Although the Fresno State baseball team out-hit Pacific 10-7 in Tuesday’s home matchup, the Bulldogs surrendered a three-run lead in the early innings while allowing seven unanswered runs, ultimately falling to the Tigers 7-3.
Despite being down 7-3 with two outs left in the game, the ‘Dogs still had a shot. With the bases loaded, senior Brody Russell was at the plate with the potential game-tying run but the outfielder couldn’t generate any offense and struck out to end the ballgame.
“We had guys in scoring position all night but their pitchers did a great job and beat our hitters in the clutch,” Fresno State head coach Mike Batesole said. “We had guys on base all day and we had 10 hits but when it mattered, their pitchers beat our hitters.”
Early on the game was different story as the ‘Dogs began the game clicking on all cylinders as junior outfielder Austin Guibor got things going, recording the first hit of the game with a single to right field in the opening inning.
Russell followed with another hit to reach first base advancing Guibor and junior outfielder Jake Stone followed as he crushed a single to right field to drive in Guibor from second base.
Later in the inning, Stone stole second base, allowing Russell to steal home and take a 2-0 lead. Soon after, junior infielder Scott Silva, who has been hitting very well as of late, hit another single which brought Stone home to extend the Bulldog lead to 3-0.
In the second inning, the Tigers bats seemed to wake up as senior infielder J.J. Wagner crushed a home run to center field and put the first points of the night on the board for Pacific and close the gap to two runs.
In the top of the fourth inning, senior outfielder Gio Brusa hit a two-run homerun for the Tigers, his sixth of the season, to tie the game at three apiece. Senior infielder Louis Mejia followed with a double down the in-field line to score in fellow outfielder Nate Verlin and give the Tigers their first lead of the game at 4-3.
The Tigers’ home-run derby continued as sophomore catcher Lucas Halstead hit a solo home run to right field, which allowed them to begin to pull away with a 5-3 lead in the seventh inning.
In the top of ninth inning junior Blake Barry doubled to score in Halstead and a wild pitch from senior pitcher Dylan Lee helped score Barry and extended Pacific’s lead to 7-3.
“We walked too many guys and three of them scored,” Batesole said. “We didn’t do a good job behind the plate. We had three balls that should’ve been blocked and those [errors] ended up costing us. Those are things that we’ll have to clean up.”
The ‘Dogs have now lost five of their last six but will have an opportunity to turn things around this weekend when they host Nevada for a three-game series.
“This team has been on some runs,” Batesole said. “We win and get on some [winning] streaks and we lose and get on some [losing] streaks. But the big picture is we’re 21-13 and our RPI [rating percentage index] and strength of schedule are outstanding. If the season ends today, we’re going to be in the [NCAA] Regionals but it doesn’t end today. We’ve got to hit another [win] streak or two before we’re done.”