Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Nevada
Baseball Wins Fifth Straight Road Game, Sweeps Nevada
5/12/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 12, 2002
RENO, Nev. - The Fresno State (29-24, 15-8 WAC) pitching staff did its best Runyon-Fritz imitation as five Bulldog pitchers combined for the 7-3 win against Nevada (21-29, 7-16 WAC) Sunday afternoon. It was the second time this season the Bulldogs sweep Nevada. With the win FS, captured its fifth consecutive road victory.
"It seems like we were running into teams that were hot, but our backs are against the wall and we knew how important it was to sweep this series," said sophomore third baseman Casey McGehee (Santa Cruz, Calif.).
Freshman RHP Chad Edwards (Gosford, Australia) closed out his third straight game, going 4.2 innings while giving up his first run this season. Edwards struck out three batters and walked one while allowing six hits and picking up his first win of the year.
The Bulldog pitching staff on Sunday that consisted of seniors Zach Minor (Walnut Creek, Calif.), RHP Francisco Nieves (Oakland, Calif.), junior LHP David Bair (Merced, Calif.), freshmen Sean Ruthven (Alpharetta, Ga.) and Edwards capitalized on good defense and poor clutch hitting by the Wolf Pack, which left 13 runners on base and hit into three double plays on the day.
After erasing rallies in the first two innings with double play grounders, the Wolf Pack got on the board in the third with two doubles in the inning. Outfielder Chris Dickerson and third baseman Mike Gillies each hit doubles to score a run.
First baseman Jarell McIntyre followed with an RBI single that drove in Gillies from second to score the second run in the inning.
The Bulldogs answered with a run in the fourth inning on an RBI single by junior designated hitter Ben Fritz (San Jose, Calif.) that drove in sophomore Chris Patrick (Fresno, Calif.) from second. FS had a chance to add more, loading the bases with one out, but RHP Darrell Rasner struck out senior Brad Harper (Madera, Calif.) and got junior outfielder Joey Myers (Fresno, Calif.) to pop up to end the threat.
The Bulldogs tied the game at 2-2 in the fifth inning off a solo home run by McGehee. It was his first hit of the game to tie the second longest hitting streak in program history at 29, shared with former Bulldog Tom Goodwin. McGehee finished the day going 3-for-5 with two runs scored and two RBI.
"I was having a little trouble picking up the ball yesterday, but I got used to the ballpark and was feeling good today. Rasner has a good curveball, so I was waiting on his fastball and fortunately I got some to hit," said McGehee.
With the score tied at 2-2, the Wolf Pack threatened in the seventh inning with men on first and second and no outs. Edwards survived and got the next three batters out, striking out the first, getting a fly out to right field and a ground out for the final out.
After leaving six runners and hitting into two double plays, FS finally got to Rasner and Nevada scoring four runs in the eighth off four hits. Riday-White had a two-run single with the bases loaded, followed by an RBI single by Harper that brought in Patrick, McGehee and Boyd. Myers capped off the rally with a sacrifice fly to right field that drove in Riday-White.
Edwards would do the rest killing an eighth inning rally and pitching a scoreless ninth for the win.
Fresno State will return to action Friday against Rice at Beiden Field for a three-game series.
