April 14, 2002

Box Score

(San Francisco) - The Bulldogs took their second win of the weekend from the Dons 5-2 in West Coast Conference action Sunday at Benedetti Diamond. Solo homeruns shots from freshman third baseman Royce Fukuroku, his fourth of the season, and senior catcher Steve Booth, his 14th of the season, were not enough to defeat Gonzaga.

Gonzaga (19-17, 8-7 WCC) jumped on the board early in the first to take a 2-0 lead off senior first baseman Nate Gold's 2 RBI homerun, his 25th of the season. The Bulldogs did not score again until the fifth when they posted two runs off a base clearing triple from freshman right fielder Jeff Culpepper. The Dons (9-31, 2-15 WCC) put a run on the board in the sixth off a solo homerun shot from Fukuroku. USF added another run in the eighth inning from Booth's solo shot to cut the Bulldogs lead to 4-2. Gonzaga answered with an insurance run in the ninth. The Dons were unable to generate any more runs resulting in the 5-2 victory for the Bulldogs.

Booth finished the day two-for-three with one RBI and one run off his solo homerun. Sophomore left fielder Joe Jacobitz finished the contest two-for-three as well. Junior designated hitter Alfonso Valdez finished two-for-four for the Dons. On the mound, senior right-hander Peter Dunkle threw his first complete game of the season but suffered the loss dropping his record to 1-6 on the season. Dunkle gave up five runs off nine hits in nine innings of work striking out ten Bulldogs. The ten strikeouts is a season-high for Dunkle. His career-high stands at 13 strikeouts on 4/19/99 against Gonzaga.

The Bulldogs were led at the plate by Culpepper who finished the contest three-for-four with two RBI. Joining Culpepper is junior second baseman Eric Rodland who finished the day three-for-five with one RBI and three runs scored. Rodland blasted his fifth homerun of the game in the ninth inning and also knocked a triple and a double in the contest. Starting on the mound for the Bulldogs was senior right-hander Brent Dayton who improved his record to 2-2 on the season. Dayton threw 5.0 innings giving up one run off nine hits while fanning four batters. Dayton was relieved in the sixth inning by freshman right-handed pitcher Eric Dworkis. Dworkis completed the remaining four innings giving up one run off one hit with two strikeouts.

The Dons return to non-conference action Tuesday at Benedetti Diamond to face San Francisco State at 2:30 PM. The team then hits the road and will travel for a three-game conference series in Los Angeles against the Waves of Pepperdine. Catch all the excitement of USF Dons baseball and play-by-play announcement on the Internet at www.usfdons.com.