So What Was It?

JD,

I agree with the point you touched on - that being the one loss seemed to have done Georgia in mentally. Don't know that for sure but noticed it early in the 3rd game. They just seemed down in the dumper. Don't know who to assign the blame to other than Fresno.

My opinion, I am not sure if Perno was outsmarted. Fresno knew that they had to strike early and often to rack up runs, if not UGA had a way of coming back and once they placed Fields in he could shut them down. Second game pitching by commitee for Fresno was good, they weren't afraid for UGA to hit the ball and relied on their hot defense to get it done and therefore their best pitcher could rest.
I don't care if Fields is just a closer or not, I would have put him in yesterday to see if he could have stopped the bleeding. If it didn't work, take him out put someone else in. IMO, come championship time all rules go out the window. Starters close, relievers start, closers start, etc.

JD, lots has to do with momentum too, once it's
lost it's lost, JMO.

I agree about the mo and the thought that.."This is for all the cookies...lets throw what we have" and go with Fields, wouldn't have made it any worse and it might have put Ga. in a positive motivational spot. Well, I guess my point here is that it really is an interesting mind excercise for a coach to look at that and consider what in the world could have stopped that jauggernaught, I have to believe a little in the "Team of Destiny" aspect....sometimes for whatever reason a team just cannot get out of the way of success. Fresno wasn't a bunch of cupcakes by any means, but they sure were under performers..right up to the WAC. It would be very interesting to me to see what ignited the fire in those boys bellies...I've commented before that one play or even pitch can turn a thing...IMO Josh Beckett won the last Boston WS on 14 fastballs at the start of the game against the Rockies and also won the series for the Marlins by throwing at Sosas head. I wish I could have seen what it was in the WAC that did it for Fresno St.

JD,
Not sure it is any one thing. I do know from son's experience going into Omaha, Tigers were teh #1 seed, just coming off of an ACC championship, and swept thru regionals and super regionals. On paper they could have won, but by the time they got to Omaha, they were toast, they were tired. Winning first game, losing second, the third on the line, I wasn't too sure why the coach put in the pitcher he did, he hadn't been doing too well the past few games. In fact it was our bullpen that was hot, why not use one of them as the starter?

Coaches will second guess themselves what they could have done to change the outcome, but then again they could have made different decisions and still had the same outcome.

That's baseball.

In an interview with one of the Fresno players, he said they were just trying to have fun. I think that's a part of it. They had no expectations placed on them so they had no pressure. At least, not until they made it to the finals.

quote:

I wish I could have seen what it was in the WAC that did it for Fresno St.

I believe I was present during a seminal moment in their season in Honolulu. They lost the first two games of the conference opener, and they were shut out on consecutive nights. Scheppers pitched very well but fell victim to some bad luck and errors. Detwiler was hitless in that series. Susdorf seemed to be the only guy in the lineup swinging well at that point. They pitched very well, and they clawed back to even up the series. FSU then proceeded to go 30-15 through the rest of conference leading up to the regionals. That's a pretty good clip for West Coast baseball.
I could see that Fresno was a very good baseball team that was struggling a little at the plate. As far as the WAC, there were some very potent offenses (NM State, La Tech) and under-rated pitching staffs (Nevada, Hawaii, SJSU) to deal with. The conference power ratings don't show it, but the WAC plays pretty good baseball. Fresno was obviously well prepared coming out of WAC play for the regionals and beyond.

Before the tournament started I called one of the Fresno State players and told him "congrats and to relax and have fun".That's California baseball in a nutshell.West Coast baseball is a different ballgame in itself.Not to say it's superior just different.We are taught how to pitch ,hit ,field and throw just like everyone else, however we are taught to concentrate on the moment and not the big picture. When you only concentrate on playing the game of baseball you just play,just like the old days when you played in the street you played just to play.There was no trophies in the street or at the rec. park on a Sunday afternoon.Just play the game as well and disciplined as you can but enjoy the game for what it is.Think about Mike Tyson when he first started boxing he was as pure as a boxer as you could get . He would knock someone out and try to pick him up off the ground or give him a big hug after crushing his opponent.He was only thinking about the art of boxing and not what it brought . Only when he started to realize the prizes his wins brought is when he let other things enter into his game. It was all down hill there after.These kids at Fresno state played to win the game at that moment there was no thinking about tomorrow or the day after. We can breakdown the game into different parts who did what and who did'nt do that,but if you have kids relaxed and just enjoying being able to play the game of baseball.Each win lets them play more baseball, well you better get out of their way because their playing for all the right reasons. I called again to congratulate him on their world series championship and he replied "we have no idea what we just did". Amen brother

TPM


We need to form a team for you to manage and then you can show us all how your true genius works and then we can second guess you until the cows come home