Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
San Jose State
'Dogs Overcome Mistakes, Defeat SJSU 6-4
3/20/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
By: Matt Burkholder
mburkholder@csufresno.edu
GoBulldogs.com
FRESNO, Calif. - Junior closer Jake Shull guided Fresno State through two dicey innings marred with errors to overcome San Jose State's comeback bid for a 6-4 series opening win Friday night at Beiden Field.
"That's what you want out of your closer," said head coach Mike Batesole. "To come in and let stuff go. The last couple of years we wouldn't have won this game tonight. The walks and the errors there at the end would have been too much for us to overcome and [Shull] just stayed locked in."
Shull entered with two outs and a 6-3 lead in the eighth after back-to-back runners were allowed on-base via walk and hit-by-pitch. Faced with going up against the Spartan's cleanup hitter David Campbell, he induced a groundball hit to second base that was misplayed by Korby Batesole to extend the inning. With the bases loaded, the 'Dogs closer recorded the third out by causing the No. 5 hitter Alec deWatteville to fly out to right field on the following at-bat.
Back in for the ninth, Shull found himself facing the bases loaded for a second time as two Bulldog errors breathed life into the Spartans comeback bid - one allowed the leadoff hitter who tallied the only hit against Shull to score. With the tying run at second base and go-ahead run at first, Shull closed the door on the Spartans' rally with back-to-back strikeouts to end the game for his fifth save of the season.
"We played so many games this year where we've played really well and lost," said Batesole. "This is the first one that we haven't played particularly well and won."
The Bulldogs committed a season-high four errors, three of which were committed in the last two innings.
Fresno State (12-11, 4-3 MW) did carry over its positive momentum from the plate after setting season highs for runs (14) and hits (17) last time out against USC, outhitting San Jose State 14-5 on Friday evening.
Austin Guibor went 3-for-5 with a home run and Kevin Viers also shined going 3-for-3 with a home run. It was Guibor's third of the season and Viers' second.
Manny Argomaniz extended his hitting streak to nine games in the seventh with a leadoff single. He leads Fresno State with 30 hits this season.
San Jose State's starter Kalei Contrades allowed a career-high 12 hits and tied a season-high for earned runs allowed (4).
The series continues Saturday night at 6:35 p.m. Fresno State is expected to pitch Anthony Arias (1-0, 8.71 ERA) up against San Jose State's Matt Brown (1-2, 2.50 ERA).
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