Fresno State Athletics
'Dogs Host No. 1 Stanford this Weekend
3/1/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 1, 2012
By Jennifer Jones
jjones@csufresno.edu
GoBulldogs.com
FRESNO, Calif. - The Bulldogs host No. 1 Stanford this weekend in a three-game series, Mar. 2-4. Fresno State has not faced the Cardinal since 2007. It has been nine years since the 'Dogs faced a top ranked opponent on Beiden Field. The last was No. 1 Rice in April of 2003.
The last time Fresno State faced a No. 1 team was in the 2009 NCAA Regional, where they lost to UC Irvine, 3-1.
SERIES PREVIEW: GAMES 10-13
• Fresno State Game Notes
RIVAL HISTORY IN A NUTSHELL
Stanford is located in Palo Alto, Calif. The Cardinal, ranked No. 1 in the nation by the USA Today/ESPN Coaches Poll, are members of the Pacific-12 Conference and are led by Mark Marquess in his 36th year at the helm. The 'Dogs are 48-78 all-time vs. the Cardinal. They have not met since 2007 when Stanford swept the series 3-0.
RANK SHMANK
Batesole's 'Dogs have never shied away from tough competition, facing 25 ranked opponents and going 20-31 overall. This is the first time Fresno State has faced a Stanford team ranked No. 1 in the country under Batesole. He has faced Stanford when ranked No. 3 (2006), No. 6 (2005) and No. 11 (2003), respectively. The 2008 squad had the most success against top teams, posting a 7-4 record. Last year the 'Dogs went 2-3 against ranked teams, taking the road series from No. 29 Nebraska (2-1, Mar 12-14).
BATESOLE ON THE UPCOMING SERIES
Fresno State baseball head coach Mike Batesole took questions on the Bulldogs upcoming series against No. 1 Stanford. Below are his answers. The series starts tomorrow night, Mar. 1 at 6:05 p.m. and continues Saturday and Sunday.
On the No. 1 team coming to town
It's exciting. The kids were excited even yesterday. You got a team that's averaging 9.6 runs a game, you've got the best pitcher in the country on the mound Friday night, a tremendous defense and I think coach Marquess, when it's all said and done, is going to be the winningest coach in NCAA history. It is quite an animal that we are going to try and tackle tomorrow night.
On Stanford's starting pitcher Appel possibly going first in the draft
Well there's a very good chance of that. I've seen him pitch several times and he's going to be in that 96-98 range. He might even touch 100 a couple times. He's got an outstanding curve ball, a big league breaking ball right now and a pretty good changeup to go along with it. You put those three together and he throws them for strikes. You'll see tomorrow night why he's got a good chance to be the first pick overall in the draft.
Weekend Rotation
We'll go with Linehan to match up with [Appel] tomorrow on Friday night, then we'll go with Kendall Saturday and Harlan on Sunday afternoon, which should be great 77 degree weather.
On Start to the Season
We are still trying to figure out what we do have. We ran into some good pitching. A couple of guys I'd have liked to see us handle a little bit better and maybe beat. Pepperdine has three outstanding starters and they all pitched very, very well, better than they have in the past. And I think you put that together with a very young offense and you can understand what happened. What we have to do is learn from that and get better from that and we have had a good couple days of practice. We'll get tested against the best team in the country this weekend. It will be a nice measuring stick for us to get to work next week.
What Should the Crowd Expect This Weekend
[The crowd] is going to see some fantastic pitching. They have an outstanding veteran club. You're going to see how veterans take at-bats. I've scouted this team pretty heavily and they are every bit of the No. 1 team in the country. They are very, very deserving of it. When it's all said and done, I think most people are predicting at the end of the year they will be the No. 1 team also.
It's been a awhile but don't forget, in 2003 we had Rice here, but in 2008 you had your own Bulldogs here at No. 1 in the nation.
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