June 8, 2012
TALLAHASSEE, Fla.-- Six Stanford pitchers combined to walk 12 and hit another five as Florida State (47-15) won the opener of the best-of-three Super Regional 17-1 over visiting Stanford (41-17) on Friday evening.
Brandon Leibrandt (8-2), the son of former major leaguer Charlie, went the first 6.0 innings, giving up one run on six hits for the win.
Mark Appel (10-2) gave up seven runs on five hits over the first 4.0 innings, the most runs he had given up since seven at No. 8 Arizona. In his shortest out of the season, 4.0 innings, he gave up all seven in the fourth.
The 17 runs given up by the Cardinal were the most playoff runs given up by the program, tying the 17-3 loss to Miami in the 1985 College World Series.
FSU's Travis Devon homered twice and drove in six runs. Stanford's Brian Ragira (three) and Jake Stewart (two) accounted for five of the seven hits.
Florida State batted around and sent 12 men to the plate in the fourth, scoring seven times to lead 7-1. Appel struggled with his control in the fourth, giving up two bases loaded walks (three total) and hitting a batter earlier in the inning. Following the two walks, he gave up back-to-back singles to make it 5-1. A wild pitch made it 6-1. A sacrifice fly completed the damage. Appel also gave up four hits in the inning.
FSU batted around again in the fifth, sending 11 men to the plate against three Cardinal relievers and adding another four runs to make it 11-1. Stanford pitchers walked another four in the inning, hit another batter and gave up two hits.
NOTES: Other than elimination games, Stanford has given up 14 or more runs in the playoff four previous times. The next game all resulted in wins... Saturday's Super Regional is on ESPN2 at 3 p.m. PT, with Sunday's game, if necessary, at 4 p.m. PT... former Stanford softball Olympian Jessica Mendoza was doing sideline reporting for ESPN2 with Mike Patrick and Nomar Garciapara in the booth.