Fresno State overcomes obstacles
June 2nd, 2008, 11:26 pm · Post a Comment · posted by Dan Zeiger
Fresno State first baseman Alan Ahmady has 27 hits in the Bulldogs’ last 16 games, and his 81 RBIs are the second-highest single-season total in school history. (Associated Press photo)
What Arizona State coach Pat Murphy calls “the Cinderella story of the NCAA tournament” is coming to Packard Stadium this weekend to face the Sun Devils for the right to go to the College World Series.
Fresno State, the No. 4 seed in what was considered the toughest regional, Long Beach (Calif.), polished off San Diego, 5-1, on Monday night to advance to a best-of-three super regional against ASU that will begin on Saturday.
The Bulldogs, who beat second-seeded San Diego twice and No. 1 seed Long Beach State once en route to the regional title, have won nine of their last 10 games. They are the second fourth seed — the other was Missouri in 2006 — to advance to a super regional since the NCAA adopted the format in 1999.
“We have been on a pretty good run,” coach Mike Batesole said. “We’ve been on a stretch of games that we have had to win, and we have played pretty good baseball.”
And the Bulldogs (40-28) have managed to do it without the services of their top pitcher, junior Tanner Scheppers, a right-hander who went 8-2 with a 2.93 ERA before suffering a stress fracture in his pitching shoulder that will likely sideline him for the rest of the season. The hard-throwing Scheppers was projected as a first-round draft choice.
Fresno State has gotten timely tournament pitching performances from left-hander Justin Wilson and righty Clayton Allison, and on Monday, right-hander Holden Sprague limited San Diego to a run and five hits in 5 1/3 innings. Brandon Burke gave up just one hit the rest of the way for his 11th save of the season.
Said Sprague, who was charged with slowing a San Diego squad that beat the Bulldogs 15-1 on Sunday to force Monday’s contest: “That’s the good thing about baseball … there’s always tomorrow. Our job was to get the job in Burke’s hands and let him go what he does.”
While a regional typically tests a team’s pitching depth, playing four games in Long Beach was not a culture shock for Fresno State. A WAC regular-season weekend series consists of four games, usually with a doubleheader on Saturday.
“We were already playing 27 of 36 weekend innings without Tanner,” Batesole said. “Then someone had to take his spot. Sprague and Burke have taken on a few more innings, and those two have really big for us.”
Batesole’s lineup has five regulars hitting above .300, including senior left fielder Steve Susdorf, the WAC player of the year. Susdorf is batting .342 with 10 home runs and 77 RBIs, but the hottest bat belongs to first baseman Alan Ahmady, a sophomore who leads the team in average (.382) and RBIs (81) and has 12 home runs.
While the Bulldogs won a regional for the first time in 17 years, they are not postseason neophytes. Fresno State has won the last three WAC championships, and Batesole has taken five teams to the NCAA tournament.
“This is the team I am the most proud of,” Batesole said. “This is definitely the toughest of the last three teams we’ve had. We’ve fought through a lot of adversity, a lot of guys banged up or out. But this team keeps grinding away, and the success of the last two years has taught these guys how to win.”