Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Rice
Baseball Drops Series Opener Against No. 2 Rice 4-1
5/17/2002 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
May 17, 2002
FRESNO, Calif. - Fresno State (29-25, 16-9 WAC) dropped its third straight game at Beiden Field against Rice (42-11, 23-2 WAC) 4-1 Friday night. The Bulldogs had pulled off 15 in a row before that at home. The Bulldogs managed just three hits in the first seven innings and committed two errors, one which led to two unearned runs.
Junior RHP Ben Fritz (San Jose, Calif.) suffered his fifth loss of the season despite allowing just two earned runs in the game and striking out six in eight innings of work.
"It's a tough loss. We were getting some good swings in there, but right at the fielders," said Fritz.
On the other side RHP Steven Herce controlled Bulldog bats going the distance for his 10th win of the season, which is tops in the WAC. Herce allowed just one run on five hits and struck out six with no walks.
The only run of the game for Fresno State came in the eighth inning off a home run by senior outfielder Tobey Riday-White (Berkeley, Calif.), which was his fifth of the season and first since hitting one against Illinois State, March 12.
Riday-White finished the day going 2-for-3 with a run scored and an RBI and was the only Bulldog player with multiple hits.
Rice scored its first run in the fourth inning. The Owls loaded the bases with no outs, but grounded into a grounded into a double play to score just one run.
In the next inning Rice would capitlize on a fielding error to get the leadoff man aboard. Once again the Owls loaded the bases with no outs. Second baseman Eric Arnold singled in outfielder Chris Kolkhorst, who had reached on the error. Fritz struck out the next batter and got first baseman Vincent Sinisi to fly out, but instead of it being the third out, Rice scored another run on the sacrifice fly.
The Owls added an insurance run in the eighth inning on a solo homer by desiganted hitter Dane Bubela.
Sophomore third baseman Casey McGehee (Santa Cruz, Calif.) extended his hitting streak to 30 games with a two-out infield hit in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Fresno State and Rice continue their series tomorrow at 7:05 p.m.
