Stevenson Excels, Dons Drop Opener to Gauchos

Friday, February 18

San Francisco

2:00 p.m.

University of San Francisco

0-1

UCSB

1-0

Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	Runs R	Hits H	Errors E
UC Santa Barbara	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	3	1	5	8	0
San Francisco	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	2	5	1

Photo by: Christina Leung

2/18/2022 9:44:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. -- On a beautiful afternoon on the Hilltop, the USF Dons baseball team (0-1) dropped their home opener on Friday to the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (1-0) 5-2 at Benedetti Diamond. Opening Day starter Owen Stevenson had a nice performance on the bump as he threw five innings allowing one unearned run and striking out five Gaucho hitters while not issuing a walk.

USF's lineup this afternoon was carried by two big solo blasts from outfielder Harris Williams III and infielder Jake Cosgrove to open the regular season.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

The Gauchos got on the board scoring an unearned run to take the early 1-0 lead before the Dons were able to take their first at-bats of the season.
Williams responded in the bottom of the second by crushing a home run down the right field line to even the score.
USF took the lead in the bottom of the fifth with some more yard work as Cosgrove drove a ball over the brick wall in left field to put the Dons up 2-1.
UCSB got to work later in the contest as they strung hits together in the eighth inning to take a 4-2 lead after eight innings.
The Gauchos added an insurance run in the top of the ninth on a successful squeeze bunt as they went on to win the season opener by a 5-2 final.

NOTABLE PERFORMANCES:

Stevenson got his 2022 season off to a fantastic start by successfully navigating a strong UCSB lineup to allow just the one unearned run. The righthander was able to get outs in a variety of ways with four fly outs, four ground outs amd five strikeouts on the afternoon.
Williams III got his season off to a nice start as he clubbed his first home run of the year to also get his first RBI and run scored of the regular season.
Cosgrove provided some nice thump from the eight hole with his solo blast as he started his season with a 2-for-3 performance at the plate.
Hitting in the leadoff spot, designated hitter Jordan Vujovich got on base twice with a single and a walk in a 1-for-3 afternoon in the batter's box.

UP NEXT:
The Dons and Gauchos now prepare for the second game of this weekend's three-game set with the Dons sending left-hander Weston Lombard to the mound for his USF debut on Saturday afternoon. First pitch will be at 1:00 p.m. PST with live streaming and live statistics links available via the team's schedule page.

FOLLOW US:
For updates and more information on the USF baseball program, be sure to follow @SFDonsBaseball on Twitter, @USFDonsBaseball on Instagram and @University.of.San.Francisco.Baseball on Facebook.