Fresno must rally to complete Cinderella run
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BY CURT McKEEVER / Lincoln Journal Star
OMAHA — It’s never too late for Georgia.
Ten days ago, the Bulldogs opened the College World Series by scoring four runs in their last at-bat to defeat Miami. Monday, they pulled the same trick against Fresno State to win the opener in the best-of-three championship series 7-6 before 19,559 fans at Rosenblatt Stadium.
“Our guys just keep pushing,” said David Perno, who watched his team post its third come-from-behind win after the seventh inning in its four CWS games.
Georgia’s decisive outburst came in the bottom of the eighth after Fresno State, the only NCAA regional No. 4 seed to advance to Omaha, had scored three runs in the top half.
Junior shortstop Gordon Beckham jump-started the late rally by swatting a two-run homer off senior right-hander Brandon Burke.
Burke was the fifth pitcher used by Fresno State, and the only one who had an earned-run average below 6.75.
He entered after Jason Breckley gave up a bloop single to Matt Olson, and threw a quick strike to Beckham. But he then watched his next pitch land halfway up the bleachers beyond left field.
“He threw me a first-pitch strike and honestly, I choked up (on the bat) after that,” said Beckham, 7-for-15 at the Series. “I figured he was going to come with a fastball at some point. I didn’t know it was going to be then.”
Beckham’s homer left him with the Georgia career record of 52 home runs and also tied him for most RBIs in a season (74).
“He’s called a bunch of shots his whole career,” Perno said. “Tonight it was the same thing. Some guys were on him pretty good about, ‘When are you going to hit another home run?’ and he said ‘When we need it the most.’”
As much as Beckham’s blast helped, Georgia still had plenty of work left, and Rich Poythress’ walk got the Bulldogs going again.
Burke came back to retire Bryce Massanari on a fly to center field, but Matt Cerione, who’d struck out five times in Georgia’s win against Stanford on Saturday, pulled a double into the left-field corner.
With Poythress being waved home, Fresno State shortstop Danny Muno took the relay and threw a strike to the plate, but the ball hit the 6-foot-4, 235-pound Poythress in the back, allowing him to score and Cerione to take third.
Joey Lewis then put his team ahead for the third and final time by hitting a double that glanced off second base.
“If you would’ve told me before the game we were going to hold that offense to seven runs with the arms we had, I would’ve taken it,” said Fresno State coach Mike Batesole, whose team was playing for the third straight day. ” But give them credit. Wow. You go back and look at their big hits, with the exception of Beckham’s home run, they were all with two strikes. ... That was really the difference.”
Georgia turned the game over to Joshua Fields in the ninth, and the senior right-hander worked a 1-2-3 inning to improve to 18-for-18 this season in save opportunities. Fields, whose fastball hit 98 mph, had allowed four ninth-inning runs during Saturday’s 10-8 win against Stanford.
“Fortunately, we have Gordon Beckham and Josh Fields in our dugout,” Perno said, “because in big games, great players step up.”
Fresno State had broken a 3-3 tie in the top of the eighth by doubling its total against sophomore left-hander Alex McRee, who in three CWS appearances covering six innings had allowed only one run.
Georgia was lucky to keep the damage to three runs. After Steve Susdorf doubled in Erik Wetzel, Alan Ahmady lined out to Beckham, who then won a race to second to double off Susdorf.
Tommy Mendonca followed by hitting a 1-2 pitch from McRee over the wall in left-center to make it 5-3. McRee then hit Ryan Overland with a pitch and gave up an RBI double to Steve Detwiler before being pulled.
Fresno State is trying to become the fifth straight team that wasn’t a top eight national seed to win the national title.
“We’re going to come back tomorrow and have another dog fight,” Detwiler promised.
Reach Curt McKeever at 473-7441 or cmckeever@journalstar.com.
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