LOOKING BACK AT THE BEST SEASON EVER

The Fresno Pacific baseball team has a lot to be proud of this season.

By Andrew Marden
VSP Senior Writer:

FRESNO, Calif – Only one team can be the national champion. Everyone knows that going in.

But ten teams make the NAIA World Series.

And this year, for the first time ever, Fresno Pacific was one of those teams.

“It hit me once we got there,” said FPU junior outfielder Tyler Pryor. “Seeing all the other teams and how many people come to the games, it makes you come back to reality and say, ‘wow, that’s pretty cool.’

Even more so when you remember the Sunbirds have only had a baseball program for four years.
“I’m real proud of our team, a lot of guys came in to turn this program around from where it started,” said pitcher Brian Oliver, a Central High grad. “The fact that we made it to (Lewiston) Idaho to play against those teams is a tribute to our players and our coaching staff.”

The Sunbirds played three games at the NAIA World Series, winning one of them (vs Embry-Riddle Saturday). All told, they won 39 games this season and made the tournament’s final eight.

They also won five straight elimination games at the Sioux City (IA) Regional to qualify for the World Series.

“We went out there and we laid it out on the line and that’s really all you can ask,” said head coach Oscar Hirschkorn, a Kerman native, who’s been the head coach of the program all four years it’s existed. “And that’s really what this group was good about doing.”

“We get a lot of Cinderella stories, being compared to Fresno State,” said outfielder Dwight Nixon, whose pinch-hit, two-run walk-off homerun eliminated Embry-Riddle on Saturday. “But all of us think we’re not a Cinderella story, we deserve to be there just as much as anybody.”

With a .283 batting average and a .424 slugging percentage, the Sunbirds proved at least that much.

But is it a bad thing being compared to Fresno State? After all, the Underdogs to Wonderdogs did win last year’s NCAA national championship.

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