The Busy Week in Bulldogs Sports...

Baseball wins second straight tourney game

By Zack Walton

It’s tournament time at Fresno State, not just for the men’s and women’s basketball team, but for the baseball team as well—and that means it’s time for the Bulldogs’ bats to come alive.

The Bulldogs are hosting the Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic this week—and as usual—the team is putting up large numbers offensively, but it’s the team’s pitching staff that is proving their worth.

Fresno State (9-12) scored double-digit runs for the second straight game in a 12-2 trouncing of Portland (1-11) Tuesday night, while freshman Eddie Romero picked up his first victory of the season in front of an announced crowd of 2,522 fans.

Romero pitched six innings, allowing one run and scattering three hits, in only his second career collegiate start.

“ I was trying to set the tone out there tonight,” Romero said. “I had a lot more confidence and it seems like everything is starting to click.”

Romero lowered his earned run average from an inflated 15.26 down to just over nine, while fanning 11 Pilots batters.

Romero got into trouble twice, once in the first and again in the fourth, both times he got behind to batters and walked lead-off men.

Romero had his shutout broken up in the fourth inning when sophomore Nik Kosach hit a sacrifice fly with the bases loaded, making the score 6-1. Sophomore Rhett Parker’s single, after Romero fell behind in the count, had loaded the bases for the Pilots.

“ It was very important for me to get ahead in the count,” Romero said. “It is difficult to attack the zone from behind in the count because the batters are looking for a fastball. I also feel more comfortable and confident [when I have the lead] because you know that your team is there for you.”

Romero was able to settle into a comfort zone because of the offensive explosion by the Bulldogs. Sophomore center fielder Richie Robnett shinned at the plate, going 3 for 5, ending up only a single short of the cycle.

With a 1-0 count and runners on second and third, sophomore center fielder Richie Robnett took a 77 miles-per-hour fastball from Portland starter Jared Adams and one-hopped the wall in center. DeAndre Miller, who doubled down the left field line to start the game, and Ryan Haag scored on the Robnett triple to make the score 2-0.

Designated hitter Kent Sakamoto then grounded out to short, driving in Robnett, giving the Bulldogs a 3-0 lead.

In the third, Robnett collected the most difficult half of the cycle by sending a laser beam off the light poll behind the left field wall. His fourth home run of the season put the Bulldogs on top 6-0.

Robnett continued his assault on the sacred cycle in the fourth, when he loped a ball in between two Pilots fielders in short right and hustled out a double. Sakamoto got his second RBI of the game on the next pitch, rocketing a pitch off the opposite field wall, giving Fresno State a 7-1 lead.

But Robnett failed to get the single he needed when he popped up to the shortstop in the fifth and reached on an error in the eight. Robnett’s bouncer to first was muffed by the Portland first basemen and it was scored an error.

“ I kept hoping he wouldn’t boot the ball.” Robnett said. “I would have [beaten it out] if he would have got it.”

As it turned out, Robnett’s cycle wasn’t needed for victory.

The Bulldogs continued their onslaught of Portland in the fifth, putting up a four-spot on the scored board—three of those runs coming from Haag’s emphatic home run. Haag chalked up his first round-tripper of the season and put Fresno State up 11-1, with a three-run blast that cleared the left field wall by forty feet.

Freshman Nick Moresi had his second three-hit game in as many days, going 3 for 4.

Fresno State is now 2-0 in the Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic, after defeating Chicago State 12-0 on Monday. The Bulldogs face Brigham Young—which tied a tournament record for runs scored in a 21-3 shellacking of Chicago State—on Wednesday and a Dallas Baptist team Thursday, that took two of three from Fresno State last week.