June 15, 2000
By DOUG ALDEN
Associated Press Writer
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) - Edmund Muth hit three home runs and set the College World Series career homer record Thursday as Stanford rallied from a six-run deficit for a 19-9 victory over Louisiana-Lafayette and advanced to the championship game.
Andy Topham started the comeback from a 6-0 deficit with a grand slam as Stanford (50-15) became the first team to score 10 runs on Louisiana-Lafayette (49-20) this season.
The Cardinal, who batted around twice Thursday, are 3-0 in the CWS and will play either Louisiana State or Florida State in Saturday's championship game.
The teams combined for eight home runs on the windiest day of the series.
Mike Woodnicki (4-0) pitched six innings of relief for Stanford. Louisiana-Lafayette reliever Andy Gros (5-3) pitched four innings, giving up six hits and five runs as the Ragin' Cajuns saw their CWS debut end.
The Ragin' Cajuns, who had a team ERA of 3.20 coming into the series, finally saw their pitching collapse. Stanford had 17 hits, four walks and two batters hit by pitches.
Louisiana-Lafayette added to its troubles with four errors, leading to six unearned runs. The Cajuns also left the bases loaded in the first two innings.
Steven Feehan, the Cajuns' hero in a 5-4 ninth-inning win over Clemson on Wednesday, Will Hawkins, Scott Atwood and Nathan Nelson all homered for Louisiana-Lafayette.
But they weren't enough to stop the Cardinal, who scored more than twice as many runs as any other team had on Louisiana-Lafayette all season.
Trailing 7-6 going into the bottom of the sixth, the Cardinal started a seven-run rally on Damien Alvarado's infield single. Muth, Chris O'Riordan, John Gall and Joe Borchard all added RBIs and Arik VanZandt, who led off the inning with a walk and scored the first run, hit a two-run triple. Stanford sent 11 batters to the plate in the inning.
Muth, who hit a solo homer in the fifth to cut the lead to 7-6, added a two-run shot in the seventh for his fifth CWS homer, tying him for the career record. He broke the mark with a solo shot in the eighth, passing former Florida State star J.D. Drew and current Seminoles Ryan Barthelemy and Marshall McDougall.
Louisiana-Lafayette took a 1-0 lead in the first when Brian Sager walked Hawkins with the bases loaded. Feehan hit a two-run homer in the second and Hawkins added a solo shot as the Cajuns went up 6-0.
But Stanford came back quickly in the bottom of the second, led by Topham's grand slam to left. VanZandt cut it to 6-5 when he scored on error.