Fresno State’s season-ending slide continued Thursday as the fourth-seeded Bulldogs fell 3-2 to top-seeded Air Force in the opening round of the Mountain West baseball tournament in San Diego.

It was the sixth straight loss for Fresno State (29-27), which faces second-seeded New Mexico at 1:30 p.m. today in the double-elimination tournament.

New Mexico (28-25) lost to third-seeded San Jose 8-5 on Thursday as left-hander Jose Gutierrez threw a career-high seven innings for the Spartans (23-31).

Early Lead for Falcons

Air Force (29-26) started with home runs from Chase Spencer and Jay Thomason off Bulldogs starter Jake Dixon in the first inning for a 3-0 lead.

Related Story: Bulldogs Blasted by Air Force, Fall to 4th Seed for MW Tourney

Dixon struck out a career-high 10 batters in 6 1/3 innings, and relievers Jaykob Acosta and Bryce Armstrong shut out Air Force the rest of the way.

Late Rally Falls Short

Fresno State scored in the second inning without the benefit of a hit on a hit batter, a walk, a sacrifice by Justin Stransky, and a wild pitch by Falcons starter Seungmin Shim.

An RBI single from Stransky off reliever Doyle Goehring in the eighth provided Fresno State’s other run. Goehring recorded the final out of the inning for his 10th save with the potential tying and go-ahead runners on base. In all, the Bulldogs stranded 10 base runners.

The box score is at this link.

You can watch all of the tournament games on the Mountain West Network.