At least...

[Unchained]

As bad is it is being stuck in an elimination game as the #1 ranked team in the land,it is always nice to send Florida State home [img]/LDPforum/ubbthreads/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/wink.gif[/img] Canes beat the Seminoles 7-5 today in Omaha to stay alive after dropping the opener 7-4 to Georgia.

[CoeburnCane]

Amen to that.

And "classy" Mike Martin stood in the dugout looking like Boobah Bowden on the sidelines confused after Wide Right 1. At least his kids had enough class to come out to shake hands this time while he stayed in the dugout and moped.

Canes play Stanford tomorrow at 7pm, winner plays UGA on Friday at 7pm.

[Unchained]

Let me be the first to fire up the OVER-RATED chant,as the "#1" team in the land (not) goes tits-up,8-3 to Stanford. GO FRESNO!!!!!

[1inStripes]

Hopefully LSU will put a nice bow on the final ACC teams season tonight.

[CoeburnCane]

In the 4th inning, I texted a friend and said, "this team looks dead. looks like they don't care if they go home or not".

Just a case of a really good team, a loaded one at that, going cold at the wrong time. They were red hot ALL season, only dropped 6 regular season games. Won the title in the toughest division in the toughest conference in college baseball, plus won it's tournament. When super regionals came, the downhill slide began--they weren't concentrating at the plate, on the mound, or in the field (except for Dennis Raben, he was $$$ in RF for the Canes in Omaha).

Oh well...they'll likely lose 4-5 players, if not more, to the draft--so they will just have to go out and recruit some kids to come in and take those spots right away. We'll se how it works out.

[Unchained]

Fresno State,the 1st team seeded last in their regional to ever make it to Omaha wins the whole dang thing,beating Georgia tonight to capture the crown. This is what is good in sports and shows us why you play the game FSU has been on the road for 40+ straight days,battled through amazing odds,playing with its best 2 players with busted hands..etc. Truly an amazing run.

OMAHA, Neb. -- Fresno State was smashing in its final performance as college baseball's team of destiny.

With Steve Detwiler providing all the offense that starting pitcher Justin Wilson would need, the Bulldogs captured their first national championship in a men's sport with a 6-1 victory against Georgia in Game 3 of the College World Series finals Wednesday night.

Detwiler homered twice and drove in all six runs, and Wilson allowed five hits in eight innings to cap Fresno State's wild ride to a title.

Fresno State lost 12 of its first 20 games this season, needed to win its conference tournament just to make the NCAA field of 64, fought off elimination in regionals and super regionals, and became the first No. 4 regional seed to reach the CWS since the tournament expanded in 1999.

The Bulldogs from California (47-31) not only showed they belonged, they showed they were the best, even though no previous national champion had more losses. The national title was the second in school history. Fresno State won the 1998 women's softball title.

Detwiler, playing with a torn ligament in his left thumb, hit a two-run homer on Nathan Moreau's 3-2 pitch in the second inning barely cleared the right-field fence, just getting over the glove of Matt Olson.

There was no doubt about Detwiler's second blast, a high drive that landed three-quarters of the way up the stands in left field. That three-run shot off Dean Weaver was Detwiler's third home run of the CWS and 12th of the season. It also marked the fourth time a player went deep twice in a championship game.

Detwiler also had an RBI double in the fourth.

Seven players accounted for Fresno State's 14 home runs in seven CWS games, the most since LSU and Southern California jacked a record 17 in 1998. No other CWS team had more than six home runs.

Wilson (5-5) turned in the best performance of any starter in this year's CWS. The junior left-hander struck out nine, walked one and held Georgia to three singles and a triple in seven shutout innings.

Gordon Beckham ended Wilson's shutout bid when he homered leading off the eighth. His 28th home run tied him with LSU's Matt Clark for the national lead.

Wilson, after throwing 127 pitches, gave way to Clayton Allison to start the ninth. Joey Lewis singled leading off and Lyle Allen walked for Georgia.

Coach Mike Batesole called on closer Brandon Burke, who got Miles Starr to hit into a double play.

Burke walked Ryan Peisel to put runners at the corner, and then Olson lined out to Detwiler in right to end the game. Detwiler tucked the ball into his back pocket and sprinted to join his teammates in a wild celebration.

"It was pretty awesome," Wilson said as the party was still raging on the field. "I can't believe it out here."

Moreau (4-4) took the loss, giving up five hits and three runs, two earned, in five innings.

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service

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