Mike Batesole
Fresno State Bulldogs |
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The past three seasons Fresno State has
had to settle with winning the Western Athletic Conference
championships, earning both the regular season and conference
tournament titles each year.  Not
too shabby, but the Bulldogs have had loftier national ambitions
and expectations which they’ve fell just short of reaching.
Last season FS made it to their second consecutive regional
final before losing to the host Cal State Fullerton Titans
who advanced all the way to the College World Series. However
this season the Bulldogs have finally broken through in a
big way earning themselves an opportunity to compete at the
highest stage at the College World Series - their first appearance
back in Omaha since 1991.
The Bulldogs unexpected road to Omaha has
been well documented. The Bulldogs started the season at an
unassuming 8-12, but turned their season around to earn the
WAC’s automatic bid to the NCAAs. After being the first
number four seed to capture a regional title by cleaning the
house of the Long Beach State Dirtbags and then topping the
Toreros of San Diego, Fresno State went to Tempe, Arizona
and swept the nationally seeded Sun Devils in two games.
Unquestionably a big part of the team’s
success has been the duo of Steve Susdorf and pitcher Tanner
Scheppers. Susdorf fulfilled preseason prognostications which
tabbed him the preseason WAC Player of the Year as he claimed
the postseason honor after he came into the CWS with a .345
batting average with 11 homeruns and a school record 81 RBI.
Scheppers went 8-2 with a 2.93 ERA and 109 strikeouts despite
missing the end of the regular season and postseason due to
injury. Yet despite their success, combined with breakout
performances by a number of other talented players from the
San Joaquin Valley, the effect of Head Coach Mike Batesole
can not be overlooked, and it hasn’t. The National Collegiate
Baseball Writers Association named the top ‘Dog its
inaugural National Coach of the Year after the team advanced
to the College World Series.
Batesole came to Fresno State after spending
seven seasons at the forefront of an emerging Cal State Northridge
program. He led the Matadors to their first ever Western Athletic
Conference title his first year in 1996 and fell a single
game short of advancing to the College World Series. They
team also achieved monumental success his last season with
the program as they won the Big West championship in 2002
and were ranked as high as 15th in the national polls. His
.620 winning percentage at CS Northridge is the highest in
school history.
After arriving at Fresno State in 2003, Batesole
didn’t let up on the gas of the steadily improving Bulldog
team. FS won 30 games for the 16th consecutive season, going
30-29. It was also the 27th straight year the Bulldogs had
a winning season. The next two seasons Fresno State had back
to back second place WAC finishes as they complied 17-12 and
16-14 conference marks. In 2004 Batesole tutored All American
Richie Robnet into a first round MLB draft choice. The next
season Batesole and his team of coaches generated another
first round draft choice in WAC Pitcher of the Year title
and current Tampa Bay Devil Ray Matt Garza.
In 2006 Batesole’s Bulldogs finished
the year just outside the top twenty as the team put together
one of the best years in school history. Their 45 wins were
the most wins since 1988 and they earned their first conference
title in eleven years. There were a number of Bulldog ball
players who won individual honors, led by shortstop Christian
Vitters who was named the WAC Player of the Year. The Bulldogs
won the WAC championship again last season and made their
30th NCAA Tournament appearance in school history. FS earned
wins over Minnesota and San Diego in Regional play, but unlike
this season, had their CWS aspirations halted in the first
round as they were bested by the CSF Titans.
Batesole’s baseball background was
developed on the field as an All American player at Oral Roberts
where he played for the USA Baseball Team in 1984. He went
on to play four seasons as a third baseman in the Los Angeles
Dodger’s farm system before becoming an assistant coach
for Orange Coast College in 1988. He coached a season for
a second junior college school in 1993, the Cypress College
Chargers, where he helped the team advance to the second round
of regional tournament play. Batesole then advanced to CS
Northridge where he ran the Matador offense and infield for
a pair of seasons before taking over the head coaching reigns.
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