June 1, 2008

Allison shines as Fresno State blanks San Diego

By Abbey Mastracco

CollegeBaseballInsider.com

LONG BEACH, Calif. - The Long Beach Regional was largely considered the toughest before the weekend began. Fresno State showed exactly why the play in Long Beach is so tough this weekend.

After dominating No. 1 seed Long Beach State on its home turf Friday night for the upset win, Clayton Allison then took a no-hitter into the sixth on just 42 pitches, Saturday night at Blair Field, leading the Bulldogs to their second upset win of the weekend with a 6-0 shutout of No. 2 seed San Diego.

“Alli attacked the mitt from start to finish,” said Mike Batesole, Fresno State head coach. “The only time he was up he was up on purpose, and it was a beautiful thing to watch.”

Allison hurled his first complete game of the season, just the second of his career, allowing just five hits, walking none and punching out five. The win was just Allison’s third on the season, as he moved to 3-5.

San Diego’s highly-touted Josh Romanski was handed his first loss on the season, as he now stands 9-1 and faces elimination with his team tomorrow. Romanski surrendered six runs on six hits, walking one, hitting two batters and striking out six.

“I thought Romo pitched well,” said San Diego head coach Rich Hill. “I thought he had one bad inning, but that’s baseball. Obviously, the story of the game was Clayton Allison. He did a phenomenal job.”

“I knew Romanski was 9-0, after the fifth inning that’s all I was thinking about,” Allison said. “That’s all I was trying to work off of.”

The San Diego southpaw dueled Allison for three innings until the Bulldogs capitalized on the southpaw’s wavering control and a Torero error.

Romanski walked Gavin Hedstrom with one out, and second baseman Kevin Hansen missed an easy flip to Jose Valerio at first on an Erik Wetzel bunt. With the squeeze play on, Steve Susdorf was beaned to load the bases. Romanski then got Alan Ahmady to strike out on a textbook changeup, but then walked in a run when he hit Steve Detwiler. Tommy Mendonca’s double then cleared the bases, putting the Bulldogs up 4-0.

“I was irritated with myself for hitting him,” Romanski said. “If I hit that spot, he swings at and hits it in the ground, or maybe swings and misses and it’s a totally different ballgame. But the guy that we didn’t want to the plate was Tommy and I feel mad at myself that I allowed him to get to the plate.”

Allison’s performance was aided by stellar defense from the crew behind him. First baseman Alan Ahmady made some especially close plays at first, and Allison lauded his defensive abilities.

“We had some awesome plays in the infield,” Allison said. “I helped them out a little bit by not getting guys on with walks but they made some nice plays in the infield and some good reads in the outfield.”

Victor Sanchez was the first Torero to break through against Allison in the sixth, as he sliced a leadoff single past a diving Mendonca at third base.

Mendonca finished 2 for 4 with a double and a game high four RBI for the Bulldogs. Erik Wetzel went 2 for 4 with a double and two runs and Susdorf went 1 for 3 with a double and RBI and two runs.

Fresno State (39-27) will face the winner of tomorrow’s loser’s bracket. San Diego (42-16) will face Long Beach State, which eliminated California Saturday afternoon, Sunday at 1 p.m.