June 14, 1999
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Stanford coach Mark Marquess was thankful to have a biglead through six innings when Florida State rallied in the seventh.
John Gall went 3-for-4 with a home run, Craig Thompson hit a three-rundouble and Stanford survived the seventh-inning run, beating the Seminoles 10-6Monday at the College World Series.
Right-hander Justin Wayne (10-1) pitched 7 2-3 innings as sixth-seededStanford (50-13) won its 11th straight and reached the 50-victory mark for thethird time in school history.
Stanford won't play again until Thursday. The second-seeded Seminoles(54-13) play Tuesday night against the winner of Monday night's eliminationgame between Texas A&M and Cal State-Fullerton.
Thompson doubled down the right-field line in the second, driving in threeruns to break a 1-1 tie. The Cardinal got two more in the third and added runsin the fourth and fifth for an 8-1 lead that held up.
"For us to score those four runs early gave me a lot more flexibility to bemore aggressive, to push it a little bit on the bases," Marquess said. "Whenyou're behind, you can't be as aggressive."
Thompson's hit came with the bases loaded and two outs against Florida Stateright-hander Jon McDonald (9-3).
"If you're looking for the key to the ballgame, it was probably the doubledown the right-field line in the second," Seminoles coach Mike Martin said."He had an 0-1 count, and he did a very good job of staying closed and gettinga good hit."
The 8-1 cushion was important because Wayne escaped a bases-loaded jam inthe fourth but wasn't as fortunate when the Seminoles did it again in the topof the seventh.
"I gave up a few hits, but we got a few more hits," Wayne said. "We justmanaged to get the key outs and the key hits."
Marshall McDougall singled to score Chris Smith, and John Halliday scoredwhen Wayne was called for a balk. Matt Diaz hit into a fielder's choice,scoring John-Ford Griffin to trim the deficit to 8-4.
Wayne threw two balls to Sam Scott before being replaced by Dan Rich, whowalked Scott to put runners on first and second.
Then, with Seminoles fans doing the "Tomahawk Chop" and the Florida Stateplayers on the top step of their dugout, Jeremiah Klosterman swung at a thirdstrike and the ball got away from Stanford catcher Damien Alvarado.
Klosterman ran for first while Alvarado chased down the ball and threw,hitting him in the back. The throwing error allowed Diaz to score from second,but that would be all for the Seminoles until they added a run in the ninth.
Florida State would surely have added more runs early in the seventh, butBrett Groves made the first out on a controversial force play at second.
Martin sprinted across the infield to argue with second base umpire KenCouch, but he wouldn't say anything about the call in the interview room.
"Ain't touching it, ladies and gentlemen," Martin said. "I want to playtomorrow."
Stanford led 6-1 in the third after Josh Hochgesang sacrificed to right andGall plowed into Klosterman, the catcher, as Diaz's throw arrived. McDonaldthrew a wild pitch to the next batter, Alvarado, allowing Joe Borchard toscore.
After Stanford got another run in the fourth, Gall led off the fifth with aline-drive home run that was a few feet to the right of the left-field foulpole, giving the Cardinal the 8-1 lead.
The Seminoles struck immediately when Griffin doubled on the game's firstpitch. It went over the head of left fielder Nick Day and Florida State led 1-0after McDougall followed with a single to right.
Wayne made his first escape, in the fourth, when Florida State loaded thebases with one out. Groves hit into a force that got Klosterman, the leadrunner, for the second out.
Halliday, a .302 hitter with a .530 slugging percentage, came in to pinchhit but fouled out to Hochgesang at third.
Stanford got insurance runs in the seventh and eight.
The Seminoles loaded the bases again in the ninth with one out. Klosterman'ssacrifice to right brought in Karl Jernigan for the game's final run beforereliever Tony Cogan struck out Kevin Cash to end the game.
By TIM KORTE
AP Sports Writer