Juan Villa / The Collegian

Baserunning, overall execution lead to upset

The Fresno State baseball team ran circles, or rather diamonds around No. 16 San Diego last weekend.

Technically, it was the players doing the baserunning, but it was Fresno State assistant coach Matt Curtis that did the waving, putting pressure on the Torero defense in the Bulldogs̢۪ 2-of-3 series victory.

“I think where we’re at as a team — we’re not swinging the bats as well as we’d like — so when we get a chance to score we gotta just try to be as aggressive as we can,” Curtis said.

Of all the aspects that play out during a baseball game, baserunning can easily be mistaken as an area of unimportance. However, for the Bulldogs, that area proved to be the deciding factor in the rubber game of the series against one of the nation̢۪s top teams.

Before the Bulldogs could even be in a position to win the series against the Toreros, they had to beat perhaps the nation̢۪s best pitcher Friday night in San Diego̢۪s Brian Matusz. Entering that game, Matusz was coming off his second national pitcher of the week award, with an ERA just over one.

“He’s gonna pitch in the big leagues in two or three years,” Fresno State head coach Mike Batesole said. “Beating a guy like that has to give you confidence.”

The Bulldogs scored six earned runs off of Matusz, eventually winning the game 12-4, but followed that performance with a sub-par performance Saturday, setting up Sunday̢۪s showdown.

A constant struggle for the Bulldogs this season has been the way their batters have approached at-bats, and their ability to score runs and execute on the basepaths once again depended on that ability in Sunday̢۪s game.

The team̢۪s silent leader, Erik Wetzel, got things rolling early in the game, earning a leadoff walk for the Bulldogs in the bottom of the first. Although the Bulldogs wouldn̢۪t go on to score in the first inning, Wetzel̢۪s approach set the tone for the remainder of the Bulldogs̢۪ at-bats, which would produce six runs in the final four innings to win the game.

“I’m more of a leader by example,” Wetzel said. “I’m not a big talker to the team. I try sometimes, but it’s more of the other guy’s roles.”

It just so happened that the Bulldogs chose the right leader to follow, all the way to a series victory.