The Fresno State baseball team (29-24, 16-12 MW) dropped the first game of a crucial road series on Thursday at Air Force, falling out of first place in the Mountain West.

The Bulldogs, who lost 3-1 to the Falcons in Colorado Springs, have games Friday and Saturday to close out the regular season.

Conference Implications

The Mountain West standings are coming down to the wire, and the Bulldogs are fighting for the conference title, as well as one of the four spots in the double-elimination MW Championship tournament at San Diego State next week.

With Thursday’s victory, Air Force (24-26, 16-12) moved into a tie for second, a half-game behind New Mexico (16-11, 27-22), which begins a three-game series at San Jose State (20-30, 14-13)) on Thursday night.

The fifth team in contention to advance to the MW Championship is Nevada (23-25, 14-13), which is hosting last-place San Diego State (16-35, 9-18) in Reno.

Related Story: Unlocking the Secrets to Fresno State’s Superb Baseball Season

Players to Look For

Sophomore Murf Gray will play a key role in this contest as he batted .583 for the Bulldogs in their series win over conference challenger UNLV last weekend. The 2023 Mountain West Freshman of the Year had seven hits on the weekend in 12 at-bats with a single and a home run. The 2024 Preseason All-Mountain West selection drove in six runs and had a career-high four-hit game against the Rebels.

Redshirt junior Rocco Peppi leads the Bulldogs in slugging percentage (.621), runs batted in (55), home runs (14), total bases (123), and stolen bases (6).

Senior Noah Beal leads the bullpen with earned run average (4.99), innings pitched (66.2), and strikeouts (73).

You can watch the games live on the Mountain West Network, and listen to them live on FOX Sports AM 1340.