SAN FRANCISCO — The number of consecutive wins keeps growing, but the bigger picture for the University of San Francisco baseball team is the continuing process of everything coming together.
 
Seven USF pitchers limited visiting San Jose State to one run on four hits, the USF offense drew 10 walks, stole eight bases and scored seven runs, and the Dons won their sixth straight game Tuesday with a 7-1 non-conference victory over the Spartans at Benedetti Diamond.
 
Julian Washburn (1-0) was the first of seven pitchers to throw for USF (11-15) Tuesday. He made his return to the mound after a five-week hiatus, throwing a scoreless first inning to earn his first win of the year. San Jose State (3-5) got two runners in scoring position with one out, looking to take an early first-inning lead, but Washburn got back-to-back strikeouts to escape the jam and keep the Spartans off the board.
 
Max Jones followed Washburn with three shutout innings of relief. Chase Minor backed him up with two more shutout frames, and Owen Stevenson struck out the side in his only inning of work. Through the first seven innings of the game, Dons pitchers combined to strike out 10 and walk only two.
 
Free passes have been an issue for the Dons' pitching staff in 2021, but they've significantly reduced their average number of walks issued per game during this longest winning streak since 2018 (when they also won six straight from March 23-30, 2018). In their 16 games prior to this winning streak, the Dons walked 6.05 batters per game. They walked five or more in 60% of those games. During the past six games, that rate has lowered to 4.5, and the rate of games with five or more walks dealt has fallen by 10%.
 
"I thought it was great to get those guys in there, the bullpen guys in there, and see them throw strikes and get ahead of hitters," said San Francisco head coach Nino Giarratano. "We got six holds in a row right there with zeros, which was great, and we were able to score in four of those six innings. A lot of the things we hadn't been able to do in the bullpen where we got ahead and we'd give it back. Today was a great day for us to go in there, throw strikes out of the bullpen, limit damage when we brought (Bo) Jelinek in there, see how sharp Jesse (Barron) was, which was great."
 
Darius Foster created havoc on the base paths Tuesday, stealing four bases and scoring three runs thanks to three walks and a bunt single. Foster's four swipes were the most in a single game by a Don in at least the last 10 seasons (since 2012). Jack Winkler added a career-high three stolen bases and Jacob Westerman added another to give USF eight on the day – its most in a single game also in the last 10 years.
 
Jacob Munoz – the reigning West Coast Conference Player of the Week – logged his third multi-hit performance in his last four games and drove in two. Winkler was 2 for 3 with a double, two walks and an RBI. And freshman Mario DeMera got the first hit of his collegiate career with a double down the right field line in the seventh inning.
 
"Offensively, I thought we were good, I didn't think we were great today," said Giarratano. "We had plenty of opportunities early to score and widen the game to four, five-nothing, but we did enough offensively today. We got some big hits, we had some big at-bats. We got our seven runs today, which is good, and we pitched and only gave up one.
 
"Excited about getting everybody in there and gettin' them sharp for the weekend. We're playing a little bit better baseball and I think that's the important piece is we just need to start playing better baseball, and if we do that, everything else will take care of itself."
 
San Francisco travels to the South Bay for a three-game WCC series at Santa Clara starting Friday. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.