Baseball runs over Cougars
Fresno State scores 56 runs in a four-game sweep of Chicago State
By DARRELL COPELAND
The Fresno State baseball team scored so many runs this past weekend that you couldn’t help but feel bad for visiting Chicago State.
In four games, the Bulldogs (6-9) put 56 runs on the Cougars (0-10), who managed just seven.
DeAndre Miller set a school record with five walks in Sunday’s 26-0 win over Chicago State. Photo by Joseph Hollak |
With the four-game sweep, the Bulldogs have found themselves in the midst of a five-game winning streak.
Bulldogs freshman Beau Mills had a chance at taking over the school record for RBIs in a single game with 10, but came up two short, going 4 for 6 with eight RBI and four runs scored in Sunday’s finale.
In the seventh inning, an inning in which the Bulldogs scored 11 runs, Mills came to the plate twice with the bases loaded, striking out and popping out to first base, respectively.
The situation begs the question of whether or not the pressure of getting the record was felt by Mills in those at-bats.
“I wasn’t aware of it,” Mills said.
What Mills is aware of though, is the fact that Fresno State seems to be coming together as a team off the field, and that is something that has been huge to its success.
“This team’s really starting to come together off the field,” Mills said. “We’re really starting to gel.”
One record that was set was by Bulldogs leadoff man DeAndre Miller. Miller walked five times, setting the single-game record. Miller went 1 for 1 in the game with a hit-by-pitch and five runs scored.
“Interesting statistic,” Miller said of the school record five walks. “Good to have.”
In addition to that, there were two other notable occurrences in Sunday’s game. Fresno State shortstop Christian Vitters tied a school record with six runs scored, equaling the mark set by Brad Bennett in 1979.
Also, Raoul Lievanos had a higher offensive output in the seventh inning than his previous career totals combined. Lievanos recorded two hits and three RBIs, all in the seventh, adding to his career total one hit and two RBIs.
In Sunday’s game, the Bulldogs put runs across the plate in six of the eight innings they batted, including the 11-run seventh.
In that inning, the Bulldogs batted around nearly twice with Miller, Vitters and Ryan Overland each scoring two runs.
When it was all over, the Bulldogs had crossed home plate 26 times, resulting from 20 hits and four Chicago State errors.
In the series, the Bulldogs defeated the Cougars 12-3, 15-4, 3-0, and 26-0, respectively.
One might venture to say the Bulldogs now enter Tuesday’s game with a little bit of confidence.
“It’s always good to have confidence,” Miller said.
As a team, the Bulldogs are now hitting .264, a rising statistic after it had fallen below .200 at one point in the season.
With Loyola Marymount recently added to the schedule, the Bulldogs will once again play host as the Lions come to town for the Bulldogs’ only Tuesday game of the season.
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