Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Eastern Mich
Baseball Bulldogs Maul Eastern Michigan Eagles 11-3
3/7/2001 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 7, 2001
FRESNO, Calif. - SophomoreBen Fritz (San Jose, Calif.) pitched eight scoreless innings for the Bulldogs and struck out a season and career high seven batters this evening before 2,547 at Pete Beiden Field. In the top of the ninth, Fritz got into a jam and with a little help from his friend Ozzie Gonzalez who came into relieve Fritz finished off Eastern Michigan. Fritz improves his record to 1-2 and moves to second on the team with 24 strike outs in 27 innings of work.
Fresno State got an early lead in the first inning when Josh Labandeira (Sr., Porterville, Calif.) stole second, and on the throw to second Oscar Lopez (Sr., San Diego, Calif.) stole home giving the Bulldogs a 1-0 lead at the end of one.
In the second inning, Fresno State scored two more runs to increase their lead to 3-0. Tony Guzman (Sr., Clovis, Calif.) doubled to score Simon Tafoya (Sr., Pittsburg, Calif.) from first for the Bulldogs first run of the inning. Fresno State added their second run when the Eagles shortstop committed a fielding error on a hit by Tom Creighton (Jr., Weldon, Calif.) that scored Guzman giving the Dogs' a 3-0 lead at the end of two.
The Bulldogs continued the scoring spree with one run in the fourth and three in the fifth. In the fourth, Guzman singled to score Brad Harper (Jr., Madera, Calif.) to increase the lead to 4-0 at the end of four.
Lopez led off with a double in the bottom of the fifth to keep the Dogs' offense rolling. Two batters later Labandeira stepped to the plate and hit a triple to score Lopez and Casey McGehee (Fr., Aptos, Calif.) who reached on a single to right field. The next batter Brandon Gemoll (Jr., San Jose, Calif.) hit a high pop up that the Eagles short stop lost in the lights and dropped. With runner on first and third Tobey Riday-White (Jr., Berkeley, Calif.) hit a fielders choice to the short stop to score Labandeira giving Fresno State a 7-0 lead.
The Bulldogs added three more runs in the bottom of the seventh to increase their lead to 10-0. Labandeira led off with a double down the left field line and the following batter Matt Creighton (Jr., Weldon, Calif.) singled in to left center to advance Labandeira to third. With runners on first and third Christian Hallaian (Fr., Fresno, Calif.) hit a sacrifice fly into left field to score Labandeira. Three batters later junior John Efrid (Caruthers, Calif.) singled to advance Nick Garcia to third and to score Matt Creighton. The Bulldogs added one more run when Scott Beshears (So., Fresno, Calif.) singled to score Garcia from third Giving Fresno State a 10-0 lead at the end of seven.
In the eight, Dave Hafiz (So., Woodbury, Minn.) singled to score Chris Patrick (Fr., Fresno, Calif.) for the Bulldogs final run of the game.
Down 11-0 in the top of the ninth, Eastern Michigan scored three runs to end Fritz's eight shut out innings that he had going. Gonzalez entered the game with one out in the top of the ninth and finished off the Eagles for Fritz.
Fresno State improves its record to 13-7 overall, while Eastern Michigan falls to 1-6 on the season.
First pitch Wednesday for game two between the Bulldogs and the Eagles is at 7 p.m. in the friendly confines of Pete Beiden Field.
