Diamond 'Dogs keep red-hot offense going in 11-7 series-opening win over San Jose State

Friday, April 13

Fresno, CA

6:05 PM

Fresno State

21-12, 8-8

San Jose State

12-20, 4-11

San Jose State

Fresno State

Photo by: Kiel Maddox

Diamond 'Dogs keep red-hot offense going in 11-7 series-opening win over San Jose State

4/13/2018 10:00:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

The Diamond 'Dogs continued their recent offensive outburst from the plate on Friday night hanging on to defeat San Jose State, 11-7 at Bob Bennett Stadium to win the series opener. Game two of the series will be on Saturday at 6:05 p.m.

By: Travis Blanshan / Assistant Director of Communications

FRESNO, Calif. - The Diamond 'Dogs continued their recent offensive outburst from the plate on Friday night hanging on to defeat San Jose State, 11-7 at Bob Bennett Stadium to win the series opener.

Fresno State (21-12, 8-8 MW), who won its fourth straight Mountain West contest, tallied double-digit runs for the sixth time in its last 11 games and double-digit hits for the ninth time in that stretch smacking 16 hits in the contest.

Four Bulldogs notched three hits apiece as redshirt senior first baseman Torin Goldstein, the reigning Mountain West Player of the Week, kept his unreal run from the plate going 3-for-5 with a two-run home run, three RBIs and scored two runs. The Irvine native is now 19-for-26 over the last seven games he has played in with two doubles, one home run, five runs scored and 10 RBIs.

Jeremiah Burks, Korby Batesole and Zach Presno each tallied three hits as Presno came within a triple shy of the cycle, drove in three RBIs and scored a pair of runs.

On the mound, sophomore right-hander Ryan Jensen tossed a career-high 129 pitches on his way to earning his second win of the season finishing the game after 5.2 innings allowing all nine Spartan hits, seven runs, six earned, three walks and struck out four. Adam Medrano, Tiegen Jones and Jaime Arias came on to record the final 10 outs without giving up a SJSU hit.

How It Happened
San Jose State (12-20, 4-11 MW) got the scoring started right off the bat as Kellen Strahm took advantage of a Bulldog error at shortstop by Batesole to reach base. The Spartan center fielder moved to third on a single through the right side by first baseman Shane Timmons and came home to score on a sacrifice fly to left field by right fielder Chris Williams.

The lead was quite short-lived for the Spartans as Fresno State got to San Jose State starting pitcher Josh Goldberg for four runs in the bottom of the first. Goldstein got the offense going with an RBI single up to right-center (watch) driving in JT Arruda from second. With the hit, Goldstein tied the program record for most consecutive at-bats with a hit at eight to match the last 'Dog to do it in Bill Thrasher in 1993. Presno followed with a three-run bomb to left field (watch) to give the 'Dogs a 4-1 lead.

After a pair of scoreless innings, the 'Dogs found the offense again adding two more runs in the bottom of the fourth with a pair of two-out hits scoring one run on a Miles Tomczak RBI single (watch) to left field and rounded out the scoring on a double to right-center by Zach Ashford that brought home Tomczak (watch).

SJSU got one run back in the top of the fifth as catcher Jace Duty scored on a wild pitch to cut the 'Dogs 6-2, but Goldstein's two-run home run to right field made it 8-2 in bottom of the fifth (watch).

The Bulldogs tacked on three more key insurance runs in the frame scoring on an error by the Spartan second baseman that allowed Presno to score before Batesole scored on a wild pitch and Burks drove home Nolan Dempsey on a single that shot past the third base.

With the Bulldogs holding a comfortable 11-2 lead entering the sixth inning, the Spartans answered back with five runs of their own in the top of the sixth to cut the 'Dogs lead to 11-7 as all five runs were charged to Jensen.

SJSU threatened to tie the game bringing the tying run to the plate with the bases loaded and two outs as Jones took over for Medrano, who faced one batter and allowed a walk, but the redshirt freshman southpaw escaped the jam getting Williams to bounce out to second to keep the Bulldogs in the lead by four.

That was the final scoring of the night as Jones and Arias shut down the Spartans over the final three innings combining for four strikeouts.

Quotes
Head Coach Mike Batesole
On the recent play of Torin Goldstein....
"He has a lot of times over his career where he could have packed it in and just went ahead and got his degree due to his injuries and some of the tough luck that he has had, but he has refused to do that and it is just fantastic to watch him get rewarded for all his hard work."

Notes
- Over the past 11 games, the 'Dogs are hitting .342 as a team with 105 runs scored and have smacked 145 hits with 46 going for extra-bases.
- It was the second MW series (of six) that the 'Dogs have won the first game.
- It was Goldstein's first home run of the season and third of his career.
- Jensen won his fifth career game.
- Presno matched his season-high with his three hits and hit his sixth home run of the season.
- Ashford moved his on-base streak to 35 games.
- Arias has now allowed one earned run, three runs total, over his last 21.1 innings and has allowed only eight hits in that span while notching 29 strikeouts.

Up next
The Bulldogs and Spartans play game two of the weekend series on Saturday evening at 6:05 p.m. Edgar Gonzalez will pitch for the 'Dogs while southpaw Andrew Mitchel is slated to go for the Spartans.

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