Rice
beats Stanford 14-2 in title game
By Oscar Gardner
Summer On-line Forty-Niner
The
University of Rice Owls(58-12) won their
first ever collegiate championship in a
major sport with a 14-2 route of the Stanford
Cardinal(51-18) in Omaha, NE, Monday.
Flamboyant manager Wayne Graham, 67,
led the Owls to the promised land, defeating
interstate rival and defending champs, University
of Texas(50-20) as well as the Cardinal
twice. After splitting the two first games
of the College World Series, the Owls proved
to be too much for the Cardinal in the inaugural
best-of-three format. Stanford has been
defeated three of the past four years in
the championship game and ended the Dirtbags’
season.
Sophomore pitcher Philip Humber (11-3) pitched
a complete game gem allowing only two runs
on five hits, with four strikeouts. This
was the first complete game in a championship
since 1993 when Brett Lanxton of Louisiana
State University did so.
Striking out one 134 batters this season,
Humber controlled the powerful Cardinal
lineup with his array of power and off-speed
pitches.
The Owls were led offensively by Enrique
Cruz and Paul Janish who drove in four and
three runs, respectively. The Owls’ offense
tied a College World Series record of seven
runs in their half of the sixth inning.
Stanford’s freshman hurler and National
Freshman Player of the Year, Mark Romanczuck
(12-2) struggled with control problems in
the opening inning and picked up only his
second loss of the year.
Romanczuck gave up three runs in the first
inning on five walks while only allowing
one hit. Romanczuck’s season high of six
walks was matched in the beginning of the
second inning.
In the eighth inning, Sam Fuld broke Keith
Moreland’s 28-year record of most hits in
the College World Series. With an RBI single
up the middle in the eighth, Fuld became
the all-time hit leader with 24 hits in
a career for the College World Series.
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