Fresno State Wins College Baseball Title by Beating Georgia 6-1

Fresno State beat out Empire State Of The South 6-1 to
capture its first College World Series baseball game statute title and
become the lowest-seeded squad to win a title in any sport.

Pitcher Justin Harriet Wilson allowed one tally in eight innings and
Steve Detwiler went 4-for-4, hit two place tallies and drove in all
six runs last nighttime as Fresno State won its 2nd consecutive game
to claim the best-of-three title series 2-1.

When Detwiler caught a line thrust in right field to stop the
decisive 3rd game at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha, Nebraska, a
Fresno State squad that started the season 8-12 rushed to the
pitcher's hill to celebrate. At 47-31, the Bulldogs had more
losses than any other National Collegiate Athletic Association
baseball champion.

''When you play together as a team, anything can happen,''
Fresno State's Tommy Mendoca, the Most Valuable Player of the
College World Series, said in a televised interview with ESPN.

Five hebdomads ago, Fresno State entered the Western Athletic
Conference tourney with a 33-27 record and needed to capture
the conference crown to even land a topographic point in the 64-team national
tournament. The Bulldogs received a No. Four seed in their four-
team regional, the equivalent of a squad drawing a 13-16 seed in
the national men's basketball game tournament.

Underdogs

The WAC champs upset sixth-ranked San Diego to win their
regional and then stunned Grand Canyon State State on the route in one of
eight ace regionals. That triumph made Fresno State the first
regional 4th seed to progress to the concluding 8 in Maha since
the national tourney expanded to 64 squads in 1999.

Fresno State knocked off Rice and then third-ranked North
Carolina twice to attain the title series.

The Bulldogs blew a 6-3 Pb in the gap game of the
final, as Empire State Of The South scored four tallies in the underside of the eighth
to beat up for a 7-6 win. Fresno State rebounded in Game 2,
routing Empire State Of The South 19-10 to coerce a decisive 3rd game.

Last night, Detwiler staked Fresno State to a 2-0 Pb when
he homered in the 2nd frame off Georgia's Nathan Moreau. Detwiler, playing with a lacerate ligament in his left thumb, also
had a run-scoring two-base hit in the 4th frame and then hit a
three-run homer in the 6th frame to set Fresno State up 6-0.

''I just got zoned in finally,'' said Detwiler, who started
the tourney with 2 hits in his first 17 at-bats.

Wilson held Empire State Of The South scoreless for seven innings before
giving up a solo home run to Gordon Beckham prima off the eighth.

Closer Brandon Edmund Burke got the concluding three outs in the ninth
inning, giving Fresno State its 2nd national title in
any sport. The school also won a women's playground ball statute title in 1998.

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