It̢۪s become a bit of a yearly rite of spring for the Fresno State baseball team.

In a move that I̢۪ve often found as non-sensical as wearing socks with your sandals (who does that?), coach Mike Batesole again scheduled the Bulldogs to play a series of early season non-conference games the difficulty of which, rivals that of solving a Rubik̢۪s cube.

In the past, I̢۪ve often reasoned it to be more profitable to start the team playing weaker opponents. Opponents that the Bulldogs might easily walk over in order to get the team used to winning and thus bring it into the WAC regular season with the confidence and swagger of a team accustomed to success.

But, as often happens when I try to second-guess people smarter than myself, I̢۪m left asking an all too familiar question. What do I know about it?

Clearly, Batesole̢۪s strategy seems to be paying dividends. By playing difficult opposition early in the season, the Bulldogs come into their WAC schedule having already seen their most challenging baseball of the season.

Apparently early season confidence is about as overrated as Sanjaya Malakar on American Idol.

As the team proved with its late season run last year and its hot start to this season̢۪s conference schedule, it̢۪s not how you start, but rather how you finish.

The Bulldogs have entered the conference season on a roll. They are currently in a first place tie with Louisiana Tech, sporting an impressive 6-3 conference record while maintaining a respectable 21-18 record overall. And they seem to be getting nothing but stronger, having won eight of their last nine games.

And during this most recent nine-game run of success, they̢۪ve tightened up many of their early season problems. Their offensive productivity has increased as they are averaging nearly eight runs per game during this stretch, while their pitching staff is giving up less than four.

Another early season concern for Batesole was defense. The Bulldogs were making too many errors and it was translating into runs for the opposing team.

Save a couple of recent mis-steps, this too the team has addressed and it now finds itself playing much better out in the field.

And almost as important as any other statistic, the Bulldogs are now protecting home field. After some early season difficulties, Beiden Field has again become a Bulldogs sanctuary. Their most recent win streak was sparked by an impressive 4-0 home stand in which the Bulldogs scored a total of 37 runs and had a series of impressive pitching performances.

So perhaps the bludgeoning it received earlier in the season at the hands of such teams as Stanford and Pepperdine hasn̢۪t left the team any worse for wear.

Maybe the players were only preparing for their algebra test by boning up on their calculus. And possibly, coach Batesole has more baseball savvy in his little finger than I have in my whole head.

But whatever the case may be, it may be time for me to stop second-guessing, eat a little bit of crow, and just sit back and enjoy the ride. The Bulldogs are hot right now and I̢۪ve got only two words in closing : Go Bulldogs!