No more tourneys, fun is over

Hughes Views

By Eddie Hughes

Whew! What an exhausting week.

The week that saw 35 teams competing and featured a combined 60 games held on Fresno State’s campus by four of the major sports teams—men’s and women’s basketball, baseball and softball—is finally over.

The action started on Monday with Fresno State’s annual baseball tournament, the Pepsi/Johnny Quik Classic. It ended Sunday afternoon with the final game of softball’s Clovis Auto Row Classic.

And the Fresno State softball team made sure to drag it out as long as possible against No. 1 UCLA in a 2-1 extra-inning loss on Sunday afternoon at Bulldog Diamond.

It must have been a tiring week for Fresno State players and coaches.

The softball team played 10 games in the grueling week. The baseball team played six games. Both basketball teams played one game apiece. But all of the other guest squads had plenty of games, too.

There was one constant—the people working the events.

The week must have been most taxing on them. Many of the same faces could be seen in the softball press box for all 24 of this week’s games—including 20 in the Clovis Auto Row Classic that ran from Thursday to Sunday.

“ You wake up, you roll over and you’re hurting,” said assistant media relations director Jan Winslow, who worked softball games all week.

At the same times, other staff worked at Beiden Field during the 18 baseball games held at the stadium from Monday to Saturday.

And many more worked from Tuesday to Saturday during 18 basketball games at the McCaffrey WAC basketball tournament in the Save Mart Center.

“ It’s long hours,” Winslow said. “It’s just part of the job.”

Long hours indeed, but fun hours nonetheless.

Spectators saw Bulldogs pitcher Jamie Southern tie the single-game school strikeout record when she made 15 batters walk away with their heads down against Campbell on Monday.

Then they saw Southern pass Amanda Scott for the school’s career strikeout record on Tuesday.

On Wednesday, softball took a day off, but baseball battled Brigham Young in a 5-3 loss and the women’s basketball team finished its season with a 79-55 loss to Tulsa in the quarterfinals of the WAC tournament.

The Fresno State dance team, which finished sixth in the nation in a recent competition, put on a crisp routine at halftime of the loss to Tulsa. But, apparently, the routine wasn’t appreciated by everyone.

“ Is this a bawlgame or a nightclub?” a woman who appeared to be a Tulsa fan could be overheard asking in the stands as the music blared.

Fresno State’s men’s basketball team tipped off for the final time on Thursday night in a 71-54 loss to Boise State.

The Boise State mascot seemed to love every minute of it as he/she continuously taunted Fresno State mascot Timeout and others with hand motions toward the crotch.

Fans cheered when Timeout ran up to the Bronco near the three-minute mark and tackled him/her at midcourt. Moments later, the Bronco limped off the court.

Fans at the Save Mart Center were disappointed on Friday with Fresno State already eliminated from the tournament.

But that didn’t stop Saturday’s championship game from drawing 6,000-plus fans, including more than four sections full of Nevada faithful. It turned out to be worth the trip from Reno as Nevada players danced on the scorer’s table and cut down the net after winning the tournament title

. Later Saturday night, the Bulldogs baseball team fought back from a 9-4 deficit with a two-out rally in the ninth to beat BYU 10-9 in front of a boisterous crowd.

The grind came to an end with Sunday’s softball loss to UCLA in front of 3,024 fans.

But—for some—the end of the week meant the end of the fun too.

Those people will be left with just one question this week when the Save Mart Center hosts only concerts, softball plays just one night and baseball doesn’t play until the weekend.

Now what is there to do?