth to eventually give the Dons the win.
 
"Pepperdine's played really well, and they're very aggressive," said Giarratano. "We're gonna have to pitch well tomorrow to win the series, but we had some really big at-bats from Winkler today. For the most part, we played good defense. Still a nemesis of 11 free bases (10 walks, one hit-by-pitch), so we're going to have to clean that up if we're gonna make a run at this thing and start playing better."
 
The rubber game of the series is scheduled for 1 p.m. Sunday. Right-hander Grant Nechak is scheduled to start for the Dons. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.