· Game 1 box score
· Game 2 box score
| Junior Ryan Hutson reached base by hit, walk or hit by pitch in seven of his eight plate appearances on Friday. |
REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — San Francisco kept UTSA winless in the last six days with a 3-2, 8-2 doubleheader sweep on Friday afternoon at Cañada College's Colt Field.
The two wins improved the Dons' season record to 5-4, while the Roadrunners (5-4) remained without a victory since opening the campaign with five consecutive wins.
Derek Poppert capped a two-out, three-run seventh-inning rally with a two-run double down the left-field line and that sent San Francisco to a 3-2 triumph in the first game.
The Dons, who plated all three of their runs with two outs in the deciding final frame, got a one-out single from Jared Denham and Connor Bernatz then drew a walk off UTSA left-handed starter Casey Selsor. The Roadrunners sophomore was able to coax a pop-up off the bat of pinch hitter Travis Higgs for the second out of the frame, but Pete Lavin ended the shutout bid one hitter later with his single up the middle.
UTSA head coach Sherman Corbett then called on his junior closer, Kevin Clarke, but the right-hander promptly gave up Poppert's game-winning two-bagger.
Doug Murray (2-1) went the distance for USF, allowing two runs (one earned) on just three singles. The right-hander fanned eight, did not walk a batter in the 100-pitch (68 strikes) gem and retired the final 11 batters he faced.
Selsor (2-1), who took a shutout into the final frame for the second start in a row, was the hard-luck loser after surrendering all three seventh-inning runs. The San Antonio native gave up a half dozen hits, walked three and struck out a pair in his 6.2 innings.
Poppert was 3-for-4 in the opener and Denham added a pair of hits for San Francisco at the plate.
Juniors Brett Aguilar and Tyler Carpenter and sophomore Jason Mohn had UTSA's three safeties, while junior Ryan Hutson was plunked twice and scored in the opening inning on a passed ball. Senior Lance Brown was the only other Bird to cross the plate, doing so on freshman Jake Wood's fielder's choice to first in the fourth.
In the nightcap, USF jumped all over right-handed starter Mike Pierce early, chasing him from the contest in the second inning.
The Dons plated four runs with two down in the first and another one panel later for an early five-run cushion. After UTSA got on the board with a mark in the third, San Francisco responded with single tallies in the fourth, sixth and seventh to put the game out of reach.
Southpaw Matt Lujan (1-1) picked up the win for San Francisco after giving up a run on just four singles in five-plus innings of work. Lujan walked four and whiffed a half dozen.
Stephen Yarrow, Jason Mahood and Denham led the Dons' 16-hit attack with three safeties apiece in the six-run victory. Yarrow launched his third and fourth home runs of the season and drove in three, while Mahood stroked two doubles and a long ball to go along with a pair of runs and two RBIs. Nik Balog added two hits, including his second homer of the season, a two-run shot with two down in the first.
Hutson, meanwhile, tied his career high with four hits, a total that included a double and a triple, and he also scored once.
Pierce (0-1) allowed five marks on six hits, including a pair of homers, in his one-plus frame of action on the bump.
The series continues at 4 p.m. (CT) on Saturday with a single game tentatively scheduled to be played at USF's on-campus facility, Benedetti Diamond (weather & field conditions permitting), in what would be the Dons' 2010 home opener. UTSA junior lefty Matt Crocker (2-0, 2.45 ERA) and right-hander Alex Kalogrides (0-0, 2.70 ERA) are the probable starters.