SANTA CLARA, Calif. — It's been a banner year for the long ball on The Hilltop.
And on Saturday – the hits just kept coming.
San Francisco hit three more home runs on Saturday, including two from
Nick Yovetich, to bring its season total to 56, as the Dons clinched a non-conference series victory over Santa Clara with a 10-6 win at Stephen Schott Stadium.
San Francisco (25-27) got to work offensively earlier than Friday's opener, striking for five runs in the second inning to go up, 5-0.
Nick Yovetich's first homer of the day was the first blow, as he pulled one over the right-center field wall for a 3-0 USF lead.
Luke Keaschall followed with his fourth triple of the season, and
Brandon Greim brought him in with a sacrifice fly.
Jordan Vujovich capped the rally with a two-out RBI single, scoring
Jack Winkler and making it 5-0.
Santa Clara (17-33) wasn't going to go quietly, though. The Broncos put together their own four-run rally in the bottom of the third to make it a two-run game at 6-4, and they pulled to within one at 6-5 in the bottom of the fourth after a leadoff triple from Michael O'Hara.
But the Dons' power continued to surge.
Harris Williams hit a two-run shot in the top of the fifth to make it 8-5, his fifth homer of the year. And Yovetich snagged another extra-base hit with an RBI double to make it 9-5 – part of a career 4-for-4 day with a career-high five RBIs. Yovetich's second homer of the day was a solo shot deep over the 402-mark in center field in the top of the seventh to give the Dons a 10-5 advantage at the time.
"Another good series win inside of conference, whether they're inside of conference play or out, I'll take that, seven times out of 10, I'll take 70% of winning our conference series," said San Francisco head coach
Nino Giarratano.
San Francisco's offense has been one of the best in the West Coast Conference and one of the best in the nation all year long. The 56 home runs the team has hit is their most since 1999 when they hit 58 – Giarratano's first year as head coach 23 years ago. The Dons entered Saturday's game ranked among the WCC's top-three in nine different categories, including being the WCC's best base-stealing team (they stole four more bases on Saturday), second in home runs (56 after Saturday), and third in team slugging percentage (.416).
Jesse Barron (5-2) came in and settled the game to earn his fifth win of the year. He threw 4 1/3 innings of one-run ball and struck out three with only one walk. It was part of a continuing evolution for Barron, who's gone from closer and back-end bullpen guy in 2020 and this year, to long relief a few weeks ago, to back-to-back starts.
"It's been great," said Giarratano. :Jesse's still a freshman and so is [
Eric Reyzelman], neither one of them got to have their freshman years (in 2020). (Reyzelman) ran into a little bit of trouble in the third there, it can happen that fast, and then Jesse came in. Jesse could've finished the game today but we wanted to get (Max) Jones and (Alex) Pham some work.
"Jesse sure has transformed himself into a long reliever and starter – a testament to the hard work he's put in."
The series – and the season – concludes Sunday back in San Francisco with the finale scheduled for a 1 p.m. first pitch. Fans can find all live coverage links on USFDons.com.
