Fresno State forces decisive game

OMAHA, Neb. – Fresno State kept its amazing postseason run alive Tuesday night thanks to an offensive performance that was nothing short of, well, amazing.

After spotting Georgia a five-run lead in the third inning, Fresno State struck for 15 runs over the next three innings for a 19-10 victory in Game 2 of the College World Series finals.

Tommy Mendonca put Fresno State in front with his record-tying fourth home run of the CWS in his team’s six-run third inning.

The Bulldogs from Fresno State (46-31) and Bulldogs from Georgia (45-24-1) will meet in Game 3 on Wednesday night to determine college baseball’s top dog.

Fresno State scored five runs in the fourth and four more in the fifth to trip up a Georgia team that appeared on the verge of sweeping through the CWS to its second national title and first since 1990.

Fresno State wouldn’t let its incredible season end that way, not on this night. Rather, the Bulldogs scored the most runs against a Georgia team since Tennessee’s 19-12 win in the 2001 CWS – 435 games ago.

Known as the “Wonderdogs” around here, Fresno State displayed more of the moxie that has carried them further than any No. 4 regional seed had gone before.

Fresno State batted around in the third inning and sent 10 to the plate in the fourth. Mendonca’s three-run homer put the Bulldogs ahead 6-5, and Steve Susdorf’s two-run shot in the fifth made it 15-6.

The six-run third wasn’t even Fresno State’s most productive inning of the CWS. It had a seven-run outburst against Rice in the fourth inning of a 17-5 victory.

Georgia, which rallied for four eighth-inning runs to beat Fresno State 7-6 in Game 1 of the finals, jumped on Justin Miller, who lasted only 2 2/3 innings.

Holden Sprague (6-2), who relieved Miller, held Georgia to one run on four singles and a double the next three innings. Georgia scored four runs against Sprague in the seventh to pull within five runs, but Fresno State responded with three more runs in the bottom half.