SAN FRANCISCO — The season was already determined. The series was already decided.
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All that was left Sunday was to honor 14 graduating student-athletes who had given their collegiate careers to the University of San Francisco baseball team.
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The Dons honored 14 players in a pregame ceremony Sunday as visiting Santa Clara avoided a series sweep with a 3-1 win at Benedetti Diamond.
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San Francisco (25-28) paid homage to
Grant Young and
Thomas McCarthy – Sunday's starting battery,
Kyle Knell,
Darius Foster,
Julian Washburn,
Nick Yovetich,
Ryan Davis,
Jacob Westerman,
Jack Winkler,
Grant Nechak,
Alex Pham,
Bo Jelinek,
Jacob Munoz and
Landen Bourassa. All 14 players graduated from their respective degree programs, though at least four of them – Knell, Foster, Washburn and Yovetich – are expected to return for next season.
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"Tough to lose a game, but this was more about a celebration, about the senior class playing together for the last time, getting all those pitchers in there one last time," said San Francisco head coach
Nino Giarratano. "Some great careers as you go down the line. Thomas had a wonderful opportunity today, got a base hit and threw a guy out. R.D. played great defense there at third base – celebrate that, Jack did what he's always done his entire career, surely gonna be missed.
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"You just kind of go up and down the line, I was happy for Munoz to get a base hit today, Westerman got himself a base hit today, you look at all that and you're kind of pleased.
Grant Young went out there and did his thing,
Bo Jelinek got his opportunity, Nechak did his thing, and it's kind of fitting to finish with Pham."
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The Dons had five hits Sunday, but only one for extra bases – a leadoff double from Yovetich in the bottom of the fourth. They went 1 for 9 (.111) with runners in scoring position, the lone hit being a two-out RBI single up the middle from McCarthy in the fourth that made it 2-1 Santa Clara at the time.
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Santa Clara (18-33) got three solo home runs to account for all of their offense on the day. Ryan McCarthy hit the first in the second inning, Eamonn Lance hit another one an inning later, and Matt Jew hit the Broncos' third solo shot in the sixth.
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Santa Clara also got solid pitching performances from Freddie Erlandson and Locke Bernhardt. Erlandson (1-7) allowed just one unearned run in five innings of work, striking out four and scattering five hits to earn his first win of the year. Bernhardt notched his first save with four perfect innings of relief. The two combined to retire the final 13 USF batters of the game in a row, and 16 of the last 18.
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For San Francisco, the season concludes with dreams of what the team was really capable of. USF was one of the best offensive teams in the West Coast Conference. And it earned a third-place finish, which would've been the program's second trip to the conference tournament in the last thee occasions of it being held – but this year's tournament was canceled due to issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic. An always-competitive, "never die" team, the 2021 Dons battled back from deficits during games on 32 separate occasions this year. They earned 10 come-from-behind victories. And of their 28 losses – 20 of them were by only one or two runs.
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"I'm proud of this group, 25-win season," said Giarratano. "Maybe it could've been better, but I think we're just going to celebrate that we finished third in the conference and should've been in a conference tournament. We play a little bit better late in games against a lot of teams - I think it's different for us, but we're going in the right direction.
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"The kids are going in the right direction with graduating 14 players, the program's going in the right direction with winning seven conference series, we're in a good place now. We just need to continue building with momentum. Gonna be to be hard to replace Winkler and Pham for sure. How do you replace guys like that? But we're gonna have to find a way."
