Why We Love Fresno State Baseball

By Richard Diaz
Love of Sports Correspondent

Similar to college basketball’s NCAA Tournament, the College World Series has a way of turning lovable underdogs into inspirational Cinderella stories.

However, unlike college hoops, coverage of the CWS is underwhelming, to say the least. The games are televised and highlights are all over SportsCenter, but it doesn’t take a genius to realize it’s the ugly duckling of the Big Three at the collegiate level.

Enter Fresno State, and simply put, it’s impossible not to love these Bulldogs.

They started the season by splitting a four-game series with UC Davis, whose program is new to NCAA Division I baseball. The season was pretty much up-and-down after that, as Fresno practically limped their way into the postseason.

Prior to 2008, a No. 4 regional seed had never completed the journey from regional play to the CWS, but that’s precisely what they did.

Fresno State, who lost their 30th game of the season on Saturday night, has managed to barrel through every obstacle that’s been tossed in their direction. No one would’ve faulted them for packing it in after the demoralizing late-inning loss to North Carolina, but what’s a Cinderella story without a dash of drama?

Despite the fact the Tar Heels were heavily favored, Fresno State managed to bounce back from that devastating loss on Saturday night and defeated a North Carolina team that’s played in the championship series in both of the preceding seasons.

In addition to the overall storyline, Sunday’s game involved its own inkling of magic. The Bulldogs starting pitcher, Clayton Allison, hadn’t pitched since June 8 because of shoulder tendonitis. Even though it’d been fair to expect a shaky performance, he left the game after six dominant innings, giving up just one run on six hits.

Fresno State won the game 6-1 and is now in line to take on a different Bulldogs team, in the form of Georgia.

Not loving this Fresno State team is impossible. They’re already the first 30-loss team to make it to the championship series and have beaten more ranked teams in the postseason than they did throughout the entire regular season, with eight.

Two more wins and they’ll be this year’s kings of college baseball.

Two more wins and the Cinderella story will come complete with a happy ending.

Two more wins and everyone will be talking about Fresno State’s incredible accomplishment.

But before all that, we’re just taken aback by their incredible run, and that’s Why We Love the Fresno State Bulldogs.