Fresno State baseball on a roll heading into conference-opening series

The Fresno State baseball team is off to a confidence-building 5-1 start heading home for its Mountain West Conference-opening series this weekend against UNLV.

After winning the season-opening series at home against Utah Valley, the Bulldogs went 3-0 at the Tony Gwynn Legacy weekend event in San Diego.

The Bulldogs beat Kansas State 11-3, then-No. 25 Cal State-Fullerton 5-2 and Missouri State 3-2. Fresno State’s scheduled game Thursday in the Gwynn, against Utah, was rained out.

The wins over Fullerton and Missouri State were impressive given the caliber of the opposing programs. Fullerton was eliminated by Washington in a tense NCAA Super Regional last season while Missouri State has gone to the regionals six times in the 2000s including a College World Series apparance in 2003.

Fresno State wants to mirror that success. While the Bulldogs have a College World Series trophy (2008), they haven’t made the NCAAs since 2012 and last season missed qualifying for the Mountain West tournament.

Last year’s team featured playing time for 13 freshmen. One of them, reliever Jaime Arias, earned Freshman All-America honors and had two saves at the Gwynn.

Against Fullerton, Arias stranded the bases loaded in the ninth with three strikeouts. And against Missouri State, he stranded the tying run at second base.

Sophomore left-hander Nikoh Mitchell and junior right-hander Davis Moore each went five innings for their first victories of the season, Mitchell against Fullerton and Moore against Missouri State. Junior Ryan Jensen (2-0) went six innings for the win against Kansas State.

Seniors Nolan Dempsey (.409, eight RBIs), McCarthy Tatum (.348, five RBIs) and Zach Ashford (.318, .464 on-base percentage from the leadoff spot) plus sophomores Zach Presno (.318, eight RBIs) and JT Arruda (.304, five RBIs) are powering an offense collectively batting .291 and averaging six runs per game.

The UNLV series schedule is Friday 6:05 p.m., Saturday 6:05 p.m. and Sunday 1:05 p.m. at Beiden Field.