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The Fresno State Bulldogs are riding the strong right arm of junior pitcher Ryan Jensen and the hot bat of third baseman McCarthy Tatum into their first NCAA baseball tournament appearance since 2012.
Fresno State earned the No. 3 seed in the Stanford regional after sweeping the Mountain West Conference regular-season and tournament titles.
Jensen, with an 11-1 record and 2.92 earned run average, has been sensational. Every time the Salinas High School product takes the mound, scores of Major League Baseball scouts are in attendance.
Tatum, a 6-foot, 6-inch senior out of Clovis High School, leads the Bulldogs with 12 home runs and 71 runs batted in. He is hitting .353, with a .601 slugging percentage.
ESPN3 Will Carry Fresno State-UC Santa Barbara Game
Fresno State (38-14-1) opens the NCAA Tournament against No. 2 seed UC Santa Barbara (45-9) on Friday at 7 p.m. at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond. The game will be televised on ESPN3.
Stanford (41-11), the No. 11 national seed, is top-seeded in the region. WAC Tournament champion Sacramento State (39-23) is the No. 4 seed.
“It is going to be great to experience a regional and I am really happy to be in it,” said Jensen, the Mountain West Pitcher of the Year. “It will be great for the Red Wave to come and support and have a great crowd for us and we travel well which is great to see.”
Said Bulldogs Coach Mike Batesole: “We are going to have to pitch right, keep making the routine plays, clutch hits and there is going to have to be a little luck involved and is going to take a little bit of everything when you have these caliber of teams in the tournament.”
The winner of the Stanford regional advances to the super regionals and will face the winner of the Starkville (Mississippi) regional. Mississippi State (46-13), the No. 6 national seed, is the top seed in the region followed by No. 2 seed Miami (39-18), No. 3 seed Central Michigan (46-12) and No. 4 seed Southern University (32-22).
Catch Up With the Bulldogs
You can review the Bulldogs’ season at these links: Mountain West awards and stats.
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