USF Baseball defeats LMU 8-5 to Sweep Series :: Dons increase their lead in the West Division of the WCC to one and a half games

Dons increase their lead in the West Division of the WCC to one and a half games

April 24, 2005

(San Francisco, CA) - USF baseball beat Loyola Marymount 8-5 in the series finale of a three game West Coast Conference series at Benedetti Diamond on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The victory for the Dons (30-12, 14-4 WCC) gives them the sweep in the series over the Lions. With the victory today, the Dons have now reached the 30 win mark the quickest in a season since 1971. Sophomore left-hander Scott Cousins pitched 8.1 innings to pick up the victory over the Lions (16-23, 7-10 WCC). Cousins (8-2) gave up five runs, off nine hits, striking out five, while walking just two Lions. Senior right-hander T.J. Franco came on in the ninth inning to pick up his first save of the season.

USF jumped out to an early lead in the game with one run in the first and second innings. The run in the second inning came off a deep homerun to right-center field by junior first baseman Jacob Abramson, his first of his career on the Hilltop. LMU battled back for a run of their own in the top of the fourth, before scoring four runs in the top of the fifth to take a 5-3 lead.

Sophomore catcher Daniel Morales was on first base with two out in the bottom of the fifth when freshman outfielder Luke Sommer delivered and RBI double off the right-center field wall to score Morales and cut the LMU lead to 5-4. In the bottom of the sixth, sophomore right-fielder Lucas DeLong led off the inning with a double to center field and scored on an RBI single by center-fielder Jonnie Knoble to tie the game at five.

In the bottom of the seventh inning freshman shortstop Tavo Hall and senior second baseman Royce Fukuroku led off the inning with back to back singles. Lions reliever Daniel Macias then balked to move Hall to third and Fukuroku to second. The Lions made a pitching change and brought in freshman Andy Beal to face Morales with two runners in scoring position. Morales connected on a double down the left field line to score both Hall and Fukuroku to give the Dons the 7-5 lead. The Dons would add one more run in the eighth inning to increase their lead to 8-5.

Offensively the Dons were led by Knoble, Hall, Morales, and Abramson. Knoble finished the day 3-for-4 with a double, RBI, and a run scored. Hall finished the day 3-for-5 with a double and a run scored. Morales finished 1-for-4 with two RBI and two runs scored, and Abramson finished the day 1-for-3 with a homerun, RBI, and a run scored.

USF will be in action next weekend when they travel to San Diego to take on the Toreros in a WCC three game series at Cunningham Stadium.