PORTLAND, Ore. – The San Francisco Dons improved to 6-0 in West Coast Conference play with a 4-0 shutout against the Portland Pilots Sunday afternoon at Joe Etzel Field. The Dons improve to 15-8 overall, while the Pilots drop to 8-15 and 2-4 in league play.
San Francisco got a strong start on the mound for the third day in a row as junior right-hander Landen Bourassa (4-1) tossed seven scoreless innings to earn the win. He pitched around five hits and a walk, while recording four strikeouts. Scott Parker pitched a scoreless eighth and Brendan Jenkins closed it out in the ninth to complete the shutout.
Portland senior right-hander Camden Muller (1-1) took the loss despite pitching seven strong innings. He allowed five hits, a walk and three earned runs while striking out four.
The Dons continued the weekend theme by grabbing the early lead, this time on a two-run homer in the fourth inning off the bat of Michael Perri to left field. It was Perri's fourth home run of the season.
San Francisco manufactured another run in the top of the seventh inning. Thomas McCarthy was hit by a pitch with one out and advanced to third on a hit-and-run single by Jack Winkler. Aaron Ping then successfully laid down a safety squeeze bunt to score McCarthy for a 3-0 lead.
San Francisco added an unearned run in the eighth on an RBI-single from Ross Puskarich.
Portland had chances early as Cody Hawken and Ryan Kim led the off the second and fourth innings with doubles, respectively, but the Pilots were unable to capitalize.
Jace McKinney started the seventh for Portland with an infield single and then Chad Stevens followed with a one-out double down the left field line to put runners on second and third base, but Bourassa would escape the jam with a strikeout and flyout to center to preserve the shutout.
Portland finished the game 1-for-17 with runners on base and 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. The Pilots stranded nine runners overall, while San Francisco left five on base for the game.
The Dons had seven hits and committed zero errors, while Portland had six hits and one error.
Kim and Stevens had a pair of hits each for the Pilots, while Perri finished 2-for-4 with a pair of runs score and two driven in to lead the Dons.
The Pilots will hit the road for the next two weeks beginning with a three-game WCC series at Santa Clara on March 29-31. Portland will then visit Gonzaga on April 6-8 and conclude the six-game road trip at Oregon on April 10.
