June 1, 2001
NCAA Super Regionals| Box Score|Quotes|Notes
Stanford, CA - Stanford (47-15) moved to within one win of its third straight College World Series appearance with an 11-1 victory over South Carolina (48-19) in the first game of an NCAA Super Regional at Sunken Diamond on Friday. Jeremy Guthrie tossed Stanford's first complete game of the post-season, scattering six hits and an unearned run to improve to 12-4 on the season. Stanford scored 10 times in the first fourinnings to jump out to a 10-0 lead. Carlos Quentin (4-5, RBI) tied a career-high with four hits to lead the Cardinal offense. Jonny Ash (3-4, 2 RBI), Ryan Garko (3-5, HR, RBI) and Andy Topham (3-5, 2 RBI) had three hits each, while Chris O'Riordan (2-5, 2B, HR, RBI) picked up a pair of Stanford's post-season high 17 hits.
The teams will continue the Super Regional on Saturday and Sunday, if necessary. Stanford needs just one victory in those two games, while South Carolina must win two in a row to advance to the CWS.
Stanford has now won five of six post-season games and 12 of its last 14 contests overall.
"This was obviously a big win for us," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We got off to a great start, swung the bats well and got agreat pitching performance from Jeremy Guthrie."
"It was easier to just relax and throw strikes tonight," said Guthrie about pitching with an early 10-0 lead. "I was really relaxed pitching with abig lead."
Stanford jumped on South Carolina ace Kip Bouknight early when Garko hit a deep solo home run to center field to give the Cardinal a 1-0lead in the first inning. Garko's home run extended his career-high hitting streak to 21 games, also the longest by a Stanford player thisseason.
Stanford extended its lead to 5-0 with four runs in the bottom of the third frame. O'Riordan led off the bottom of the third with his team-leading12th home run of the year, a solo shot to left field. After a pair of singles by Garko and Quentin, Jonny Ash singled to left field to score Garko.Topham followed with an RBI single to center field to score Quentin and Scott Dragicevich doubled to right to score Ash.
O'Riordan started Stanford's rally again in the bottom of the fourth inning by leading off with a double to left. Sam Fuld walked before Garkosingled to load the bases for Quentin and knock Bouknight from the game. Quentin greeted reliever Brett Price with an RBI single before a wildpitch scored Fuld. Price walked Jonny Ash with the bases loaded and balked home another run before an RBI ground out by Scott Dragicevichfinished Stanford's five-run rally and made the score 10-0.
Guthrie continued his dominance of the Gamecocks, retiring 12 in a row at one point between the first and fifth innings before Bryon Jeffcoatbroke through with a one-out single in the fifth.
South Carolina finally scored an unearned run in the top of the eighth inning, taking advantage of an error by Topham at third base and abases loaded walk by Guthrie, the only free pass he issued in the contest.
Jeffcoat (2-4) and Drew Meyer (2-4, 2B) had four of South Carolina's six hits.
Bouknight dropped to 10-4 with the loss as he allowed 11 hits and eight runs (all earned) in 3.0 innings.