Fresno State "Underdogs" win national title

There have been many Cinderella stories over the years in college sports -- the basketball championship runs of North Carolina State and Villanova in the 1980's always seem to leap to mind.

But for all the great stories of the little guy rising to the top of the heap, none can be matched by the run of the Fresno State Bulldogs, who completed one of the more unlikely roads to the title by beating the Georgia Bulldogs 6-1 in the third and final game of the College World Series championship Wednesday at Rosenblatt Stadium.

The Fresno State squad started the season in a pure funk, losing 12 of their first 20. They had to win the Western Athletic Conference tournament just to get a bid in the NCAA tournament, then entered the toughest regional as a No. 4 seed.

Fresno State held off elimination long enough to win the Long Beach regional, only to find itself on the road in one of the toughest places to play -- Tempe, Ariz. They lost their first game to fourth-seeded Arizona State, then ran off two wins in a row to pull off the upset and earn the trip to Omaha.

Even the road to Omaha wasn't smooth sailing for these gritty Bulldogs. They flew in bad weather and endured a bumpy flight before touching down in Omaha. Once they hit the pavement, though, all this team did was win when it needed to.

And it should be only fitting that the most battered of the Bulldogs, Steve Detweiler, be the man that carried Fresno State to the title. Playing with a completely torn ligament in his thumb, Detweiler smacked a pair of home runs and a double and accounted for all six RBI's to lead his team to the title.

Detweiler's first blast came in the second, as he took a Nathan Moreau pitch just over the wall in right to give Fresno State a 2-0 lead. He would add an RBI double in the fourth and a three-run blast to left in the sixth to put Fresno State in command.

The big cushion was more than enough for starter Just Wilson, who threw 129 pitches on three days rest and went eight innings for the Bulldogs. His only mistake came in the eighth when Georgia's All-American shortstop, Gordon Beckham, hit a solo homer to left field. The round-tripper gave him 28 for the season, tying him with LSU's Matt Clark for the most home runs this season.

It was a great effort by the Georgia Bulldogs to get to the championship series. They dominated their half of the bracket, knocking top-seeded Miami into the losers bracket and finishing the four-team double-elimination part of the tournament undefeated. They won the first game of the series and were in command in the second game before Fresno State made its amazing comeback.

And if you want to put Fresno State's championship run into perspective, consider that they were the No. 4 seed in their four-team regional. By comparison, if the baseball brackets were seeded as they are for the NCAA basketball tournament, Fresno State's seeding would have been the equivalent of a team seeded No. 13 or lower. The lowest seed to win an NCAA basketball championship was Villanova, who was a No. 8 seed when they beat Georgetown in 1985.

It was an amazing finish to what was yet another exciting College World Series, and the end result is one that will capture the imagination of underdogs in every sport for many years to come.

Tournament Results

Saturday, June 14 -- Stanford 16, Florida State 5; Georgia 7, Miami 4

Sunday, June 15 -- Fresno State 17, Rice 5; North Carolina 8, LSU 4

Monday, June 16 -- Miami 7, Florida State 5 (Florida State eliminated); Georgia 4, Stanford 3

Tuesday, June 17 -- LSU 6, Rice 5 (Rice eliminated); Fresno State 5, North Carolina 3

Wednesday, June 18 -- Stanford 8, Miami 3 (Miami eliminated)

Friday, June 20 -- North Carolina 7, LSU 3 (LSU eliminated)

Saturday, June 21 -- Georgia 10, Stanford 8 (Stanford eliminated); North Carolina 4, Fresno State 3

Sunday, June 22 -- Fresno State 6, North Carolina 1 (North Carolina eliminated)

Championship Series

Monday, June 23 -- Georgia 7, Fresno State 6

Tuesday, June 24 -- Fresno State 19, Georgia 10

Wednesday, June 25 -- Fresno State 6, Georgia 1 (Fresno State win CWS championship)