Fresno State (8-0) kept its positive start to the season going with a four-game sweep of Youngstown State over the weekend.
The Bulldogs — the only undefeated team remaining in the conference — capped their 4-0 weekend with a 6-1 win over the Penguins on Sunday afternoon at Pete Beiden Field.
Sophomore starting pitcher Anthony Arias earned his second win of the year as he kept YSU scoreless in 6.1 innings on the mound. The Penguins didn’t get on the board until the final inning, where they scored their lone run of the game.
“I think it is indicative of this pitching staff,” head coach Mike Batesole said on the team’s 8-0 start. “They are giving us a chance to win everyday and Anthony [Arias] went out and pitched outstanding and [Mark] Reece came in and pitched great. That is how it has to be and we have to pitch well to start and we have an older bullpen who did outstanding job all weekend.”
On Saturday, Fresno State clinched both games in the doubleheader. The ‘Dogs shut out Youngstown State 11-0 in the first game behind a complete-game shutout from Jimmy Lambert to record the program’s 2,500th win and edged the Penguins 6-5 the following game.
“It was good baseball from start to finish today,” Batesole said following Saturday’s doubleheader sweep. “Jimmy was fantastic and did not walk anybody over nine innings. If you can get that out of your starter and give him a chance to finish that is huge. On a day when you know you are going to play 18 innings, it was good we did not have to use any pitchers in game one because of Jimmy’s performance. We swung the bats well in the first game and you have to give their pitcher [Collin Floyd] a lot of credit with 11 strikeouts in game two.”
With Saturday’s initial win, Fresno State became the 19th Division I program to reach 2,500 wins.
“2,500 wins is a gigantic number of wins,” Batesole said. “We have such great support in this community from the Dugout Club as well as our alumni who are fantastic. The support we get from our administration is outstanding and then all the great players that have gone through this program. No one individual person or one team can accomplish that feat by themselves. That takes a lot of people giving their heart and effort over a lot of years to this program. The great support that we have that is why the players that are currently playing here love playing here so much.”
Friday’s 8-3 victory featured another strong pitching performance for the ‘Dogs with Ricky Thomas and Mark Reece on the mound. The duo combined for 15 strikeouts while allowing two hits and three runs.
Fresno State concludes its nine-game home stretch Tuesday when it hosts CSU Bakersfield (4-2).