SAN FRANCISCO — Six years playing college baseball is a long time. Just ask Landen Bourassa of the University of San Francisco baseball team.
 
75 years is even longer.
 
The USF veteran right-hander had a day to remember Friday, throwing a complete-game shutout while striking out 16 – tying a 75-year-old USF single-game record – as he and the Dons beat visiting Portland, 5-0, in the opener of a three-game West Coast Conference series at Benedetti Diamond.
 
"It was a lot of fun," said Bourassa minutes after closing out the longest outing of his career. "When it's easy like that, it's fun. Makes playing a lot better."
 
Bourassa's performance was impressive for a number of reasons. His 16 strikeouts harked back to the World War II days on The Hilltop, equaling former USF Don and San Francisco Seal Con Dempsey Jr.'s single-game mark of 16, set in 1946 against Saint Mary's. The complete game shutout was the first thrown by a Don in six years, since Christian Cecilio also threw a complete-game shutout against Portland at Benedetti Diamond on April 11, 2015. And it had been 10 years since any Don had struck out more than Bourassa's old career high of 11. Kyle Zimmer put down 14 against Saint Mary's on April 9, 2011.
 
"He's just been getting better," said San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano. "He pitched great at San Diego, he pitched great at Santa Clara, he pitched great at Stanford at the start of the year, he just keeps getting better and better.
 
"Man, the stuff today, whether it was curveball, whether it was slider, whether it was changeup, whether it was command of the fastball, I mean 16 strikeouts and no walks; it was just wonderful. I'm so happy for him because he works so hard and he prepares so well."
 
Bourassa is USF's "super" veteran, having been on the team since 2018, but starting his college baseball career two years before that with two seasons at Lane Community College in Eugene, Ore. He's been through Tommy John surgery, a comeback attempt last year that was cut short by the COVID-19 Pandemic, and a second attempt this year at returning to full strength.
 
Friday's dazzling performance was just another in a string of strong starts that Bourassa has posted in the month of April. Over his last four starts dating to April 1 versus Loyola Marymount, he's carried a 0.58 ERA with only two earned runs allowed in 31 innings pitched, held opponents to a .156 batting average, and posted a better-than 7-to-1 strikeouts-to-walks ratio with 29 Ks against only four walks. He has gone a minimum of seven innings in all four of those starts, earning the winning decision in all four of them.
 
It might be safe to say the second return has been a success.
 
"Just getting in shape in the season, right? Everybody kind of gets in the flow of things," said Bourassa, downplaying his recent rise. "I think a lot of it comes back to our team as a whole. We had a good first weekend (at No. 2 UCLA), and then we struggled a little bit. Now we're trying to right the ship and play for a conference championship. So I think that's all part of it, our team coming together at the right time."
 
Bourassa allowed a leadoff single in both the first and second innings, but he stranded both of those runners thanks to three consecutive strikeouts in each frame. After two innings, he had six strikeouts. He added another to end the third and tie his season high of seven. One more in the fourth, one more in the fifth and two in the sixth and he tied his career high of 11 with three innings still to play.
 
Then came the seventh, when he struck out the side with three straight swinging strikeouts, pushing him up to 14. Another one in the eighth put him at 15. But his career long outing had been 8 1/3 innings in 2018.
 
Bourassa emerged from the dugout in the top of the ninth with a chance to put his own seal on his show, and he did just that. He got the first out on the first pitch. Then, he got his 16th strikeout on a called third strike, a curveball that bended right into the strikezone and froze Portland's Chad Stevens. Three pitches later, he got Pilots cleanup hitter Ben Patacsil to groundout and end the game.
 
Jack Winkler put Bourassa in the driver's seat early, crushing the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the first over the high left field wall netting for a three-run home run. Luke Keaschall went 3 for 5 from the leadoff spot – his fourth multi-hit game in his last six. Jordan Vujovich went 2 for 4 with an RBI and a run scored.
 
"I'll always take run support no matter what fashion it comes in," said Bourassa. "The offensive guys have been so good all year, it gives me a lot of confidence to just go out there and do my thing since I know they're going to pick me up on the offensive end."
 
The remaining two games in the series have been shifted to a doubleheader on Saturday, with heavy rains expected Sunday. Saturday's doubleheader will start at 11 a.m., with game two following approximately 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first. Fans can find live coverage links on USFDons.com.