San Jose, Calif. - With the new bats in college baseball, Sunday's game between the San Jose State Spartans and No. 9 Fresno State Bulldogs can only be described as a home run fest.  Spartans and Bulldogs combined for three round trippers in a 5-3 Fresno State win in Municipal Stadium.
 
San Jose State's record is now 21-11 overall, 2-2 in Western Athletic Conference play.  Fresno State improves to 22-5 and is also 2-2 in WAC action.  Despite the loss, San Jose has a winning record against top-10 ranked opponents this year at 4-3.
 
Fresno State's Dusty Robinson opened the home run derby with a bomb to straight away center leading off the fourth inning which staked the Bulldogs to a 1-0 lead.
 
The Spartans came right back in the bottom of the frame.  With two outs and a runner at first, Tyler Christian smoked an 0-1 pitch down the left field line and out for his team-leading fourth homer and gave the Spartans a 2-1 advantage.
 
The Bulldogs came back in the top of the fifth.  With two outs and a runner on second, Garrett Weber singled home a run and moved into scoring position on an error at the plate.  An intentional walk to Robinson followed by a fly out ended the inning with the score 2-2.
 
Andy Hennessey, the Spartans starter was lifted after five strong innings.  He gave up five hits and two runs, striking out three, but didn't figure in the decision.
 
"Andy did a very good job," head coach Sam Piraro said.  "He pitched out of the stretch, which is something he likes to do but is a bit unusual.  He gave us five solid innings and competed very well.  I was just sorry we couldn't get him a win.  He deserved it with his effort today."
 
In the Fresno State seventh, facing reliever Eric LeBaron (1-1), the Bulldogs got a one-out single and two-out hit-by-pitch.  The next batter, Jordan Ribera, hit a three-run homer to left center to give Fresno State a 5-2 lead.
 
The score remained 5-2 until the bottom of the ninth.  With pinch hitter Matt Lopez on second, Danny Stienstra singled to left center to plate Lopez and trim the lead to 5-3 which was the final score.
 
Twice on the day the Spartans had runners in scoring position with one out; with the bases loaded in the first and with runners on first and third in the second.  In the sixth they loaded the bases with two outs and in the eighth they again had runners on the corners with two outs, but each time they were unable to push a run across.
 
"We felt we should have won the series," Piraro said.  "We had opportunities early and late in the game and didn't do it.  We left at least two runs out on the bases and you can't do that against a team like Fresno State.  We lost this game because we didn't convert our opportunities.
 
"We made a mistake to Ribera and he took advantage of it.  We didn't do the same thing when we had the chance.  That was disappointing."
 
Three Spartans had multi-hit games; Tim Quiery (2-for-4), Stienstra (2-for-4, RBI) and Jacob Valdez (2-for-5),  Christian was 1-for-3 with a run and two RBI.
 
The Spartans return to action on Tuesday night in Municipal Stadium.  They host the Dons of San Francisco with a 6:00 p.m. start.  San Jose State is looking for revenge after the Dons beat them 10-0 earlier in the season.
 
#9 Fresno State 5, San Jose State 3 (Apr 10, 2011 at San Jose, Calif.)
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Fresno State........ 000 110 300  -  5  9  0      (22-5, 2-2 WAC)
San Jose State...... 000 200 001  -  3 11  2      (21-11, 2-2 WAC)
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Pitchers: Fresno State - Harlan, Tom; Kendall, Cody(6); Robertson, Charlie(9) and Wynns, Austin. San Jose State - Hennessey, Andy; LeBaron, Eric(6); Melero, Johnny(8); Slaton, D.J.(9) and Bona, Anthony; DiRocco, Michael.
Win-Kendall, Cody(4-0)  Save-Robertson, Charlie(10)  Loss-LeBaron, Eric(1-1)  T-2:49  A-749
HR FS - Robinson, Dusty (8); Ribera, Jordan (2).
HR SJSU - Christian, Tyler (4).
Weather: Sunny