June 20, 2002
By DOUG ALDEN
AP Sports Writer
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – The school that’s been to the College World Series more
than any other is back in the title game for the first time in 13 years.
Texas clinched a berth in Saturday’s championship by beating Stanford 6-5
Thursday night.
“It’s been our moment. It’s been a ride where we’ve been destined to be to
this point,” Texas coach Augie Garrido said.
Jeff Ontiveros and Dustin Majewski homered and relievers Jesen Merle and
Huston Street shut out the Cardinal over the last four innings as Texas beat
Stanford for the second time this week.
The Longhorns (56-15) advanced to the final game for the first time since
1989 and will play for the title against the winner of Friday’s game between
South Carolina and Clemson.
“We had our goal set on the World Series and winning it,” said Majewski,
whose solo homer in the seventh broke a 5-all tie and held up as the
game-winner. “I think we deserve to be here the way we worked all year long.”
The Longhorns are in their 29th CWS and have four national titles, the last
in 1983.
Stanford had opened its last two CWS appearances 3-0, then lost in the title
game. The Cardinal fell to the elimination bracket after an 8-7 loss to the
Longhorns on Monday.
“They played tough. We jumped on them early but they battled back,”
Stanford coach Mark Marquess said. “We had some chances to score, but couldn’t
get it done and that’s a credit to them.”
Stanford had a chance to tie it in the ninth when Sam Fuld led off with a
bunt single, but Street got Ryan Garko to fly out to center and Jason Cooper to
ground into a double play. Street, a freshman, has 13 saves this season.
Chris O’Riordan, who was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, was on deck when Cooper’s
grounder to first ended the game.
“It wasn’t any different than if I was sitting on the bench with everybody
else. You don’t like to end the season on a loss,” O’Riordan said. “I would
have liked to have had a shot, but it just didn’t work out that way.”
Chris Carter hit a leadoff homer for Stanford (47-18), which took a 3-0 lead
in the first but couldn’t hang on to it.
Majewski’s solo shot off Jeremy Guthrie (13-2) that broke the tie was Texas’
67th homer, tying the school record set in 1988.
“I just wished there were people on base because I didn’t think one run was
going to hold up against Stanford,” Majewski said. “We haven’t really won
anything yet. We’ve just made it to where we want to be.”
Stanford had tied the game at 5-all in the fifth on a hit batter, a double
by Cooper and O’Riordan’s RBI single.
After falling behind 3-0 in the first, Texas got two runs after a two-out
error in the second and took the lead with a three-run fifth. Omar Quintanilla
led off the fifth with a triple and scored on a single by Majewski. Ontiveros
followed with a line drive homer to left, his 20th of the year.
An error with two outs in the second inning started Texas’ comeback from a
3-0 deficit. Ryan Hubele reached when Scott Dragicevich couldn’t handle a
grounder to third. Brandon Fahey singled, Guthrie walked J.D. Reininger, then
Kalani Napoleon blooped a single to right that scored two runs.
“Unfortunately I just didn’t have the mental toughness to overcome this,”
Guthrie said. “I just didn’t come up with the big pitch. It was tough for
me.”
After Carter’s leadoff homer, the Cardinal added two more runs on four hits
in the inning, including a triple by Fuld. It was Fuld’s 109th hit, breaking
the season school record he shared with Troy Paulsen (1990) and Mike Dotterer
(1981).
O’Riordan and Dragicevich had RBI singles in the first.
