Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
Cal State Northridge
'Dogs Win 16-Inning Marathon, 4-3
5/6/2015 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
By: Matt Burkholder
mburkholder@csufresno.edu
GoBulldogs.com
FRESNO, Calif. - The Fresno State baseball team outlasted CSUN 4-3 in a 16-inning marathon Tuesday evening, and into Wednesday morning. The final out was made at 12:20 a.m., five hours, 43 minutes after first pitch.
Junior Brody Russell led off the 16th for Fresno State with a double down the right field line and advanced to third thanks to Jesse Medrano laying down a sacrifice bunt on the next at-bat. That set the stage for Korby Batesole. The Bulldog freshman hit a sharp groundball that bounced off the third base bag to bring Russell home for the walk-off win.
"They had their defense in tight and so were hoping he'd hit it," said head coach Mike Batesole about the game-winning play and combating the defense playing the squeeze bunt. "If you just hit a ball hard on the ground when they're in there tighter than normal, you got a chance for it to go through, and boy did he hit in the right spot."
Fresno State (24-25) avoided CSUN plating the go-ahead run behind junior Dominic Topoozian closing out the game. The Matadors were able to get a runner as far as third base over the final three innings of the game, but the Bulldogs kept the runs from scoring each time.
''We made some big pitches in some big situations," said coach Batesole. "We had I think 10 of their 16 leadoff men got on base or something crazy like that. It was in double-figures, though. We were pitching out of trouble all night long. Dom made some big pitches. Rod made some big pitches. That's what we've been looking for, is for some guys to come in out of the pen and pump strikes in there. With runners in scoring position, toe the rubber, 'here's my best pitch, see if you can hit it' instead of guys picking around the corners and walking guys. I was really proud of what Dom did. We're going to need that.''
Topoozian (1-2) earned his first Division I win pitching the final four innings of the 16 inning affair. It was the longest outing of his career, and a game-high among the Fresno State pitching staff on the night.
CSUN (27-20) tied the game in the top of the ninth, 3-3. Tim Borst, who had retired six-straight since entering the game to start the seventh, allowed a leadoff walk to open the ninth. After a successful sacrifice bunt to move the tying-run into scoring position, the runner advanced to third on a wild pitch, and then advanced home on the same play after Taylor Ward fired errantly to third (trying to hold the runner from advancing to third on the wild pitch).
Both teams entered the 10th inning with three runs, six hits and two errors.
Despite three strikeouts to open the game by Fresno State starter Garrett Mundell, CSUN scored the game's first two runs, three batters into the game. After Mundell got the leadoff strikeout, Ryan Raslowsky singled and it was followed by a two-run home run by Yusuke Akitoshi.
Fresno State cut the lead to one in the fourth, and then took the lead 3-2 in the sixth with a two-run home run from Kevin Viers - his seventh of the season. He plated Austin Guibor, who hit his team-best fourth triple of the season to start the bottom of the sixth.
Viers led the Bulldogs against CSUN, going 3-for-4 on the evening. Russell and Guibor chipped in two hits apiece.
"This is what we've been looking for," Batesole added. "At some point, you're going to get hot during the season and we haven't hit it yet. We've finally been playing much better on the road, you come in and get a 16-inning mid-week game, and all of a sudden it starts feeling good and if you're going to get hot you don't want it to be in March you want it to be right now. I'm not saying we're hot or we're going to get hot, I'm saying we have the opportunity to and this is the exact time you want that opportunity."
Next up for Fresno State is a Mountain West road series at UNLV. First pitch against the Rebels will be 3:05 p.m. on Friday.
"Be Bold!" - The official home of the Fresno State Bulldogs is 940 AM ESPN Radio.
