Finding themselves in a 6-0 hole early on, the Diamond ‘Dogs bit and clawed their way back in Tuesday night’s shootout with the Oakland Grizzlies to escape with an 11-10 win and improve to 4-0.
After the Bulldogs and Grizzlies (1-3) engaged in three ties and three lead changes, the ‘Dogs took the lead for good.
With things knotted up in the bottom of the sixth inning at 10 runs each, sophomore outfielder Aaron Arruda stepped up to the plate and delivered with a single up the middle to drive home teammate Brody Russell, giving the Bulldogs the 11-10 lead.
Senior pitchers Dylan Lee and Tim Borst closed out the final three innings, helping seal the win.
“Any time you come back from down six runs, that’s really good for a club,” Fresno State head coach Mike Batesole said. “These guys had to fight through some adversity today — the field was wet, three guys slipped in the first couple innings and we had a couple errors. There were some calls behind the plate that could’ve went either way and our pitchers stayed with it.
“I was more proud of them today than this weekend when we were winning 2-1. There was some stuff that our guys had to fight through when they could’ve easily shut it down and it could’ve went the other way. But they didn’t, they just kept fighting and grinding. That’s a fun team to coach.”
Bulldogs’ starting pitcher Edgar Gonzalez struggled in his collegiate debut as the freshman was constantly hammered by the Grizzlies, who came out the gates with six runs to open the game.
With the pitching struggling, Fresno State’s batters took charge as they stormed back to score seven consecutive runs and seize a 7-6 lead.
The ‘Dogs kicked off their initial run with a huge third inning in which they generated four runs while facing two outs.
Russell brought home leadoff hitter Austin Guibor with a triple to right field that put the ‘Dogs on the board followed by a Jake Stone single to score Russell and designated hitter Arruda smacked a two-run home run to cut Oakland’s lead to 6-4.
“The first two pitches were both fastballs in the dirt,” said Arruda, who also recorded three hits and four RBIs and in his five at-bats. “It was two outs and it was a hitter’s count, so I was just expecting another fastball. I thought it was going to be another strike and it happened to be a good pitch to hit.”
The ‘Dogs added three runs in the bottom of the fifth before the Grizzlies answered with a four-run sixth inning to take the 10-7 advantage. In the following inning, freshman shortstop Jeremiah Burks and Russell hit a pair of doubles and combined for three RBIs to tie things up at 10.
“That’s one thing you hope your team has [the ability to come back] and you never know that they have it until they do it,” Batesole said. “Once they get it, that can be a real confidence booster because that’s not the last time we’re going to be down and probably not the last time we’re going to be down six. To know that you can do it — not just think it or say it — changes the team.”