Undefeated week has hot Bulldogs ready for WAC
Tracy Whitten / The Collegian
Fresno State’s Frank LoNigro hit his second home run of the season well over the left field wall. |
By Darrell Copeland III
The Collegian
The Fresno State baseball team is getting ready to open WAC play, ironic after the four-hour marathon played at Beiden field Saturday night and into Sunday morning.
A 42-minute rain delay interrupted a potentially dominating Bulldog performance, and the rhythm of Bulldog starting pitcher Tanner Scheppers.
Scheppers, who had given up only one run in the first three innings, surrendered five in the fourth inning, four of them earned.
The Bulldogs (19-8) ended the Pepsi/Johnny Quik tournament with a perfect 6-0 record, defeating the Lafayette Leopards (3-10) 10-8. The Leopards finished their week winless for the tournament.
Fresno State would have all of the offensive support it would need during the 4-hour and 2 minute game, which began at 8:32 p.m. and ended at 12:34 a.m. Sunday.
Pepsi/Johnny Quik all-conference catcher Frank LoNigro finished his week of hot hitting with a 3 for 5 game, including a home run that sailed right past the lights of the left field light standard.
Another all-tournament performer, Kent Sakamoto — one of five all-tournament performers for the Bulldogs — finished his week with a 4 for 5 night, including the go-ahead two-run double in the seventh inning.
After Lafayette tied the game 8-8 in its next at-bat, the Bulldogs were forced to make a bottom of the ninth rally to pull out the win.
“We knew coming in here everyone’s going to be shooting for us,” Sakamoto said.
Bulldog freshman Gavin Hedstrom, who entered the game as a pinch runner, came through with a rocket line-drive to right field, scoring Brian Lapin.
“Oh God, I really was just in kind of shock that I was getting the opportunity to do something like that,” Hedstrom said.
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