Feb. 11, 2001
Stanford, Calif. - #14 Stanford (7-3) completed a three-game sweep of #7 Florida State (2-3) and extended its winning streak to five games with an 8-2 victory over the Seminoles on Sunday at Sunken Diamond. Chris O'Riordan tied a career-high with four hits, going 4-for-5 with a double, home run and three RBI. Jason Cooper and Jason VanMeetren also had home runs. Tim Cunningham (3-0) earned his third consecutive victory, limiting the Seminoles to four hits and two runs (one earned) over the first 6.2 innings. Stanford has now won at least two-of-three games in nine consecutive regular season series, dating back to last season. Florida State had not been swept since Clemson won three straight over the Seminoles late last year.
"I was pleasantly surprised that we swept Florida State because that's a pretty big accomplishment, but I wasn't surprised that we played well," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We've played pretty well the last couple of weekends, but the difference versus Florida State was that we pitched well, played excellent defense and got some timely hitting all weekend."
"It's only three weeks into the season," added Cunningham when asked to compare this year's pitching staff to the Cardinal staff of last year. "The thing that made Jason (Young) and Justin (Wayne) so good is that they were so good in the first week of the season and the last week of the season, and pretty much every week in between. That's what we need to do in order to be successful as a staff."
The Cardinal staff posted a 1.67 earned run average in the three-game sweep of Florida State, allowing the Seminoles only six runs (five earned) and 11 hits.
Florida State did open the scoring on Sunday when the Seminoles picked up a run in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by John-Ford Griffin. The Cardinal immediately responded in the bottom of the first, tying the score 1-1 on an RBI double by VanMeetren.
Stanford took the lead for good by scoring three unearned runs in the bottom of the second inning, highlighted by O'Riordan's two-out, two-run homer. Scott Dragicevich had given the Cardinal a 2-1 margin by leading off the frame with an infield single and scoring when Seminole shortstop Brett Groves tossed a ball into the Cardinal dugout trying to throw out Ryan Garko at first base on a ground ball.
Cooper's line drive down the left field line in the bottom of the fourth inning turned into an inside-the-park home run when Griffin was injured trying to catch the ball and it rolled all the way to the outfield wall.
The Cardinal extended its lead to 6-1 on an RBI single by O'Riordan in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Florida State put together a mini-rally in the top of the seventh inning when Scott Boyd scored on a sacrifice fly by Ryan Barthelemy to cut the Cardinal lead to 6-2. Ryan McCally relieved Cunningham to record the final out of the inning and pitched hitless baseball over the final 2.1 innings.
Stanford added a pair of insurance runs in the bottom of the seventh inning on VanMeetren's two-run blast over the left field fence, his third long ball of the season.
Dragicevich (3-4) and VanMeetren (2-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI) supported O'Riordan offensively, while Bryan Zech (2-4) had a pair of hits for Florida State.
Robby Read (1-1) suffered the loss for Florida State, giving up seven hits and six runs (three earned) in the first 4.0 innings.
"I don't want to get too excited because it's still early," said Marquess about his team's hot start. "We've played pretty well three consecutive weekends in a row against three good opponents, but it doesn't get much easier when we go to Texas next week. That's a tough place to play on the road."
Stanford travels to Texas for a three-game series February 16-18.