Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
San Jose State
Thomas, Lambert Shutout SJSU, 3-0
5/3/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
By: Matt Burkholder
mburkholder@csufresno.edu
GoBulldogs.com
SAN JOSE, Calif. - In his first career weekend start, freshman Ricky Thomas led the Bulldogs to a 3-0 shutout win over San Jose State to secure the three game series Sunday at Municipal Stadium. In each of Fresno State's two wins in San Jose, the Bulldogs held the Spartans scoreless.
"Ricky and (Anthony Arias) are both Friday night guys on Sunday, and you saw some Friday night flashes today," head coach Mike Batesole said. "There were three or four spurts there when he had to go in and get some where you went, 'Hey, there it is.'"
Thomas pitched a career-long 6 1/3 innings in the fifth start of his freshman season. The San Diego native limited San Jose State to four hits in the shutout effort. He struck out four and walked four.
"Basically, it was try to get first pitch strikes, attack the hitters, make sure I'm pitching at a downhill angle consistently and use my teammates to get outs, too," said Thomas.
The first multi-base hit Thomas allowed was against the last batter he faced in the seventh. When Thomas got in trouble, teammate Jimmy Lambert picked him up in relief to end the threat. Thomas allowed a leadoff walk and two batters later, Andre Mercurio hit a double to put runners on second and third, which led to the end of Thomas' start. Lambert retired the Spartans No. 2 and 3 hitters by inducing back-to-back pop ups to keep SJSU off the scoreboard.
SJSU challenged for runs off of Lambert in the eighth, putting runners on first and second base with consecutive base hits for the first time in the game. And again in the ninth the Spartans put a runner in scoring position, but Lambert maintained the shutout and earned his first career save.
Offensively, Korby Batesole manufactured what proved to be two very important RBIs in the first inning. Facing two outs with the bases loaded, Batesole battled back from a 1-2 count to force the count full, fouled off a payoff pitch, and then hit a liner to centerfield that scored Austin Guibor and Kenny Corey to give the 'Dogs a 2-0 lead.
Fresno State (23-25, 13-11 MW) benefited from a leadoff single by Taylor Ward for the Bulldogs third run of the game that was scored in the seventh. In a defensive lapse by SJSU, Guibor hit a sharp line drive to first base, instead of going for the force, Chris Williams fired to second wildly looking for the double play. Guibor was safe on a fielder's, while Taylor Tempel reached second and Ward advanced home for the third Bulldog run.
Guibor (2-for-3) and Ward (2-for-4) led the Bulldogs with two hits each. Tempel (1-for-5) extended his hitting streak to nine games with a single in the seventh. Tempel led Fresno State on the weekend with six hits to improve his season batting average to .362.
In Thomas' last three appearances, all starts, he owns a 1.26 ERA over 14 1/3 and is 2-1 in those games. With Sunday's win, the freshman improved his record to 3-2 this season.
The Bulldogs are back in action at Beiden Field on Tuesday at 6:35 pm. Fresno State hosts Cal State Northridge for its final nonconference game of the 2015 regular season.
"Be Bold!" - The official home of the Fresno State Bulldogs is 940 AM ESPN Radio.
