1993_02 The Daily Collegian February 1993

              Collegian Sports
•
6— Daily Collegian
Tuesday, Feb. 16,1993
Diamond 'Dogs lose three to Stanford
Collegian Sports Staff i
When the Stanford baseball team visited
Fresno State for a season-opening, three-
game series at Beiden Field last year, a
motley crue of Bulldog fans sitting behind
the FSU dugout heckled the Cardinal third
baseman mercilessly about the team's con¬
fusing choice of mascots.
"Hey, Meat," they asked the scrawny lad,
"is it the bird or thecolor? Is 'Cardinal' the
bird or the color?"
It took a little more than a year for those
bullies to get an answer to their riddle, but
they finally got it last weekend.
It's the color.
Actually, cardinal is almost the same dark
shade of red as is the collective backside of
the Bulldogs after being spanked by No. 11
Stanford (7-2) in a three-game sweep at
Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto. After open¬
ing the season with four straight wins, the '
Bulldogs drop to 4-3 and down one spot to
No. 19 in the Baseball America Top 25 poll
released Monday. ' ,
The series started haplessly for FSU on
Saturday when it squandered a S-1 lead and
fell, 7-6. Mike Salazar pitched six-plus in¬
nings, striking out seven, but gave up four
earned runs. Raul Gonzalez (0-1) took the
loss for the 'Dogs, with Stanford's Andrew
Lorraine (2-0) pitching a complete game
V
and struck out six for the win.
Sunday's matinee was billed as the main
event of the series; a pitching duel between
preseason AiI-American Steve Soderstrom
for FSU and 1992 U.S. Olympian Willie
Adams starting, hampered slightly by the
flu, on the mound for Stanford.
With a plethera of Major League scouts
on hand, according to the Fresno Bee,
Soderstrom" and Adams each tossed four-
hitters.
Adams' four hits: three singles and a solo,
400-foot home run by Bulldog center fielder -
Gary McNamara — his first round-tripper
of the season.
Soderstrom's four hits: two doubles, two
singles.. .good for a 4-1 win for the Cardi¬
nal.
Game three on Monday afternoon turned-
out to be downright ugly for the Bulldogs, as
Stanford rocked starter Eric Newman (0^1)
for eight hits and five earned runs in 2 2/3 *
innings, en route to a 12-1 thumping and the _•
final piece of a three-game sweep. The Bull¬
dogs' lone run came on an RBI-single by
McNamara in the first inning that brough
catcher Todd Johnson, also a preseason All-
American, home to score.
The Bulldogs return to home to face
former-Big West foe Pacific in a 7 p.m. start
at Beiden Field tonight.
Hector Amezcua/The Daily Collegian
134-pounder Harold Zinkin (right) recorded his a pin in his final home match last Saturday.
Seniors go out in style
All upperclassmen  *
victorious in 22-14
defeat of Oklahoma
By Brett Pane
Staff writer
\	
The Fresno State wrestling team
ended its dual-meet season last
Saturday, giving fans one final
opportunity to see its five seniors/
They didn't leave disappointed.
Robbie Sordi, Harold Zinkin,
Serge Mezheritsky. Anthony
Camacho and Lorenzo Neal all
posted victories in their final home
appearances, leading the ninth-
ranked Bulldogs past No. 11 Okla¬
homa, 22U4.
For Zinkin, who pinned Ryan
Hagerin 2:39 at 134 pounds, five
years of wrestling at FSU could
not have ended any better.
"There is no better way to end
it," Zinkin. said. "I had beaten
(Hager) 1 -0 earlier in the year and
it was great to go out and pin him
in front of the home crowd."
After beating Oklahoma, the
Bulldogs bussed to Cal State Ful-
Lady cagers
fall to SDSU
at home, 58-55
By Dave Donnelly
Staff writer
lerton and promptly Jjeat the Ti¬
tans. 24-12 on Saturday night.
, Like he has for much of the sea¬
son, Sordi started the match against
Oklahoma with a win at 118 pounds.
With the score tied at 2-2 in the
third period, Sordi reversed Eric
Ivins and held on for a 4-3 win.
After Zinkin's pin and a loss at
142 pounds by Gerry Abas,
Mezheritsky got the Bulldogs back
on track by beating David Vance,
9-4 at 150 pounds. The JC transfer
from Moorpark College had four
See wrestling/Page 7
A tall task confronted the Fresno
State women's basketball team Sat¬
urday night at the North Gym.
The San Diego State Aztecs, with
five players at least six-feet tall,
came to battle the Bulldogs in a°
WAC contest. y
But |n-the end it was the Aztecs'
shortest player, Falisha Wright,
who proved to be the difference.
Wright scored 21 points, including
two free throws with seven sec-
. onds left, to lift the Aztecs (5-3,
14-5) to a 58-55 victory over the
Bulldogs.
The. Bulldogs (1-7, 7-13) had
several chanoes to tie or possibly
win the game but could not convert
the opportunities.
The last came with nine seconds
left and the score 56-55. FSUpoint
guard Tammie Beckley intention¬
ally fouled Wright to send her to
the line for the one-and-one. She
missed the front end but the Bull¬
dogs couldn't grab the rebound
and fouled Wright again.
This time the 5-6 sophomore
made two free throws to give the
Aztecs a J8-55 lead with seven
seconds left. The Bulldogs had time
for one last three-point attempt but
couldn't even get a shot off when
Suzanne Zahasky was whistled for
the double dribble.
"That last-rebound was really
crucial,'\FSU guard Staci Oddo
saidr-We were only down by one
and we would've had more time."
"We had plenty of opportunities
to win in the later stages," coach
Bob Spencer said.
Spencer was impressed with
Wright.
"She's a very outstanding ball
player and she knows how to con¬
trol the tempo," Spencer said.
"She" s the glue that holds that team
together. She knows when to take
the ball to the basket and when not
to. She played a very smart game."
The game was close throughout
with niether team having more than
a five-point lead, neither team shot
well from the floor. The Aztecs
shot 39 percent (25^64) while the
Bulldogs shot almost 38 percent
(20-53), including a dismal 30 per¬
cent in the second half.
The Bulldogs hadtrouble on the
boards most of the night and were
outrebounded by SDSU, 42-34.
-^t-
Cagers lose to Falcons
Collegian Sports staff
It was an improvement over the
first tune the Fresno State men's
basketball team played Air Force,
but the result was the same.  .
TheFaIcons(S-9.9-12)defeated
the Bulldogtel-58 Saturday night
at Colorado Springs and swept the
season series
It was only the third conference
win for the Falcons. The Bulldogs
(5-7,10-11) had a three game win:
ning streak snapped
Senior guard George Irvin scored .
22 points to lead Air Force while
Davon Satterwhite led the Bull¬
dogs with 13 points. Travis Stel
added 12 for the 'Dogs.
Air Force was able to rally from
a 32-27 deficit by shooting almost
62 percent in the second half and
52 percent while the Bulldogs shot
45 percent
27 FSU personal-bests at Cosby meet
Collegian Sports Staff
Twenty-sevetTatnes at last
weekend's Bill Cosby Indoor In¬
vitational in Reno, Nevada, a
Fresno State track athlete com¬
peted better in his or her respec¬
tive event than ever before.
Some people only did it in one
event Terry Bowen and Auwana
Brown both did it in in the 55
meters and tb*200. And Kendall
Hoggatt set personal-bests in the
rnen'835 meter hurdles (T.96). the
long jump(23-41/4), and the triple
jump'(47-7).
Senior Shannon Lieder, though,
continues to burn a trail to the
NCAA Indoor Championships on,
March 12. Saturday, she broke her
own school record in the women's
indoor 800 for theu^rd-time.
, Other women's highlights in¬
cluded a 39-foot triple jump by
Tara Didylc, the longest in the
WAC this year and a PR for
Didyk. Trishun Jackson's PR
25.0 in the 200 meters is the
third-fastest heat in the WAC in
1993. AndTanyaDootey.a 1992
Indoor All-American in the400
meters, ran the fastest400 in the
WAC this year with a 54.29.
Sophomore Kevin Baxter's
15:13.2 in the 5,000 meters Is a
«rw PR and the WAC best