| Baseball Tops No.9 Fresno State | |||||||
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San Jose, Calif. - Behind strong pitching by Roberto Padilla the San Jose State Spartans earned a 3-1 victory over the No. 9 Fresno State Bulldogs in both team's conference opener on Friday night in Municipal Stadium.
They win improve the Spartans record to 20-9 overall, 1-0 in Western Athletic Conference play. They are 3-1 against top-10 opponents this season. Fresno State falls to 20-4, 0-1 in league action. Padilla (6-2) went 8.1 innings and scattered four hits. He struck out seven for the third time this season and allowed one earned run, lowering his team-best ERA to 2.47. "I came out with the mindset of attacking the hitters from the get go," Padilla said. "I was able to throw all my pitches for strikes and put hitters away. I didn't want to let them get hits off me when they had two strikes and for the most part I was able to execute that plan." The Bulldogs' Greg Gonzalez was equally strong tossing 7.0 innings and giving up one earned run on three hits while striking out six. Padilla's run was came on a fourth-inning leadoff home run from Fresno State right fielder Dusty Robinson. Gonzalez gave up a leadoff walk in the sixth. Three batters later Danny Stienstra belted a double that split the left and center fielders and rolled to the wall. Craig Hertler, who was on first base, came all the way around to beat the throw home and tie the game 1-1. To open the Spartans eighth, Gonzalez was lifted, after 111 pitches, for Bulldogs closer Charlie Robertson. Robertson (0-1), in 10 appearances, had nine saves and hadn't given up an earned run. With two outs Jacob Valdez was hit by a pitch. Stiensta followed him with his second double of the night. That set the stage for Tim Quiery. On the first pitch he saw, Quiery hit a sharp liner to the right side that Fresno State second baseman Pat Hutcheson ranged for to his left. Hutcheson was able to get a glove on the shot and knocked it down, but had no play. Both runners scored giving the Spartans a 3-1 lead. "Jake got on and Danny extended the inning," Quiery said. "I was just trying to keep the rally going." After getting the first batter out in the ninth Padilla allowed back to back walks and was lifted in favor of Zack Jones. Jones induced a ground out and struck out the final batter on the game to earn his fifth save of the year. "We knew the pitching we were going to face would be very good," head coach Sam Piraro said. "Tonight the fans saw four good pitchers. Both starters did a great job and both closers were good as well. It was a hard fought game and we're grateful that we won." "This is a big win," Quiery added, "but we now have to focus on tomorrow." The teams resume their four-game series on Saturday with a doubleheader. First pitch for game one, a seven inning affair, is set for 1:00 p.m. in Municipal Stadium. Game two will follow approximately 45 minutes after the completion of game one. San Jose State 3, Fresno State 1 (Apr 08, 2011 at San Jose, Calif.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Fresno State........ 000 100 000 - 1 4 0 (20-4, 0-1 WAC) San Jose State...... 000 001 02X - 3 5 1 (20-9, 1-0 WAC) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Pitchers: Fresno State - Gonzalez, Greg; Robertson, Charlie(8) and Wynns, Austin. San Jose State - Padilla, Roberto; Jones, Zach(9) and DiRocco, Michael. Win-Padilla, Roberto(6-2) Save-Jones, Zach(5) Loss-Robertson, Charlie(0-1) T-2:30 A-712 HR FS - Robinson, Dusty (7). Weather: Cloudy & cool |
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