'Dogs rounding into WAC

Fresno State heads into another tough weekend of baseball with its Western Athletic Conference opening series against defending national champion Rice, currently ranked fourth in the nation

By Zack Walton

Tonight signals the start of a new season for the Bulldogs baseball team.

After playing an up-and-down non-conference schedule, Fresno State (12-16) begins its Western Athletic Conference campaign tonight by opening a three-game series against defending national champion Rice (17-6).

Fresno State, which dropped two of three games to Cal State-Fullerton last weekend at Beiden field, has failed to win a series all season long.

The Bulldogs face a fourth-ranked Rice team—that was selected as the preseason WAC favorites—fresh off a 15-10 victory over No. 10 Texas on Tuesday night.

“ We play probably the toughest schedule in the country,” coach Mike Batesole said in a preseason interview. “But we’re going to run [our players] out there against the best teams in the country.”

By playing Rice this weekend, the Bulldogs will have faced all of the top three teams in the final Collegiate Baseball Newspaper’s poll from last season.

Rice, Stanford and Cal State-Fullerton were ranked 1-2-3 respectively in last season’s final poll.

The series is expected to bolster lots of offense, as Rice (.299) and Fresno State (.296) set atop the WAC in batting average and the Bulldogs enter the series with an earned run average of 6.77.

Junior David Gomez leads the Bulldogs with a .361 batting average, while freshman Nick Moresi (.333) and senior Ryan Haag (.325) are close behind.

Rice’s Chris Kolkhorst leads the WAC with a .388 batting average. Receiving All-WAC first team honors in 2003, the senior leads the Owls with a .535 on-base percentage.

Fresno State will likely face a trio of All-American starting pitchers in Jeff Niemann on Friday, followed by Philip Humber and Wade Townsend in the final two games of the series.

Friday night’s game at Reckling Park begins at 5 p.m., with a noon start on Saturday and first pitch at 11 a.m. on Sunday.