Baseball gets first win but loses series
Fresno State drops to 1-5 on the season after losing two of three to
UCLA at Beiden Field
By DARRELL COPELAND
For one day, it looked as if the Fresno State baseball team had turned
things around.
After dropping the series opener 7-4 on Friday night, the Bulldogs had
a midnight hitting session after the game and came storming back on Saturday
with an 8-4 victory.
Sophomore catcher Chris Huston (above) was 0 for 2 with a walk
in Saturday’s 8-4 win over UCLA. Brandon Miller (below) threw
four-plus innings but got a no-decision. Photo by Joseph
Hollak |
But after the top of the first inning in Sunday’s 6-5 UCLA victory,
things were back to normal. Fresno State starting pitcher Matt Garza gave
up four runs on four hits and one error, leaving not a hole, but a crater
for the Bulldogs and coach Mike Batesole to crawl out of.
The Bruins (3-3) just about provided the Bulldogs (1-5) a ladder to help
them climb out, walking 11 batters in the game and totaling 29 for the
three-game series.
“That was just good plate discipline by us,” Batesole said.
Fresno State blew a chance to have a huge offensive fifth inning, loading
the bases with no outs, with one of Saturday’s heroes, Will Thomas,
looking to relive his Game-2 heroics.
With the bases loaded on Saturday, Thomas hit a bases-clearing double,
scoring three and putting himself in scoring position.
But Sunday was a different day. Thomas, who was pinch hitting for catcher
Chris Huston, grounded into a 4-6-3 double play, scoring one but ending
whatever momentum the Bulldogs had.
Come the end of the sixth inning, Fresno State had pulled within two runs
on Beau Mills’ first collegiate home run, an opposite field blast,
to make the score 5-3 Bruins.
By the time Mills’ next at-bat came around, the bases were loaded
and the chance for the Bulldogs to pull ahead was standing at home plate.
UCLA brought in pitcher Garrett White (from Centennial High of Bakersfield)
to neutralize Mills. White did more than neutralize, ending the inning
with a four-pitch strikeout.
After the first inning, Garza and relievers Eddie Romero and Michael Cooper
held the Bruins to two runs, but UCLA’s Sean Smith was one man who
refused to be held. Smith came up with one out in the ninth, earning his
third hit of the game, and would score the deciding run on catcher Chris
Denove’s run-scoring single.
Brandon Miller threw four-plus innings but got a no-decision.
Photo by Joseph Hollak. |
In Saturday’s 8-4 victory, Fresno State received key home runs
from David Gomez and Nick Moresi to go along with solid efforts on the
mound by sophomore Brandon Miller and freshman Doug Fister.
Fister pitched two innings while striking out five of the nine batters
he faced.
In Friday’s 7-4 loss, the Bulldogs recorded only four hits while
leaving nine on base.
Fresno State goes into the week with plenty to improve on. In six games
this season, the Bulldogs have committed 13 errors, while opponents Stanford
and UCLA have combined for two.
Fresno State returning freshman All-American Christian Vitters has committed
two of the 13 errors and is 2 for 22 at the plate, a .090 batting average.
“He’s been taking a lot of extra swings (after practice),”
Batesole said. “Maybe he’s been taking too many swings.”
Said Batesole of Vitters’ performance at the plat:, “That
won’t continue forever.”
Vitters and the rest of the Bulldogs will look to turn the corner this
weekend as they visit defending national champion Cal State-Fullerton
for a three game series. Fullerton is coming off a series victory over
Stanford, a team that swept Fresno State on opening weekend. Fullerton
won two of three against the Cardinal.
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