Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Arizona State
Dogs Outgunned by No. 3 Arizona State.
6/7/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
June 7, 2008
TEMPE, Ariz. - No.3 Arizona State looked as good as advertised and the Fresno State Bulldogs will have their backs against the wall in the second game of the best of three series against the Sun Devils that continues Sunday.
The Sun Devils (49-12) are looking for their second straight trip to the College World Series and played their 40th home game this season getting a 12-4 win over the Dogs.
ASU, one of the highest scoring teams in the NCAA, swept through the Tempe Regional last weekend by averaging 12 runs per game with wins over Stony Brook and twice beat Oklahoma. ASU has won 12 of its last 14 games and had 15 of the 25 players on the NCAA tournament roster drafted this week.
The Bulldogs (40-29) entered the game with an impressive winning trend that included wins in nine of their last 10 games, and a terrific showing in the Long Beach Regional. Fresno State beat No. 11 Long Beach State and No. 6 San Diego twice to advance to the Super Regional round.
Fresno State opened the scoring with a run in the top of the first inning. All-WAC second baseman Erik Wetzel singled up the middle with two outs. On Friday, Wetzel was selected in the 13th round of the Major League Draft by the Colorado Rockies.
WAC Player of the Year Steve Susdorf then dropped a perfect hit inside the left field line for a triple to drive in Wetzel. It was the 87th run of the season for Wetzel, which tied him with Tom Goodwin (1988) for second-most in a season in Bulldog history.
Susdorf added to his RBI total, giving him 208 for his career and 78 for the season. His 208 RBIs is a Bulldog record and ranks ninth in Western Athletic Conference history. Like Wetzel, Susdorf was picked in the MLB draft, taken in the 19th round by the Philadelphia Phillies.
Pac-10 Pitcher of the Year Mike Leake (10-2, 3.12 ERA) started for the Sun Devils. Leake had 100 strikeouts and just 18 walks on the season entering the game.
Left-handed pitcher Justin Wilson, coming off a career-high 11 strikeout performance against No. 11 Long Beach State in the Long Beach Regional last weekend, earned the start for the Bulldogs. Wilson, a graduate of Clovis' Buchanan High School, took a 7-4 record and 4.17 ERA into the game. He was drafted in the fifth round by the Pittsburgh Pirates on the first day of the MLB draft Thursday. Wilson faced a Sun Devil lineup stacked with left-handed hitters, a team that entered the game hitting .341 as a team, fourth-best average in the NCAA.
ASU answered with one run, which was unearned, in the bottom of the first inning. Wilson got the Sun Devils to ground into a double play and then struck out Ike Davis, a first round pick in the Major League Draft, to get end the inning.
Leake proceeded to get six Bulldogs out on 11 pitches over the second and third innings.
The Sun Devils added two more in the third inning when Ryan Sontag hit a two-run homerun to right field to give ASU a 3-1 lead.
In the top of the fifth, third baseman Tommy Mendonca was hit by Leake to start the inning. Mendonca was thrown out at second when catcher Ryan Overland tried to advance him on a sacrifice bunt. Right fielder Steve Detwiler grounded out which moved Overland to second base. He was stranded there when Jordan Ribera grounded out to end the inning.
The Sun Devils added five runs in the bottom of the fifth inning to take an 8-1 lead over the Bulldogs.
Wilson left the game and Bakersfield native Justin Miller, a 15th-round pick of the Texas Rangers in Friday's draft, replaced him. Miller pitched well, shutting out the Sun Devils in the sixth inning.
The Dogs chipped at the lead with one run on three hits in the seventh inning. Susdorf added his second hit of the game, a single to left, to lead off the inning, but the Sun Devils converted a terrific double play. With two outs Mendonca reached on an infield double and Ryan Overland singled, moving Mendonca to third base. Detwiler drew a walk and when the fourth ball by Leake went over the head of the catcher, Mendonca scored from third base to make the score 8-2.
Senior pitcher Jason Breckley made his first appearance of the post season in the seventh inning for the Bulldogs and set the Sun Devils down in order getting two strikeouts. Breckley ranks fourth in Fresno State history with 11 career saves.
Wetzel got on via an error with two outs in the eighth inning and Susdorf doubled to left on a 0-2 pitch, moving Wetzel to third base. That was the 63rd double of Susdorf's career and the 29th this season, which breaks the Bulldog single season record he previously shared with Derek Feramisco (1997).
Alan Ahmady then hit a hard ball off the second baseman that nearly went to the outfield fence for a double that drove in Susdorf and Wetzel and pulled the Dogs to within 8-4. That gives Ahmady, the All-WAC first baseman, 83 RBIs on the season, second-most in Bulldog history.
Ike Davis replaced Leake on the mound for ASU.
Sontag added his second two-run homerun in the bottom of the eighth inning to make the score 10-4. The Sun Devils added two more after that to run the score to 12-4.
This was the first meeting between the two schools since the 1998 season and second time they have met in the NCAA tournament. A capacity crowd of 4,371 packed Packard Stadium on the ASU campus.
Fresno State is just the second No. 4 seed to advance to a Super Regional round, and the only one remaining of the 16 teams in the 2008 NCAA tournament field.
"Coming into this we were 18 innings away from going to the World Series and we are still 18 innings away," said Batesole. "We didn't help ourselves tonight. When you put seven people on base against a good hitting team like Arizona State, they will make you pay. We made some uncharacteristic errors tonight. I'm more concerned about Fresno State right now. We have to attack the (strike) zone tomorrow and (Clayton) Allison has been doing that well lately. We've had our backs to the wall the last month and came through it."
Fresno State and Arizona State will meet again Sunday at 7 p.m. in the second game of the three-game series. The game will be live on ESPN2. The winner of the series earns an automatic berth into the College World Series in Omaha June 15-14.
2008 Super Regional Schedule
Saturday, June 7
No. 3 Arizona State 12, No. 17 Fresno State 4
Sunday, June 8
No. 17 Fresno State vs. No. 3 Arizona State, 7 p.m. (ESPN2)
Monday, June 9 (if necessary)
No. 17 Fresno State vs. No. 3 Arizona State, 4 p.m. (ESPN2)
"Join the State - Fresno State!" - The Fresno State baseball team continues play at the 2008 NCAA tournament at the Super Regional in Tempe, Ariz., against No. 3 Arizona State. The Fresno State games will be broadcast live in the Valley on KMJ Radio 580 AM. Follow gobulldogs.com for further updates.
