The Fresno State baseball team accomplished last night what could be the most improbable feat in the history of college sports. They won the College World Series in remarkable fashion. The CWS is similar to the March Madness basketball tourney in that there are 64 teams invited, some with automatic bids and some with at-large entries. The only reason FSU was in the tournament was because they miraculously won the WAC championship tourney and then received only a 4th Regional seed (equivalent to 16 seed in March Madness)- the lowest possible seed! They beat the Georgia Bulldogs 2 games to 1 in the championship series. These scrappy dogs are the lowest ranked team to ever win an NCAA championship in any sport (16 seed and 89th in RPI rating).
The hero of the championship game was Steve Detwiler, with his 4 for 4, 2 HR, 6 RBI performance. He was responsible for all of the runs FSU scored in the 6-1 victory. Even more amazing is that he did it all without any ligament in his left thumb- he injured it earlier in the CWS and stated that it hurt worst when he swung and missed; so I guess he didn't miss. He set several championship game records: Most RBI's (6), most bases reached (11), most home runs (2), and most extra-base hits (3). The lineup was stacked with hard-working, scrappy players like Detwiler and I think that is why this team was so fun to watch throughout the series. This is one of the great Cinderella stories of our time.
Some fun facts:
- These bulldogs survived SIX! elimination games during the CWS (each matchup is a best of three series)
- They lost 31 games this season (the most by any CWS champion)
- They scored 62 runs in the CWS (tied a record set by USC in 1998)
- They more than doubled the Home Run output of any team during the tournament.
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