OMAHA, Neb. — Fresno State pitching coach Mike Mayne stood at the end of the dugout in the final moments of the Bulldogs' 19-10 triumph over Georgia last night and remembered where he was last month.

"We were battling to beat Sacramento State to win the (Western Athletic Conference), and it was hard," Mayne said. "And we needed San Jose State to beat Nevada to help us.

"Now, we're playing for the national championship (today)."

Go figure. Fresno State knotted up the College World Series best-of-three finale in a most unlikely game.

Fresno State fell behind 5-0, and then, as Georgia coach David Perno said, "We had a tough time defending the post pattern."

And a whole bunch more. On a night when a team needed a pitcher to step up, Fresno State got one. He was Holden Sprague, and although his numbers don't jump off the page — 3 1/3 innings, eight hits, five runs, three earned — he stopped the bleeding while Fresno State's bats continued to cook.

This is the pitcher whose father is an astronaut, or so it says in the Fresno State media guide. Don Sprague isn't in NASA. He's a financial planner. Holden passed along the joke to school publicists, but ESPN announcer and former major-leaguer Barry Larkin bought it during a broadcast earlier in the College World Series.

"I got 50,000 text messages and missed calls from people," Sprague said. "It was awesome. I was glad to get him a little air time."

And Don is enjoying it.

"I have a space shuttle to catch," he yelled down to reporters interviewing his son after the game.

While Sprague pitched effectively, Fresno State kept clubbing. Hard to believe a game that featured 29 runs and 34 hits had a critical at-bat, but that's what happened in the third.

Georgia looked well on its way to a series sweep when it took the 5-0 lead as Fresno State came to bat.

Three runs were across when Tommy Mendonca stepped up. He turned on Stephen Dodson's first pitch and sent it halfway up the right-field bleachers. The three-run shot gave Fresno State the lead.

"Got lucky," Mendonca said.

From there, it was up to Fresno State to find the right arm to keep the lead, and Sprague was precisely what Mayne was seeking.

"We wanted him to throw strikes," Mayne said. "That's the bottom line. If they beat you by hitting the ball, that's fine. Let them put it in play."