The WSU baseball team will head to Fresno on April 25 to begin a three-game weekend series against Fresno State University.
Fresno State has been good in conference this year, leading the Mountain West with a 12-6 record. However, overall, they are 19-21, as they have struggled against non-conference opponents.
WSU is 15-23, with an 8-10 conference record. However, since their 0-8 start, the Cougars are 15-15. Fresno State also got off to a slow start, going 5-10 to open the season. The Bulldogs then went on a 14-9 run to get back to a .500 record, but have lost their past two games.
Fresno State head coach Ryan Overland interviewed with Fresno’s Yourcentralvalley.com where he gave some insight into the strengths of his team and how important the upcoming series is for the Bulldogs.
“We’re halfway through the league schedule and we’ve put ourselves in a pretty good start,” Overland said. “These next two weekends at home will be really big.”
He praised his starter Jack Anker, who was recently crowned the Golden Spikes Player of the Week award. Anker, a junior, tossed eight innings of two-hit, shutout baseball against San Diego State University on April 11. He has been Fresno State’s Friday starter this year and will likely get the nod against WSU on the opening game of the series on April 25. His last outing, on April 17, saw him strike out 10 through seven innings while allowing four earned runs.
Known as the “Milk Man,” because he grew up on a dairy farm, Anker told Fox26News he is not trying to do anything special.
“I’m not really trying to do anything special or out of the ordinary,” Anker said. “Just trying to get a win. Just go get the Dogs in the win column.”
The Cougars will have their work cut out for themselves against Anker, but the offense got a good sign last Sunday when they exploded for 13 runs in a win over Nevada. In their past seven games, the Cougars have scored 65 runs, averaging about 9.2 runs per game. One of the players whose bat has been heating up is senior catcher Will Cresswell. Cresswell spoke after the win about his new approach, taking things day by day.
“Just stack a day, stack a day, see how many good at-bats I can put over on top of each other,” Cresswell said. “Success is just a byproduct of it.”
While the offense has been on fire, the pitching staff has been equally cold. WSU has allowed 78 runs in their past seven games (11.1 runs per game). However, 24 of those runs came in a 24-14 loss at New Mexico.
Historically, WSU has struggled against Fresno State. The Cougars are 1-6 against the Bulldogs and are 0-4 in the city of Fresno. They won their first game against Fresno State in 2024 at home when they lost two out of three but won the getaway game on Sunday.
