Georgia rallies for 1-0 World Series edge

Fresno State couldn’t hold a 6-3 lead in the eighth inning.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Joey Lewis hit a tiebreaking double in Georgia’s four-run eighth inning, and the Bulldogs came from three runs down to defeat Fresno State 7-6 in Game 1 of the College World Series finals Monday night.

Fresno State appeared to take control in the top of the eighth when it scored three runs to go up 6-3. But Georgia (45-23-1) wasn’t finished, and now stands one win away from a second national championship to go with the one it won in 1990.

Fresno State (45-31), 4-0 in elimination games in the NCAA tournament, will try to keep its improbable postseason run alive when the teams meet in Game 2 tonight.

After Matt Olson singled leading off the bottom of the eighth, Fresno State called on closer Brandon Burke. Gordon Beckham sent Burke’s second pitch over the fence in left-center for his 27th homer, with Burke breaking into a big smile and shaking his head as soon as the ball left the bat.

Burke (4-6) walked Rich Poythress, and then Matt Cerione doubled into the left-field corner. Poythress made it home from first, coming across the plate for the tying run as Danny Muno’s relay throw hit him in the back.

Cerione scored the go-ahead run when Lewis’ bouncer up the middle glanced off the second-base bag and shot into short left field.

All-America closer Joshua Fields, who gave up four runs to Stanford in the ninth inning Saturday, set Fresno State down 1-2-3 to end the game.

Will Harvil (2-1), the fourth of Georgia’s five pitchers, worked a third of the inning for the win.

Fresno State led 6-3 in the top of the eighth after Steve Susdorf hit a tiebreaking double.

Susdorf’s nation-leading 32nd double off Alex McRee ignited a three-run eighth that gave Fresno State’s depleted pitching staff a little cushion. Tommy Mendonca hit his 18th homer and Detwiler followed with an RBI double against Justin Earls for a 6-3 lead.

Fresno State got home runs from the bottom of its lineup to take a 3-2 advantage.

Jordan Ribera, the No. 9 hitter who came in batting .118 in the CWS, homered off Georgia starter Trevor Holder’s first pitch of the third inning.

In the fifth, after Holder walked Ryan Overland, Detwiler sent a drive high into the stands in left field for his second homer in Omaha and 10th of the season.

Before its eighth-inning outburst, Georgia had scored single runs in the first, fourth and sixth innings.