Feb. 11, 2000
Tallahassee, Fla. - Fourth-ranked Florida State (6-1) handed #1 Stanford (5-2) its second straight defeat with an 11-4 win over the Cardinal on Friday at Dick Howser Stadium. The Seminoles have now beaten the Cardinal three straight times dating back to last season's College World Series. Florida State starter Jon McDonald settled down after a tough first two innings to improve to 2-0 overall. Offensively, the Seminoles took advantage of nine walks by the Stanford pitching staff and had strong offensive games from John-Ford Griffith (3-for-5, RBI), Ryan Barthelemy (2-for-4, 3 RBI) and Chris Smith (2-for-3, 2B, 2 RBI).
Stanford jumped on top early with a pair of runs off McDonald in the first inning. Joe Borchard's RBI-double scored Eric Bruntlett with the first run of the game. Edmund Muth would score later in the frame on an RBI fielders-choice by John Gall.
Florida State rallied for three runs in the bottom of the first as Stanford starter Jason Young lasted just four batters before leaving due to soreness in his right shoulder. The Seminoles got on the board when Barthelemy's RBI-single scored Brett Groves, who had led off the inning with a walk. Marshall McDougall scored on an RBI-ground out by Pichi Balet before Barthelemy came across the plate on a passed ball to give FSU a 3-2 margin.
Stanford rallied for its final two runs of the night in the top of the second on a two-run homer by Jason Cooper to lead 4-3.
The Cardinal held its 4-3 lead until Florida State scored three times in the bottom of the fourth. Smith and Griffith had RBI-singles in the fourth before Groves made it 6-4 when he scored on a wild pitch off loser Mike Gosling (0-1), who walked six batters in his 3.1 innings of relief work.
Florida State would add a single run in the fifth on an RBI-double by Smith before scoring three more times in the sixth on a wild pitch, an RBI-single by Barthelemy and an RBI-double by Balet.
Stanford would not score after the second inning, picking up just two hits over the final six innings off McDonald and reliever Daniel Hodges, who held the Cardinal to just one hit over the final three innings to pick up his first collegiate save.
Florida State would add an insurance run in the eighth as Barthelemy picked up his third RBI of the evening on a sacrifice fly.
Bruntlett (2-for-4, 2B) was the only Cardinal with more than one hit and also extended his hitting streak to 14 games dating back to last season. Craig Thompson also had a hit and now has a seven-game hitting streak.
"(Jon) McDonald got the ball up early on and we had some cracks at him," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "However, later in the game, he started to get the ball down and did a really nice job. When you have a chance to get to a pitcher like that, you had better do it early."
Stanford and Florida State will continue their series with a 2:00 p.m. (EST) game on Saturday, before concluding the three-game set on Sunday (1:00 p.m.).