May 20, 2017
SAN DIEGO - Fresno State used four home runs to help score eight times as it defeated San Diego State, 11-2, Saturday afternoon in the regular-season finale at Tony Gwynn Stadium.
The results, coupled with New Mexico's win over Nevada, allowed UNM to finish first in the final Mountain West standings and earn hosting duties for next week's conference tournament in Albuquerque.
Aztec senior starting pitcher Cody Thompson sailed through the opening two frames as he recorded four strikeouts along the way. The third inning, however, was a different story as he surrendered a single and walk before Jake Arruda took him deep over the left field fence to give the visitors a 3-0 lead.
One inning later, walks would against come back to haunt him as he issued a pair before Austin Guibor hit a two-run single through the left side. Jake Stone them deposited a ball over the right field fence, a two-run homer that gave Fresno State a 7-1 lead.
Thompson's day would end after that as he would go 2.1 inning allowing the seven runs on six hits with three walks and five strikeouts. He would suffer his first loss of the season his record dropped to 2-1.
The Bulldogs (31-23, 18-12 MW) added an unearned run in the fourth against Jorge Fernandez, who would toss 3.2 innings surrendering the run of two hits with no walks and three strikeouts.
Fresno State tacked on three more runs in the top of the ninth on a solo homer by Stone, his second of the contest, and a two-run shot by Jared Akins.
San Diego State (38-18, 20-10 MW) out-hit the Bulldogs by a 13-11 count in the game, but all 13 hits were singles. The Aztecs put together multiple hits in five innings, but had little to show for it in terms of runs.
After FSU had scored its three runs in the third, SDSU responded with its first run in the bottom of that frame on an RBI single by Tyler Adkison. Its other marker came in the seventh, when Chase Calabuig's grounder to second scored Andrew Brown, who had singled to start the inning and advanced to third on a hit by Alan Trejo.
Adkison finished the afternoon with three hits and an RBI for the Aztecs. Trejo, Brown and Dean Nevarez collected two hits apiece for SDSU.
San Diego State will now prepare for next week's Mountain West Tournament in Albuquerque where they will face Fresno State in the opening game of the four-team event on Thursday, May 25, at UNM's Santa Ana Star Field at 3:00 p.m. MT.