San Jose State 3, Fresno State 1
San Jose, Calif.
-(SJSU Media Relations) Behind strong pitching by Roberto Padilla the San Jose State Spartans earned a 3-1 victory over the No. 9 Fresno State Bulldogs in both team's conference opener on Friday night in Municipal Stadium.
They win improve the Spartans record to 20-9 overall, 1-0 in Western Athletic Conference play. They are 3-1 against top-10 opponents this season. Fresno State falls to 20-4, 0-1 in league action.
Padilla (6-2) went 8.1 innings and scattered four hits. He struck out seven for the third time this season and allowed one earned run, lowering his team-best ERA to 2.47.
"I came out with the mindset of attacking the hitters from the get go," Padilla said. "I was able to throw all my pitches for strikes and put hitters away. I didn't want to let them get hits off me when they had two strikes and for the most part I was able to execute that plan."
The Bulldogs' Greg Gonzalez was equally strong tossing 7.0 innings and giving up one earned run on three hits while striking out six.
Padilla's run was came on a fourth-inning leadoff home run from Fresno State right fielder Dusty Robinson.
Gonzalez gave up a leadoff walk in the sixth. Three batters later Danny Stienstra belted a double that split the left and center fielders and rolled to the wall. Craig Hertler, who was on first base, came all the way around to beat the throw home and tie the game 1-1.
To open the Spartans eighth, Gonzalez was lifted, after 111 pitches, for Bulldogs closer Charlie Robertson. Robertson (0-1), in 10 appearances, had nine saves and hadn't given up an earned run. With two outs Jacob Valdez was hit by a pitch. Stiensta followed him with his second double of the night. That set the stage for Tim Quiery.
On the first pitch he saw, Quiery hit a sharp liner to the right side that Fresno State second baseman Pat Hutcheson ranged for to his left. Hutcheson was able to get a glove on the shot and knocked it down, but had no play. Both runners scored giving the Spartans a 3-1 lead.
"Jake got on and Danny extended the inning," Quiery said. "I was just trying to keep the rally going."
After getting the first batter out in the ninth Padilla allowed back to back walks and was lifted in favor of Zack Jones. Jones induced a ground out and struck out the final batter on the game to earn his fifth save of the year.
"We knew the pitching we were going to face would be very good," head coach Sam Piraro said. "Tonight the fans saw four good pitchers. Both starters did a great job and both closers were good as well. It was a hard fought game and we're grateful that we won."
"This is a big win," Quiery added, "but we now have to focus on tomorrow."
The teams resume their four-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader. First pitch for game one, a seven inning affair, is set for 1:00 p.m. in Municipal Stadium. Game two will follow approximately 45 minutes after the completion of game one.
Hawai‘i 16, Sacramento State 1 (7)
HONOLULU
–(UH Media Relations) In its WAC opener, the University of Hawai'i baseball team defeated Sacramento State Friday, 16-1, via the WAC instated mercy rule. The Rainbows improve to 1-0 in the WAC and 15-14 overall, while the Hornets drop to 0-1 in conference and 9-21 overall.
The Rainbows exploded for six runs in the first inning, and nine more in the sixth to cruise to their largest win of the season. Kolten Wong batted 2-3 with three runs and two RBI, and belted his 23rd career homerun, tying him for fourth all-time for UH in that category. Garrett Champion batted 3-4 with three runs and two RBI, and Breland Almadova added two hits, two runs, and three RBI.
David del Grande led the Hornets with a 2-3 hitting performance.
Matt Sisto (2-4) pitched seven complete innings for the win, allowing no earned runs on two hits with seven strikeouts. Karl Moss (2-3) allowed eight earned runs in five innings for the loss.
The Rainbows batted around the order on two different occasions with every starter recording a hit. Jeff Van Doornum batted 2-2 with two runs and two RBI, and Pi'ikea Kitamura added one hit, two runs, and two RBI.
There were 3,512 tickets sold for the contest, and a turnstile count of 2,330.
The Rainbows and Hornets continue their series Saturday. First pitch of the doubleheader is set for 3:05 p.m.
New Mexico State 4, Louisiana Tech 2
RUSTON, La
. -(NMSU Media Relations) The New Mexico State baseball team (23-6, 1-0 WAC) picked up win No. 1 of the 2011 Western Athletic Conference season defeating Louisiana Tech (15-14, 0-1 WAC) 4-2 at J.C. Love Field in Ruston. La., Friday, April 8.
With the game tied at 2-2 in the eighth inning, senior Ryan Aguayo tallied an RBI single to take a 3-2 lead. Sophomore designated hitter Zac Fisher picked up his 36th RBI of the season when the Bulldog centerfielder dropped a fly-ball to bring in sophomore Parker Hipp who got on base with an intentional walk.
Sophomore left-hand pitcher was pretty good on the mound for NM State going eight innings, striking out three batters and taking his record to 6-2 on the year. Junior closer Scott Coffman picked up save No. 5 of the year as he came in for the ninth inning. He took sole possession of the No. 3 spot on the all-time saves list at NM State with 10 going ahead of Brian Gausman, who tallied nine career saves from 2004-07.
"Ryan (Beck) did what we needed him to do today and Scott (Coffman) did what he does in the final inning of play," head coach Rocky Ward said. "Although the field is small in dimension, it played really big, but we were able to make the plays when we needed to."
The game was scoreless until the fourth inning when junior outfielder Tanner Waite got on board with a lead-off double to centerfield, then scored on a RBI single through the right-side by Fisher. Senior catcher Chuck Howard picked up an RBI on a double to left giving NM State a 2-0 lead. Fisher finished the day going 1-for-3 with two RBI, while Howard was 2-of-4 with and RBI.
The Bulldogs pulled to within one run in the bottom of the fourth on a solo homerun and tied it in the seventh inning on a single up the middle, but that would not be enough as NM State took the first game of the series 4-2. The Aggies are now 4-2 in WAC opening games.
Although NM State tallied one error in the game, the defense played well which included nice double plays in the fifth and sixth innings that started with shortstop Tyler Forney.
NM State takes on the Bulldogs in a double header, Saturday, April 9 with first pitch set for 12:00 p.m. (MT). The game is scheduled to air on the radio in Las Cruces on KSNM AM 570 and live stats are available at www.NMStateSports.com.
Seattle 8, Nevada 7
RENO, NEV
. -(NEV Media Relation) The Nevada baseball team (8-17) lost 8-7 to the Seattle Redhawks (12-12) in a back and forth game at Peccole Park today.
RHP Tom Jameson (2-4) gave up two runs in the first inning, but settled down and cruised through the fifth before running into trouble in the sixth. RHP Tim Culligan entered the game with bases loaded and one out in the sixth. Culligan allowed an RBI single to Nate Roberts and a two-RBI double to Marcelino Morales, running Jameson's final line to five earned runs, on six hits and four walks in 5.1 innings. The Redhawks added one run off LHP Mat Keplinger (0-2) in the seventh which would go on to be the game winning run.
The Wolf Pack built an early lead, plating seven runs in the first three innings, but saw its 7-3 lead vanish quickly in the sixth. With one out in the first, Joe Kohan singled, Brock Stassi doubled and Brian Barnett tripled, scoring Kohan and Stassi to tie the game at two. The Pack took a 3-2 lead when Curtis Frisbie hit his fourth double of the season scoring Barnett.
The Pack added two in the second and two in the third, but was held scoreless through the rest of the game. Kohan, Stassi and Barnett were a combined 5-6 with one single, three doubles, one triple, three RBI and four runs scored in the first two innings, but went a combined 1-9 with six strikeouts in the final seven innings.
Nick Melino went 0-4 with a walk and has still reached base safely in all 25 games this season. Stassi went 3-5 with two doubles, one single, one RBI and one run scored.
Mark Joukoff will start tomorrow as the Pack looks to take game two from the Redhawks at 1 p.m. at Peccole Park.