Fresno St. Baseball Stings Hornets; Softball Wraps Up - KMPH FOX 26 | Central San Joaquin Valley News Source

FRESNO, Calif. --- It's the beginning of the stretch drive for the Fresno State baseball team and the Bulldogs were locked and loaded on Saturday night in beating Sacramento State 10-6 in a Western Athletic Conference game before an announced crowd of 2,143 at Pete Beiden Field.

"We did a great job with our game today and got some nice bunts down that we beat out for hits. RBIs also," Bulldogs' head baseball coach Mike Batesole said. "You put those two things together when you play catch and being aggressive on offense and attacking when they make a mistake. That's how you get to double digits."

After Sac State scored an early run in the first, Fresno State sophomore Jake Alvarez tied the game 1-1 with a fifth-inning RBI single to right field to plate Chris Mariscal from third.

Outfielder Aaron Judge then gave the 'Dogs the lead with a RBI double to right field that drove in Alvarez and Trent Garrison made it a two-run advantage with a RBI single of his own to put Fresno State up 3-1.

An inning later, senior Patrick Hutcheson hit a RBI double to the center field gap, scoring Mariscal and Alvarez for a 5-2 edge for the Bulldogs.

Fresno State doubled its total with five more in the eighth, highlighted by a Hutcheson RBI sacrifice bunt, the last two of Garrison's three RBI in the game and Wise ripping a double to left centerfield gap for the 10-2 lead. 

The Hornets chipped away for four futile runs in the ninth, but Fresno State shut the door for its third WAC win of the year.

Bulldog junior starting pitcher Justin Haley zeroed in for eight strikeouts with just a single walk over 7.1 innings to post his sixth victory of the season from the hill and lowered his earned run average to 2.97 for the year.

In total, Wise (3-for-3, double, two RBI) and Alvarez (3-for-4, two runs, RBI) tallied three hits each to lead the Bulldogs at the plate, who as a team combined for 14 hits and chased Sac State starter Brennan Leitao after six innings.

"Today we came out and we got the key hit to get those RBIs for us and I think we played a good game as a team today," Hutcheson said. "It was a great team effort. When we got a runner on second, we used that bunt to get them over, and it's working out for us. We're getting the hits right after that, and we're picking each other up. That's trust. Any guy can do it, and we showed that today."

Wise and Alvarez are both now hitting .571 during their last four games.

"Everyone on the team right now is taking good at bats and it's contagious," Wise said. "We [had been] trying way too hard and pushing ourselves too much. Right now, we're just relaxed and going with the flow with everything."

Fresno State (20-23, 3-8 WAC) and Sacramento State (25-22, 8-6 WAC) will wrap up the weekend conference series on Sunday at 1:05 p.m.

FRESNO, Calif. - The Fresno State softball team split is doubleheader against Louisiana Tech on Senior Day Saturday at Bulldog Diamond. The Bulldogs won game one 4-0 and fell in the second game 6-4.

Fresno State closes out the regular season with a 33-21 overall record and 13-6 mark in WAC play. The Bulldogs now head into next week's WAC Tournament as the No. 3 seed.

"I think they wanted to sweep on this day and that was important to them, but it didn't happen so it will be important to beat them in the WAC Tournament," head coach Margie Wright said when asked it if would have been nice to send the seniors out with a sweep. Fresno State still won the series with La Tech (23-31, 8-12 WAC), two games to one.

Seniors Mackenzie Oakes and Andrea Ortega led the `Dogs to the 4-0 win in game one.

"I just went at it like it was another game we needed to win," Oakes said of her thoughts going into her final home game. "We still have a lot of games ahead of us, but it's nothing to be sad about because there are more games to be played and more games to be won."

Oakes threw her third shutout of the season in the game where she allowed just four hits, had four strikeouts and no walks. She finishes her last regular season at Fresno State with a 9-0 record at Bulldog Diamond (10-5 overall).

"I was just trying to get ahead of the betters and getting ground balls to my infield," said Oakes of her performance in game one.

Ortega had her fourth career game where she connected for two doubles, as she was 3-for-3 in game one with two RBIs. Her two doubles gave her 37 for her career, which ties for the ninth most in school history. It was her sixth multi-hit game of the season and her seventh career game with three or more hits.

The Bulldogs finished game one with 11 hits, the most since Fresno State had 12 in the second game of the doubleheader against BYU on March 30. Fresno State's four doubles in game one are the second most it has connected for in a game this year.

Game two started out with La Tech right fielder Katelynn Hill leading off with a solo home run.

The Lady Techsters then added two runs onto their lead in the third inning, but La Tech gave up its lead in the bottom half of the inning. Fresno State scored three runs and was thanks in part a pair of La Tech errors, a wild pitch and passed ball.

Both teams scored a run in the sixth; Fresno State's coming on a RBI triple to center by Brooke Ortiz.

Game two was then decided in the seventh inning when Meghan Knowles hit a two-run homer to give the Lady Techsters the victory.

Courtesy: Fresno St. Athletics