April 24, 2003

A LOOK AT USF: San Francisco enters a critical portion of the schedule when they travel across the Bay Bridge for a West Coast Conference interdivisional series at Saint Mary's College. With a 9-12 WCC record, USF finds themselves two wins behind divisional leader San Diego (11-10) and even with Loyola Marymount (9-9) with three league series left on the slate. The Diamond Dons suffered a home sweep against Pepperdine, who were ranked #26 in the Collegiate Baseball Poll this week. San Francisco bats touched Waves pitching for 32 hits during the series, but struggled to find the big hit. USF was scheduled to play at Nevada last Tuesday, but the game was rescheduled due to inclement weather.

WHO'S HOT FOR THE DONS: Freshman infielder Andrew Smith is hitting at a .429 clip in his last 14 plate appearances with a pair of RBI, while sophomore infielder Cy Donald is hitting .333 with a pair of RBI in his last 10 games. Junior outfielder Joe Jacobitz enjoyed a solid series at the plate against league-leading Pepperdine, hitting .455 (5-11) with an RBI against the Waves, while junior infielder Armand Gaerlan hit .385 (5-13) with two homeruns and three RBI for the series. Junior left-handed reliever Derek Tate posted a 3.38 ERA in his last 8.0 innings of work with six strikeouts to lead the USF pitching staff.

SCOUTING SAINT MARY'S: The Gaels enter the weekend toting a 17-22-1 overall record after taking a 6-4 victory against UC Davis on Wednesday. Saint Mary's owns a 7-10-1 record during West Coast Conference action and took one out of three against San Diego last weekend at Cunningham Stadium. As a team, the Gaels hit at a .293 clip with 84 doubles, 12 triples and 17 homeruns. During WCC play, SMC bats heat up to a .303 average with 41 doubles, six triples and five long balls. Junior catcher Nick Conte leads the way at the plate, hitting at a .356 clip with a team-leading 13 doubles and 34 RBI. Freshman infielder Bryan Byrne bats .342 with 11 doubles and 32 RBI. Gaels hurlers post a 5.56 ERA overall with a 6.22 ERA in league games. Senior right-hander Eric Bowden (6-4, 5.24 ERA, 57K) leads the staff with six wins and has gone the distance four times, including back-to-back WCC decisions against Portland and on the road at San Diego.

USF VERSUS SAINT MARY'S - THE SERIES: Friday marks the 85th meeting between Saint Mary's and San Francisco since the 1985 campaign, with the Gaels holding a 46-38 advantage in the series. Last season, USF swept the season set 3-0 (11-6, 9-8, 16-8) at Benedetti Diamond in 2002 and have won their last seven contests against Saint Mary's.

GIARRATANO SURPASSES CENTURY MARK: USF head coach Nino Giarratano collected his 100th career victory on the Hilltop with a 3-2 victory against San Diego (3/15/03). Giarratano became the fifth coach in program history to surpass the century mark, joining USF Hall-of-Famer Dante Benedetti (427), Ken Bowman (209), Dutch Anderson (158) and Rich Hill (139) on the leader board.

INTERNET BROADCAST SCHEDULE: USF's West Coast Conference interdivisional series versus Saint Mary's College will not be broadcast. USF's non-conference contest at Nevada will be carried live on the internet via YahooBroadcast.com. Ryan McCrary will call all the action live from Peccole Park in Reno. Fans can access the broadcast at www.USFDons.com. In addition to the live internet broadcasts, USF is proud to offer Gametracker, a state-of-the-art system for following games in progress batter-by-batter. Gametracker is available for all USF home games and several WCC road contests, including Saint Mary's.