Feb. 8, 2003
Stanford, Calif. - No. 4 Florida State (4-1) evened its series at No. 3 Stanford (3-4) with a 4-3 victory Saturday at Sunken Diamond, snapping an 11-game home win streak for the Cardinal dating back to last season. Matt Lynch (2-0) earned the victory by holding Stanford to one run on five hits and striking out five over the first 7.0 innings. Florida State jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after the first three and a half innings and added what proved to be the deciding run in the top of the seventh inning without the benefit of a hit. The teams will play the rubber game of the series on Sunday (1 pm).
Chris Hart gave the Seminoles a 1-0 advantage when he led off the top of the third inning with a high fly ball that just cleared the fence inside the left field foul pole for his first home run of the season. Florida State added an unearned run later in the frame when Kevin Richmond reached on an error by Stanford shortstop Tobin Swope with one out, moved to second on a single by Bryan Zech and third on a groundout from Tony McQuade before scoring on a wild pitch.
Tony Richie led off Florida State's fourth inning with a walk, advanced to second base on a sacrifice bunt by Daniel Wardell and scored on an RBI single up the middle from Jerrod Brown. Stanford starter and losing pitcher Tim Cunningham (1-2) then walked the next two batters before Billy Paganetti made his first collegiate pitching appearance and struck out Richmond to get the Cardinal out of the jam.
Stanford got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the fourth inning when Danny Putnam doubled with one out and scored when Chris Lewis bounced out an RBI single up the middle for his first collegiate hit.
Paganetti retired the first seven batters he faced before running into trouble in the top of the seventh when he walked Hart and hit Matt Sauls to lead off the inning. After a sacrifice bunt attempt by Richmond failed to move up the runners, Paganetti balked Sauls to third and Richmond to second before throwing a wild pitch to allow Sauls to score an insurance run the Seminoles would need when Stanford scored twice in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Sam Fuld walked to lead off Stanford's eighth inning, moved to second on a single by Ryan Garko, third on a fielders choice from John Mayberry, Jr. and scored on a balk by Seminole reliever Trent Peterson. Stanford added its second run of the inning when Swope greeted Florida State closer Daniel Hodges with a two-out RBI single to score Mayberry before Hodges retired Lewis on a fielders choice to end the threat.
Hodges completed his second save of the season when he retired the Cardinal in order in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Zech (2-4) had half of Florida State's four hits.
Paganetti (3.2 IP, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO) and Drew Ehrlich (2.0 IP, 1 BB, 2 SO) held Florida State without a hit over the final 5.1 innings.
Garko (2-3) and Swope (2-4, RBI) both had a pair of hits for the Cardinal, while Hall (seven) and Mayberry (six) both had hit streaks snapped in the loss with 0-for-4 performances.
Florida State also evened the all-time Florida State-Stanford series at 8-8 with Saturday's victory, winning for only the second time in the last eight meetings between the clubs. Florida State RHP Mark Sauls (1-0, 0.00) and Stanford RHP Ryan McCally (0-1, 4.15) are Sunday's scheduled starting pitchers.