Juan Villa / The Collegian

On a day filled with drama, the Fresno State baseball team swept a double-header against the Hawaii Rainbow Warriors Sunday to improve its record on the season to 23-18 and an 8-4 record in the Western Athletic Conference.

Of the many stars for the Bulldogs on Sunday, none shone brighter than shortstop Todd Sandell.

In the first game, Sandell found himself on second base with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning of a 5-5 tie game when Loren Storey came to the plate and lined a base hit into left field.

Hawaii left fielder Derek Dupree fielded the ball cleanly and lasered a one-hop throw to the catcher. Sandell and the ball reached home plate simultaneously, causing a massive collision at the plate. When the dust settled, the ball was seen innocently sitting two feet away from the catcher and Sandell emerged from the wreckage with his hand on home plate.

“I was trying to get around [the catcher] on the outside, but the throw brought him right into me,” Sandell said of the game winning collision, noting that it is illegal to run over the catcher in college baseball.

In the second game, Sandell came to the plate in the bottom of the ninth inning with two outs and the score tied 3-3. With runners on second and third Sandell lined a base hit into left field off of Hawaii ace Tyler Davis to drive in Ozzie Lewis from third base and seal the two-game sweep for the Bulldogs.

In game one the Bulldogs jumped out to a 5-0 lead behind RBI singles by Erik Wetzel and Loren Storey, an RBI double by Ozzie Lewis and towering solo home runs by Lewis and Steve Susdorf.

Bulldogs starter Justin Wilson held that 5-0 lead for six innings before finally getting touched up for four runs in the seventh.

Wilson was relieved in the eighth by Brandon Burke (4-4) who held the Rainbow Warriors scoreless in the eighth before giving up the game tying single in the ninth.

Then came Sandell̢۪s heroics.

In the second game the Bulldogs jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first inning on a Brian Lapin RBI single before giving up a game-tying run in the second.

The game remained tied until the fifth when Hawaii center fielder Brandon Haislet hit a two-run home run over the right field fence to give the Rainbow Warriors a 3-1 lead.

But the Bulldogs chipped away at the Hawaii lead through the waning innings of the game. Ozzie Lewis led off the seventh inning with a double, was sacrificed to third by an Alan Ahmady bunt and eventually scored on a RBI ground out by Tommy Mendonca.

In the eighth inning, Loren Storey came to the plate with one out and the Bulldogs trailing 3-2 and blasted a ball over the right field wall to tie the game and set the stage for Sandell̢۪s dramatic RBI single in the bottom of the next inning.

Perhaps the unsung hero of the day for the Bulldogs, though, was the defense and pitching. Though much maligned this season, the Bulldogs played sparkling defense in both games and the pitching was equally impressive in giving up only eight runs in the two games.

“Any time you pitch like that for 18 innings … and make only one error in 18 innings; You play that kind of defense and you pitch like that, you’re giving your offense a chance,” Fresno State coach Mike Batesole said.