Associated Press
OMAHA, Neb. ó Fresno State was smashing in its final performance as college baseball’s team of destiny, winning a championship that would have been impossible to predict.
With Steve Detwiler providing all the offense Justin Wilson needed, the Bulldogs captured their first national championship in a men’s sport with a 6-1 victory over 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 homer 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 homers in seven CWS games, the most since LSU and Southern California jacked a record 17 in 1998.
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.