Fresno State Athletics
Fresno State
38-14-1
UNLV
29-29
MW CHAMPS! Diamond 'Dogs defeat UNLV, 12-6 to win MW Tournament title
5/25/2019 11:30:00 PM | Baseball
The Diamond 'Dogs won their first Mountain West Baseball Tournament Championship on Saturday with a 12-6 win over UNLV. The Bulldogs will play in the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2012.
After winning the MW regular season title and earning the No. 1 seed in the MW Tournament, Fresno State (38-14-1) completed a perfect 3-0 run in Reno and earned the conference's automatic bid to the 2019 NCAA Division I Baseball Tournament.
Making its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012, the Bulldogs will learn their regional destination on Monday at 9 a.m. PT on the Selection Show televised on ESPNU. The nationally-ranked Bulldogs also become the first MW team since 2012 to win the league's regular season and tournament titles in the same season.
"The whole league was very tough and we knew coming in to the tournament nothing was going to be easy and we were going to have to earn it," said head coach Mike Batesole who earns his seventh conference tournament title while at Fresno State.
In addition to their regular season and tournament titles, five Bulldogs earned All-Tournament honors with junior pitcher Ryan Jensen being named the Tournament MVP followed by All-Tournament selections in the senior trio of Nolan Dempsey, McCarthy Tatum & Zach Ashford along with sophomore Nate Thimjon.
Winning its seventh-straight game on Saturday, the Bulldogs tallied 13 games offensively with Ashford leading the way with three hits, including a triple, matched his career high with four runs scored and drew two walks.
Junior catcher Carter Bins, Tatum, Thimjon and freshman left fielder Jeff Jamison each tallied two hits apiece as the Bulldogs collected five extra-base hits in the game and drew nine walks as a team.
On the mound, the Bulldogs used six pitchers in the contest after only using three through the first two games of the tournament. Redshirt junior right-hander Ryan Sullivan won his second game of the season despite only facing one batter as his third out to escape the fifth inning proved to be critical to the 'Dogs win.
The Bulldogs' pitching staff over 25 innings in the tournament allowed 10 runs, nine earned and 17 hits, a Mountain West Tournament record.
How It Happened
Scoring in the first inning for the first time in the tournament, the 'Dogs jumped out to a quick 3-0 lead. Tatum got the scoring started with a RBI single (watch) up the middle driving in Ashford for the game's first run. A second run came in to score as Dempsey, who reached base on a hit by pitch, scored on a fielder's choice by Emilio Nogales. As he was all tournament long, Thimjon stayed on fire from the plate with a two-out double to right-center (watch) to drive in Tatum.
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The 'Dogs made it 4-0 in the second inning with a RBI double to right-center by Bins (watch), before the Rebels were able to scratch across two runs in the top of the third inning and added two more in the fifth inning to tie the game at 4-4.
The 'Dogs quickly responded as Nogales came through with a RBI single through the left side (watch) that gave the Bulldogs back the lead at 5-4.
It was all Bulldogs from there as Fresno State scored one run in the sixth inning on a fielder's choice by Dempsey (watch) to take a 6-4 lead before a six-run seventh inning locked up the game.
Jamison brought in the first run on a ground-rule double (watch) and after a single by Ashford and a walk by Bins loaded the bases, JT Arruda drew a walk (watch) for a 8-4 lead.
Tatum followed with another bases-loaded walk to push the 'Dogs in front by five and Dempsey sent a sacrifice fly to center field for a 10-4 lead. The exclamation mark of the contest came two batters later as Thimjon roped a single to center field for two more runs (watch) to push the 'Dogs lead to 12-4.
Notables
- It is Fresno State's first conference tournament title since winning the WAC Tournament in 2012.
- It is the ninth conference tournament title won by Fresno State joining 1993 (WAC), 1995 (WAC), 2006 (WAC), 2007 (WAC), 2008 (WAC), 2009 (WAC), 2011 (WAC) & 2012 (WAC).
- The Bulldogs will make their 35th appearance as a program in the NCAA Tournament and first since 2012.
- The Bulldogs have won seven games in a row, 12 of their last 13, 19 of their last 22 and 23 of their last 27 games overall.
- Fresno State is now 3-1 in Mountain West Tournament history against UNLV. The 'Dogs lost to the Rebels in 2014, defeated UNLV in 2015 and beat the Rebels twice over the last two days.
- The 'Dogs improve to 5-0 in neutral site games this season and are now 23-6 in road/neutral site games this season. The Diamond 'Dogs have won 13 straight games away from for the second-longest active streak in the nation.
- Arruda pushed his on-base streak to 23 games with a single.
- Ashford moved into the top 10 in program history in hits with his 237th career hit.
Up next
The 'Dogs will make their 35th NCAA Tournament appearance next weekend at one of 16 regional sites nationwide. The 2019 NCAA Tournament selection show will air on ESPNU on Monday at 9 a.m. PT.
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2019 MOUNTAIN WEST ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM
MVP: Ryan Jensen, Jr., Fresno State
Zach Ashford, Sr., Fresno State
Nolan Dempsey, Sr., Fresno State
McCarthy Tatum, Sr., Fresno State
Nate Thimjon, So., Fresno State
Daniel Perry, Jr., Nevada
Joshua Zamora, So., Nevada
Casey Schmitt, So., San Diego State
Ryan Hare, Jr., UNLV
Austin Pfeifer, Fr., UNLV
Bryson Stott, Jr., UNLV
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Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Sullivan, Ryan (2-2)
L: SPOONER, Bradley (2-3)
Batting:
2B: STOTT, Bryson 1 ; WOLD, Jack-Thomas 1
RBI: JOHNSON, Dillon 1 ; WOLD, Jack-Thomas 2 ; SMITH, Max 1 ; PFEIFER, Austin 1
SF: SMITH, Max 1
Base Running:
RUNS: STOTT, Bryson 2 ; JOHNSON, Dillon 2 ; WILLIAMS, Edarian 1 ; PAHUKOA, Duke 1
Batting:
2B: Bins, Carter 1 ; Arruda, JT 1 ; Thimjon, Nate 1 ; Jamison, Jeff 1
3B: Ashford, Zach 1
RBI: Bins, Carter 1 ; Arruda, JT 1 ; Tatum, McCarthy 2 ; Dempsey, Nolan 2 ; Nogales, Emilio 2 ; Thimjon, Nate 3 ; Jamison, Jeff 1
SH: Bins, Carter 1
SF: Dempsey, Nolan 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Ashford, Zach 4 ; Bins, Carter 1 ; Arruda, JT 2 ; Tatum, McCarthy 3 ; Presno, Zach 1 ; Jamison, Jeff 1
SB: Arruda, JT 1 ; Tatum, McCarthy 1
HBP: Dempsey, Nolan 1
