Air Force Drops Series Opener at Fresno State

April 13, 2017

Air Force baseball (14-18, 4-12 MW) lost to Fresno State (17-16, 7-6 MW), 7-5, in a Mountain West game Thursday night at Pete Beiden Field at Bob Bennett Stadium in Fresno, Calif. The Falcons, who entered the game leading the nation in batting average, were held to six hits.

Trailing after Fresno State scored two runs in the second inning, the Falcons took a 5-2 lead with a five-run third inning. The Bulldogs rallied with four runs in the bottom of the third, however, to re-take the lead.

A three-run home run by Jake Stone capped Fresno State's third inning. The Bulldogs tacked on an insurance run in the fifth for the last run scored in the game.

Air Force had six hits in the game. Tyler Zabojnik had two hits, including a double, run and RBI. Russell Williams hit an RBI-triple and scored a run. Bradley Haslam had a base hit in the first inning to extend his hitting streak to 35 games.

Jake DeVries (3-3) pitched five innings in the start for the Falcons, striking out three. Shawn Kelley and Evan Floyd combined to toss three scoreless innings in relief.

Fresno State had 11 hits. Stone went 3-for-3 with four RBIs. Edgar Gonzalez (3-1) pitched 7.2 innings for the win. Gonzalez struck out eight. Fred Schlichtholz picked up the save with a scoreless ninth.

In Air Force's five-run third, Adam Groesbeck knocked in Rob Dau with an RBI single for the first run. Drew Wiss scored the second run on a double play ball. Zabojnik singled in Haslam for the third run. Williams tripled-in Zabojnik and came around to score on a wild pitch.

Game two of the three-game series is tomorrow. First pitch is at 6 pm PT.

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