Dons Baseball swept at their back-to-back homes games this weekend, making this first home series of the season a redemption from the previous week’s loss in San Antonio. The Dons’ opening season of baseball began last week with a weekend series against the University of Texas at San Antonio. They had a strong win in the first round with a score of 11-2, but unfortunately lost the following two games. On Friday, the Dons played an away game against Sacramento State University and won with a score of 2-0.
Their first home series consisted of two games: the first against San Jose State University and the second with Sacramento State. The Dons played fiercely in both and took two wins on Saturday. Although temperatures were lower than usual in the 50 degree range, Dons fans still filled the stands and side hills.
During the first game against San Jose State, the Dons played fiercely against the Spartans and neither team scored for three innings straight. However, once the reliever came in for the other team, the Dons swept the fourth inning. The Spartans were no match for the Dons as our team continued to make runs for the rest of the game.
The Spartans were unable to score, largely thanks to sophomore starting pitcher Riley Ornido, who went seven innings with no hits and three strikeouts. In the last couple innings, the Dons scored another four points, bringing our overall tally to a whopping 10-0. This marked the third win of the season for the Dons ballplayers.
The Dons took on the Sacramento Hornets immediately following their SJSU game. The Dons continued their trend of strong pitching performances, with Landen Bourassa pitching seven innings with 11 batters striking out and no walks. The offensive side began making runs during the first few innings of the game and continued to be consistent for the rest of the game. Despite this, it was clear the Dons would be taking home yet another win. During the final two innings, the Dons scored another four runs, thanks to the bats of Jonathan Allen, RJ Cordeiro and Jack Winkler. Sacramento was only able to score twice. This game brought our Dons to the fourth win of the series with a final score of 8-2.
With the double-header victories under their belt, the Dons baseball season is off to a strong start. With the season just beginning, it is exciting to see what is in store for the team that is hungry to take home the WCC. Saturday’s wins bring our Dons to an overall 4-2 for the season so far. As coach Nino Giarratano mentioned in the short “2018 USF Baseball Preview” documentary, the Dons “are hungry again. They’re focused, they wanna overcome hard, they wanna figure out how to do it again and put us back on the map.” The next home game series will be March 8-10 against Xavier University.
Featured Photo: Sophomore Riley Ornido pitched a no-hitter against San Jose State on Feb. 25. CHRIS M. LEUNG PHOTOGRAPHY/USF DONS ATHLETICS
