The Midweek Crisis: Dog-Beat-Dog World

It wasn't supposed to happen.

Heck, it had never happened. No team had ever won the College World Series with more than 23 losses. No team had ever won a championship with a lower seed in collegiate sports history.

Until now.

The Fresno State Bulldogs -- the 31-loss, No. 4 regional-seed (equivalent to that of a No. 13-16 seed in your favorite March Madness pool) Bulldogs -- are somehow on top of the college baseball world.

Sure, they had some close calls -- well, six of them. But Fresno State was 6-0 in those elmination games. The closest call for the Bulldogs was the regular season itself, where their 21-11 record in a lackluster Western Athletic Conference meant they weren't even sniffing an at-large bid to the tournament.

But they won the WAC Tournament, and we all know how they rest turned out: Fresno State ended up making the greatest championship run since we believed in miracles.

So how did it happen? How did Fresno State tie an all-time high 62 runs at the College World Series? How did the team with the 89th-best RPI in the country beat No. 3 Arizona State -- twice -- No. 6 Rice, No. 2 North Carolina -- twice -- and then No. 8 Georiga -- also twice?

How'd they do it without ace Tanner Scheppers? How'd they do it with Tommy Mendonca playing third base with two dislocated fingers in his throwing hand? How was Steve Detwiler playing at all?

The solution to each of these questions comes from the same general answer: Fresno State just wanted it more.

After falling to Georgia in the first game of the finals, and then finding themselves down 5-0 in the second game, it appeared that the clock had finally struck midnight on Cinderella.

Not so fast. The Bulldogs scored 19 of the game's next 24 runs, putting those other Bulldogs away in convincing fashion.

The rubber match was won a different way -- Fresno State never trailed. That's because starter Justin Wilson threw 129 pitches of one-run baseball in eight innings. That's because a physically broken Detwiler went bananas -- 4-for-4 with two homers and six RBI. He also caught the game's final out, which was only fitting.

Now, Detwiler can get that thumb repaired -- about seven weeks later than he should have. Now, one of the greatest Cinderella runs in sports history has come to a close.

That's right -- one of the greatest Cinderella runs in sports history. You never get a chance to say that. Well, you can say it, but a lot of times the team you're talking about isn't deserving of such a distinction.

This team is.

This team -- a team that has overcome worse odds than any team in the history of college sports, a team of the walking wounded, a team that almost didn't qualify for the NCAA Tournament at all -- just made one of the greatest runs ever.

Seasons like these are why we watch sports. Statistically, it wasn't supposed to happen. Pure talent-wise, it wasn't supposed to happen. But Fresno State's team made it happen.

The best Cinderella story ever came when the U.S. Olympic hockey team showed the Soviet Union the door back in 1980. We haven't seen anything close to that since -- until Wednesday. They aren't the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team, but the Fresno State Bulldogs are as close as we've gotten in almost 30 years.

Hopefully, you were able to take it all in. If not, you can always wait till about 2040 to see something like it again.

Adam Loberstein believes in Cinderellas. He can be reached at aloberstein@projectprospect.com.