Fresno State won the first game of a crucial three-game series against Louisiana Tech, scoring seven runs in the seventh inning to bring an early end to a 12-2 victory at Beiden Field.
Patrick Hutcheson hit a two-run homer against left-hander James Ferguson to put an end to the game via the 10-run rule used in the Western Athletic Conference.
The Bulldogs can clinch a berth in the WAC Tournament by winning two games in this series against Tech, which is now 0-7 in conference road games.
Fresno State left-hander Tyler Linehan, who had to come out of his start against Louisiana Tech on Friday night after just four pitches, left with a back injury.
The game is scoreless in the second inning ...
Fresno State still has a chance to qualify for the Western Athletic Conference Tournament. But needing to win two of three games against Louisiana Tech this weekend at Beiden Field - or get help from New Mexico State - the Bulldogs are not off to a good start.
Starter Tyler Linehan had to leave the game aftyer throwing just four pitches in walking Tech's Taylor Terrasas with an apparent physical issue.
Linehan was not close on any of the four pitches.
Right-hander Cody Kendall is on in relief.
Steve Stitzer, the coach at the Hogan Prep Academy in Kansas City, had a front row seat for the recruitment of 6-foot-5 wing Broderick Newbill, who signed a national letter of intent on Wednesday with Fresno State. Stitzer watched a lot of schools come and go. But one thing that sticks out through the process was seeing Bulldogs assistant Byron Jones so far from home.
''The coach that recruited him, he followed him a lot and watched a lot of games, went all the way up to North Missouri to watch him play,'' Stitzer said.
''It was just kind of unbelievable to see Fresno State up there in St. Jo, Missouri, but that's what happens. He did a good job. He got Broderick ... and he came a long way, he came a really long way.''
The spring signing period ended on Wednesday, though schools still can and will add players. And, as expected, the usuals are at the top of the recruiting rankings -- Kentucky, UCLA, Arizona, Baylor, North Carolina State, Texas, Michigan State and Kansas all had highly-ranked recruiting classes.
Mid-major programs don't often crack that group. But there is no question that Rodney Terry and his staff at Fresno State improved the talent level in the Bulldogs program, said Josh Gershon, a West Coast recruiting analyst for Scout.com.
Gershon, based on the West Coast, didn't evaluate every player in the Bulldogs' class -- point guard Aaron Anderson is from Edmond, Okla., wing Broderick Newbill from the Hogan Prep Academy in Kansas City. But the California recruits in the Fresno State class make an immediate impression.
''Marvelle Harris is one of my favorite players on the West Coast,'' Gershon said of the guard from Eisenhower High in Rialto, who signed a national letter of intent at the start of the spring period.
''He is a player who didn't really play AAU and is a little further out from L.A., so a lot of coaches didn't really get a chance to see him, and you couple that with the fact that he played football, was a football prospect first, he completely went under the radar. But we saw him in December at a tournament in Santa Monica and it was very clear that he was one of the top guys available on the West Coast at his position and Fresno State, credit that coaching staff for getting in there first and evaluating him and realizing just how good he was.
''He has a terrific pull-up jumper, he's a big-time scorer, he's competitive and has a good athletic frame at 6-3, 6-4. He really plays hard and has a winning competitive mentality. I think he's a guy that should eventually be a pretty good scorer in the Mountain West. It's really a steal for Fresno State because if more coaches saw him, he would have ended up in the Pac-12, I think. But Fresno State got in there first and secured him before anyone else had a chance to figure out how good he was.''
Fresno State coach Rodney Terry has added another versatile player to the Bulldogs' recruiting class, signing 6-foot-5 wing Broderick Newbill to a national letter of intent this morning.
Newbill led Hogan Prep Academy in Kansas City to a Class 3 state championship as a junior and had the Rams in the title game again this season, losing to Charleston High. He had a scholarship offer from Nebraska and this month made official visits to Fresno State, Southern Illinois and Tulsa.
Newbill's father, William, confirmed that the letter had been signed and said they would be sending it back to Fresno State tonight.
Terry is not allowed under NCAA rules to comment on recruits until after the signed letter of intent has been received and been through the athletic department's compliance office. But the Bulldogs' recruiting class, which took a significant jump when Memorial High center Robert Upshaw signed last month, has another important piece heading into the Mountain West Conference.
The class also includes point guard Aaron Anderson from Santa Fe High in Edmond, Okla.; forward Braeden Anderson from Okotoks, Alberta, Canada; guard Marvelle Harris from Eisenhower High in Rialto; and center/forward Tanner Giddings from Windsor.
Season ticket renewals have gone well at Fresno State, which is coming off a 4-9 season in which it failed to captivate the home crowds at Bulldog Stadium. By the end of blowout losses to Boise State and Louisiana Tech, there were but a few believers remaining in the seats.
But after years of a steady decline in sales - part of the reason Coach Pat Hill was fired - Fresno State is making a push to get its season ticket base back to or above 20,000 to help a financially-strapped athletic department as it takes a step up into the Mountain West Conference.
''We had a strong renewal season and now we've got to get those former season ticket holders, we have to get them back this year,'' said Ryan Reggiani, an assistant athletic director for external relations. ''We actually lowered our public season ticket price to $140, which comes out to a little less than $24 a game. There's no donation required on those tickets.
''A lot of people think it takes a huge donation, that they can't afford it. But if you break it down they are affordable and there is no donation tied to it.''
In addition to public season tickets for the Bulldogs' six home games there is a flexible family plan - an adult ticket is $120, youth tickets are $40 and they can be mixed in matched in any combination as long as there is an adult - and a package for young alumni, faculty and staff at $99.
Those purchasing tickets by May 25 also will be entered into a drawing to win a lunch with Coach Tim DeRuyter on June 7.
Fresno State opens its season on Sept. 1 against Weber State at Bulldog Stadium and also has home dates against Colorado (Sept. 15), San Diego State (Sept. 29), Wyoming (Oct. 20), Hawaii (Nov. 3) and Air Force (Nov. 24).
Dwindling football ticket sales led to a budget deficit of $739,000 this year, forcing cuts in staffing as well as scholarship reductions, recruiting and other team expenditures.
''As football goes, the athletic department goes,'' Reggiani said.
Fresno State has not finalized its basketball schedule for 2012-13, but the Bulldogs will open the season at Texas and have a game against UCLA at a newly-renovated Pauley Pavilion.
But when completed, Coach Rodney Terry said it will be another challenging non-conference schedule, which is the way he wants it heading into the Mountain West Conference.
''It gives you a level. In your non-conference schedule, you're preparing yourself for conference play. You want to play athletic teams with size, because we're going to see,'' Terry said.
''We're playing in the best conference on the West Coast. The talent level, we're going to see pros night in and night out, so we have to prepare ourselves for that level of competition and I think what we've done to this point will definitely prepare us for the athleticism that we're going to see and the size that we're going to see.''
One significant difference between this season and last will be the amount of travel the Bulldogs do early in the season. The game at Texas, obviously, is a haul. But it won't be like last year when they played games at North Dakota State, at Boise State, at Oregon, at Colorado and in the NIT Preseason Tipoff at Fort Collins, Colo.
''We really want to play a very competitive schedule, one that doesn't take us crazily all around the country like last year,'' Terry said. ''We were kind of all over the place. We had to do that for a number of different reasons in terms of the time (to put together the schedule) and we just didn't have the luxury of sitting back and deciding where we wanted to go and where we wanted to be.
''This year we got a chance to be more on the West Coast and be closer to home and have more home games and not be strangers in the Save Mart Center.''
Kaiser Pass Road, the mountain thoroughfare that links Huntington Lake to Edison and Florence lakes in the Sierra National Forest, opened for the season Friday.
Not a moment too soon, either. The first Pacific Crest Trail hikers of the season arrived Saturday at Vermilion Valley Resort at Edison Lake.
This is an extremely early opening for Kaiser Pass Road, which is normally closed until at least Memorial Day weekend due to snow.
Fresno State had a few issues last season dealing with Nevada quarterback Cody Fajardo, then a redshirt freshman quarterback who was making only his second career start when the Pack ran all over the Bulldogs' defense in a 45-38 victory back on Oct. 22.
Nevada racked up 581 yards of total offense in its win, Fajardo completing 19 of 27 passes for 313 yards and one touchdown and rushing for another 61 yards.
He ended up as the freshman of the year in the Western Athletic Conference and figures only to be more polished next season when Fresno State sees him again, and not just because he will be a year older, more mature and comfortable within the Nevada offense.
Fajardo has been invited to the Manning Passing Academy in July, where some of the top returning quarterbacks in college football get four days of on and off the field instruction from a team of coaches including Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning.
The Bulldogs' Derek Carr, who is coming off a strong sophomore season, is not going to the camp.
The Pack's Colin Kaepernick went to the workouts, held at Nicholls State in Louisiana, before his senior season and the results showed up on the field.
Kaepernick completed 64.9 percent (233 of 359) of his passes for 3,022 yards and had an efficiency rating of 150.5 in his senior season.
As a junior, he had completed 58.9 percent (166 of 282) of his passes for 2,052 yards and had an efficiency rating of 139.1.
Fresno State will play Nevada as members of the Mountain West Conference next season, the game scheduled for Nov. 10 at 7:30 p.m. in Reno.
