Feb. 9, 2001
* Photo Gallery: Coach Marquess Wins No. 1,000!
* Box Score
Stanford, CA -- Stanford head baseball coach Mark Marquess picked up his1000th career victory, all at Stanford, as the #14 Cardinal defeated #7Florida State, 6-2, in Stanford's 2001 home opener and the first game of athree-game series at the newly remodeled Sunken Diamond on Friday. Marquessbecame the 23rd coach in the history of NCAA Division I baseball to reachthe 1000-career win milestone. The Cardinal improves to 5-3 overall, whileFlorida State drops to 2-1.
"It means a lot to beat Florida State at any time but it was nice to get the1000th victory against a quality team like that,' said the 25th yearCardinal head coach. "It's nice now, but I think it will mean more to me atsome point later on.'
"Why not?,' Marquess responded when asked if he was ready to go for another1000 victory.
Jeremy Guthrie (1-0) picked up his first win at Stanford, holding FloridaState scoreless on one hit over the first 7.0 innings. Guthrie struck out aseason-high eight and walked only two.
"I felt pretty comfortable tonight and things went really well for us,' saidGuthrie. "I thought a lot about getting coach Marquess his 1000th win ingood fashion and against a great team, and that's what happened for us.'
Jason VanMeetren led the Cardinal offensive attack with a 3-for-4 (2B, 3RBI, SB) performance, while Chris O'Riordan (2-4) was the only other playerfor either team with more than one hit.
The Cardinal scored four times in the bottom of the third inning on a basesloaded walk to Arik VanZandt, a two-run single from VanMeetren and asacrifice fly by Scott Dragicevich.
Stanford made the margin 6-0 with single runs in the fifth and seventhinnings. VanMeetren drove in another run with a double in the fifth beforeVanZandt scored on a wild pitch in the seventh to close out the Cardinalscoring for the evening.
Florida State charged two runs in the eighth inning off reliever MikeWodnicki before Ryan McCally came in to shut down the Seminoles. Afterwalking in a run to give Florida State its first score of the evening,McCally forced John-Ford Griffin into a 3-6-3 double play and retired RyanBarthelemy on a pop up to shortstop to get out of the inning. After givingup a leadoff single to Chris Cole in the top of the ninth, McCally retiredthe final three batters he faced to preserve the victory.
Blair Varnes (1-1) took the loss for the Seminoles, allowing five hits andfive runs in the first 5.0 innings.
Stanford and Florida State will continue their three-game series at SunkenDiamond on Saturday and Sunday. First pitch both days is scheduled for 1:00p.m.