Fresno State completed the most improbable run in recent college sports history as they became the lowest seed ever to win a national championship defeating the Georgia Bulldogs 6-1 on Wednesday night at Rosenblatt Stadium. The night belonged to Steve Detwiler who had a career night in the championship game going 4-4, driving in all six Fresno State runs and setting College World Series records for the most home runs in a championship game with two, most home runs in a championship series with three, most RBIs in a championship game with six, most RBIs in a championship series with nine, most extra base hits in a championship game, most bases in a championship game with 11 and in a fitting end to the game he caught the final out for Fresno State.
Fresno State scored two runs in the top of the second inning off of a two run blast by Steve Detwiler. Detwiler drove in the third run of the game in the top of the fourth with a double that scored Steve Susdorf and the Detwiler continued his one man onslaught with a three run blast in the top of the sixth and then capped off his night with a single in the top of the eighth.
Fresno State got a masterful outing out of Justin Wilson who head coach Mike Batesole was just hoping to et four or five innings out of tonight. Wilson went eight strong innings giving up just one run on a Gordon Beckham home run in the bottom of the eighth. He surrendered just five hits and struck out nine.
After trailing 5-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning in game two, the Fresno State offense outscored Georgia 25-6 over the next 12 innings.
Fresno State en route to the championship defeated the #2 national seed North Carolina twice, the #3 national seed Arizona State twice, the #6 national seed Rice once and the #8 national seed Georgia twice. In addition they defeated two Top 20 teams in Long Beach State and San Diego twice. Fresno State also joined Oregon State (2006) as the only two teams to have lost the first game of the championship series and gone on to win the title.
The championship is the first for Fresno State and just the second in school history as the softball team took home a national championship in 1998.
Box Score
Fresno State Recap
Georgia Recap
Photo is courtesy of Fresno State Media Relations
