"You're not guaranteed anything," Ribera said. "You get what you deserve and apparently we deserved to be watching everyone else play right now. It's a sick feeling but we've got to deal with it."
"It feels weird," said Bulldogs Infielder Danny Muno. [I'm] not used to losing. It definitely hurts down deep and it's not a good feeling."
The biggest knock against the Bulldogs: Mediocre results against quality competition. The Bulldogs' RPI ranked 75th in the country, and their record against teams that made the NCAA field was just 5-9. Four of those wins came against the lone WAC representative, Hawaii.
"Everybody agrees we were about four or five pitches throughout the entire year away from making regionals," said senior Outfielder Steve Detwiler. "That's really all it took."
"You get what you deserve in this game," said Bulldogs Head Coach Mike Batesole. "You always do. there was plenty of games, plenty of innings, plenty of pitches early in the year that we could have handled better."
Coach Batesole is now left to look ahead to next season, when the Bulldogs return the majority of starters from this year's 38-25 squad. But it still doesn't erase the bitter taste, left by this year's NCAA snub.
"I know I won't forget it," Batesole said. "I won't forget what today feels like. And I don't think they will either. This is a tough group, a very talented group that did some good things this year. And 2011 could be one of the best years in Bulldog baseball."
