'Dogs complete sweep of UC Riverside

Sunday, February 20

Fresno, CA

1:05 P.M. PT

Fresno State

3-0

UC Riverside

0-3

UC Riverside

Fresno State

Photo by: Kayla Barber

'Dogs complete sweep of UC Riverside

2/20/2022 5:45:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By: Travis Blanshan / Assistant Director of Strategic Communications

FRESNO, Calif. - The Diamond 'Dogs completed a season-opening series sweep over UC Riverside on Sunday afternoon downing the Highlanders, 5-1 at Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium.

Fresno State (3-0) continued its strong start offensively finishing with 10 hits as a team to give them 33 in the series. Leading the way was redshirt senior Mason Grotto who went 4-for-4 with four singles, an RBI and a run scored.

Nate Thimjon smacked a home run and added a single while Ivan Luna tallied a single, double, RBI and scored a run.

On the mound, redshirt senior Nikoh Mitchell made his first start since 2019 tossing two innings limiting UCR to three hits, one run, two walks and struck out two.

Tommy Hopfe came on in relief for a pair of innings to earn his first career win with Kyle Pruhsmeier followed with three perfect innings and Roman Angelo closed out the game with a spotless final two frames.

How It Happened
UC Riverside scored its one and lone run of the game in the top of the first on a two-out RBI single by Anthony Mata and threatened for more loading the bases for Joey Nicolai, but Mitchell was able to get the first baseman to bounced into a fielder's choice.

The 'Dogs answered right back with a run of their own off the bat of Luna on an RBI single to center. After a scoreless second, the Bulldogs took the lead with two runs in the third thanks to an RBI single up the middle by Payton Allen and a knock by Travis Welker.

A solo home run by Thimjon in the fifth extended the 'Dogs lead to 4-1 and the scoring was completed in the sixth with an RBI single by Grotto.

Notables

The 'Dogs are off to their sixth 3-0 start under Coach Batesole joining 2010, 2011, 2015, 2016 & 2018.
Fresno State improves to 7-3 all-time against UC Riverside with the series sweep.
It was Thimjon's 20th career home run.
Mitchell made his first start on the mound since June 2, 2019 against Stanford in the NCAA Tournament.
Angelo made his Bulldog debut after spending his first three seasons at CSU Bakersfield.

Up next
The 'Dogs travel to Cal Poly (1-2) on Tuesday for their first midweek contest of the season.

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