LOS ANGELES — San Francisco ace Kyle Zimmer didn’t have his best stuff Saturday afternoon, but it was enough to get a 13-9 win over Loyola Marymount at Page Stadium.
Zimmer (3-3) had probably his worst outing of the season, allowing six earned runs on eight hits and three walks. But the Dons offense supplied Zimmer an early cushion and plenty of support as the Dons (15-22, 2-5) knocked 17 hits.
San Francisco put a five-spot on the board in the third inning on five hits, including a pair of doubles. The five runs was more run support than Zimmer has received in any start this season. The Dons came in averaging just below two runs every nine innings Zimmer pitched and hadn’t scored more than three runs while he was pitching yet this season.
The offense wasn’t done though. The Dons chased Loyola Marymount (14-15, 4-3) starter Colin Welmon in the fourth inning, making Saturday the shortest outing of the freshman’s young career. Welmon (4-3) even walked a batter to lead off the fourth inning, snapping a streak of 38 2/3 innings he had pitched without allowing a base on balls.
San Francisco added two runs in the fourth, two in the fifth and got three in the seventh on Nik Balog’s three-run opposite field home run to left-centerfield.
In the fourth inning, LMU scored four runs off Zimmer with the big hit coming from Joey Boney, who hit a two-run double to left-centerfield. Boney also crushed a two-run homer to left-centerfield later in the game.
After scoreless fifth and sixth innings, Zimmer allowed a run in the seventh before exiting with a 12-6 cushion, which LMU trimmed to a 12-8, but couldn’t get any closer.
There were a lot of big offensive days as nine players recorded multiple hits. Balog was 3-for-6 with five RBI thanks to the homer and a double off the Blue Monster in left field. San Francisco leadoff hitter Jason Maffei tallied four hits and scored three times while the man at the bottom of the lineup, Ted Lemasters was 3-for-4 with four runs scored.
The Lions’ leadoff man, Matt Lowenstein, also had a solid day as he reached base four times, twice on hits and twice on walks. He scored three runs. Boney had four RBI on the day and Alex Guthrie had three hits, batting directly ahead of Boney.
Check out the photo gallery from Saturday afternoon’s Loyola Marymount/San Francisco matchup below:
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