Reigning Big 12 freshman of the year Jake Matthys surrendered three runs with the aid of an error as San Francisco rallied past K-State 7-6 in the bottom of the ninth inning on Tuesday afternoon at Bendetti Diamond in San Francisco, CA. The Cats led the entire game after a two-run double by Mitch Meyer in the top of the first inning, and a two-run homer by Ross Kivett in the fourth opened up a 4-1 lead. The Dons twice pulled within a single run, but a pair of insurance runs via a Shane Conlon RBI single in the sixth and a Carter Yagi sacrifice fly in the eighth oushed the lead to 6-4.
Harrison Bruce led off the USF ninth with a single to left field off Matthys. Matt Sinatro followed that up with another single to left, and K-State junior college transfer Max Brown committed a fielding error that allowed Bruce to score, pulling the Dons within a run. Nico Giarratano tied the Cats at 6 with an RBI single to right, bringing up San Francisco preseason All-American center fielder Brad Zimmer with no outs and a runner on first. Matthys (0-1) would get Zimmer would fly out to to deep right for the first out of the inning, before Zach Turner put the pressure back on the Cats with a single to right. With K-State’s outfield drawn in with runners on the corners, the Dons’ Derek Atkinson smacked the fifth single of the inning over the head of Clayton Dalyrmple in center to end the game.
Sheldon Lee (1-0) pitched 1 2/3 innngs of relief to earn the win for USF.
K-State continues their trip to the Bay Area by playing in the Gael Tournament at St. Mary’s in Moraga, CA. The Cats will open the four-game tournament with the University of Portland on Thursday at noon central time. The BD4 Distributing/Cary Company pregame show starts at 11:30am on 1350kman.com, and coverage will begin on NewsRadio 1350 KMAN at 2:00pm.
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