The Fresno
State Bulldogs opened up an early 5-0 lead and then held on for a 7-5 victory
over the Stanford Cardinal this afternoon at Beiden Field. The Bulldog
hitters got to Cardinal starter Mark Jecmen (0-3), knocking the freshman
righthander out of the game in the third inning. Stanford chipped
away at the lead but in the end they just ran out of outs and dropped their
third game of the season.
Fresno State (4-5) opened up the
scoring in the bottom of the second inning with a single run. Casey
McGehee led off with a walk and later scored on an RBI groundout off the
bat of T.J. Boyd. FSU put across four more runs in the third inning
extending the lead to 5-0 and knocking Jecmen out of the game. Jecmen
gave up three consecutive singles to start the inning, was removed in favor
of Drew Ehrlich who then went on to give up a double, a sacrifice fly,
and a single, and the Bulldogs had their 5-0 lead. Jecmen usually
had no problems getting two strikes on the hitter, but then had trouble
finishing them off as Fresno State would either wait him out for a walk
or get a good pitch to hit.
The Cardinal (6-3) got on the scoreboard
in the top of the fourth inning as Chris O'Riordan led it off with a single
and eventually scored on a Jason Cooper RBI single cutting the lead to
5-1. Ehrlich went back out for the fourth inning and gave up another
run on an RBI single off the bat of Carl Lipsey and FSU had their five-run
lead back. Stanford though chipped away in the fifth inning as Chris
Carter led things off with a double and scored when the next hitter, Scott
Dragicevich, doubled him home. Dragicevich would later score on an
RBI single by Sam Fuld and the Fresno State lead was down to 6-3.
The Bulldogs would answer though as starting pitcher and #3 hitter Ben
Fritz clubbed a home run to lead off the bottom of the fifth inning extending
the lead to 7-3.
Stanford had an opportunity in the
seventh inning as Carter led off with another double but Fritz settled
down and retired the next three hitters with Carter not leaving second
base. Finally in the eighth inning, Stanford started to brake through
against Fritz. Three consecutive singles by Fuld, Ryan Garko, and
Cooper to lead off the inning loaded the bases for Carlos Quentin.
Quentin, who represented the tying run, lofted a deep fly ball to center
field that just missed going out for a game-tying grand slam as FSU centerfielder
Joey Myers made the catch at the warning track. It did end up going
for a sacrifice fly as Fuld scored making the score 7-4 and then Garko
would later score in the inning on an RBI ground out by Donny Lucy.
But that would be as close as Stanford would get as Fresno State brought
in lefty reliever Mike Hernandez would got out of the eighth inning and
threw a 1-2-3 ninth to slam the door shut.
It was another productive day offensively
for the Cardinal hitters in terms of hits as they ended up with 13 on the
afternoon. Fuld (4-for-4, RBI) had the biggest day while Cooper (2-for-4,
RBI) and Carter (2-for-3, 2 2B) also had multi-hit games. Jecmen
suffered his third loss of the season as he went only two-plus innings
giving up five hits and four runs.
Game Notes :
* Freshman Chris Carter got his
first career start this afternoon starting in left field in place of Brian
Hall. Carter responded by going 2-for-3 with two doubles making him
3-for-10 on the season.
* Drew Ehrlich got some extended
long relief today and pitched very well. After struggling when he
first was brought into the game, the sophomore righthander threw the final
six innings giving up three runs, walking none, and striking out six.
* Stanford is now 0-3 in games started
by Jecmen. They are 6-0 when either Jeremy Guthrie or Tim Cunningham
get the start on the mound.
* Fresno State switched up their
rotation today as Ben Fritz, their #2 starter who had been starting on
Sunday, was moved up to today. Fritz went 7 2/3 innings giving up
five runs and 13 hits, but did pick up the win.
Stanford
0 0 0 1 2 0 0 2 0 - 5 13
2
Fresno State 0 1
4 1 1 0 0 0 x - 7 13 0
The rubber game of this three-game
series is tomorrow at 1pm. Tim Cunningham (2-0, 3.27) is scheduled
to start for the Cardinal while Fresno State has not announced a starting
pitcher.