2003 College World Series Game 8
Complete CWS Index

By John Manuel
June 16, 2003

OMAHA--You don't want to go late into a game against Texas letting the Longhorns hold a lead late. You're bound to see Huston Street if you do, and then you're bound to lose.

So when the Longhorns scored two runs in the first against Rice starter Wade Townsend, they looked to be in good shape. In the previous seven games of the College World Series, the team that scored first had won five times.

Not this time, though. The Owls never let Street be a factor in the game on the mound, taking the lead in the fourth on Justin Ruchti's two-out, two-run double. Then they piled on with a bizarre seven-run sixth inning while Townsend settled down and dominated, leading the Owls to an 12-2 victory against the defending national champions.

Townsend (11-1) went 8 2/3 innings, just missing the first complete game of the Series. He threw 50 pitches while struggling through the first two innings, just 50 through the next five frames and finished with 10 strikeouts, his sixth time reaching double digits this year. After his eight-inning gem against Southwest Missouri State on Saturday, Townsend's roommate, fellow righty Jeff Niemann, said he wanted to see Townsend match his feat. Consider it done.

All that was missing was the CG. "I believe when a young man is pitching a game like that and wants to go down in history for throwing a complete game in the College World Series--and is not laboring--then he has that right," said Rice coach Wayne Graham, who visited the mound after Townsend gave up a two-out double to pinch-hitter Michael Hollimon.

"I asked him for one more," said Townsend, who grew up in Austin rooting for the Longhorns but now takes pleasure in beating them. "He gave me one more and I walked the guy."

David Aardsma finished up as Rice, which was 1-6 all-time in CWS play coming in, took control of its bracket. Texas drops into an elimination game against Miami tomorrow having not pitched Street, who saved all four of their victories en route to the national title last year, yet in the 2003 Series.

The 24,842 fans on hand at Rosenblatt Stadium watched a tense first inning as Townsend battled his control while Texas' hitters took him deep in count after count. Eric Sultemeier followed a one-out double by Omar Quintanilla with a two-out, full-count walk. That brought up first baseman Curtis Thigpen, who had reached in all six of his at-bats against Miami on Saturday, and he drilled a double to right field that scored both runners.

Texas also threatened in the second, loading the bases with two outs on a pair of singles and a walk, but Townsend got Sultemeier on a grounder to third to end the frame. The rest of the way, he was efficient and in control. Townsend retired 21 of 23 batters from the third through the ninth until faltering.

"It was about sustaining rallies," Texas coach Augie Garrido said. "We were 1-for-5 with runners in scoring position and two outs. They capitalized with two outs . . . we didn't get the hit. I don't feel it was about us not competing, but we didn't get the hit in those situations.

"He is a good pitcher. The momentum was up for grabs in the first three innings, but then he settled into his groove."

Texas right fielder Dustin Majewski added, "In the first inning we had great at-bats. Later, it gets tougher when he gets a lead and he has all the confidence in the world. We laid off some pitches and that helped us early, and at the end we were hitting it well but right at some people."

In the meantime, Rice chipped away at the two-run lead against junior lefthander Justin Simmons, who took his first loss in three career CWS decisions, one of which was a 2-1 victory against the Owls last year. Simmons' errant throw on a sacrifice bunt by Craig Stansberry in the third scored Chris Kolkhorst with Rice's first run, and in the fourth, he gave up one-out singles to Austin Davis and Jeff Jorgensen.

Simmons retired Dane Bubela and had a 2-2 count on Ruchti before the Rice catcher delivered the game's biggest hit, lining a double to right-center field that scored both runners and gave Rice a lead it never squandered.

"The pitchers have done so much for us all year, and we (hitters) got together and decided it was time for us to take over a game," Davis said. "We're really excited (to be 2-0). It's a great feeling. We have to come back and still have a job to do, but we're really excited about it."

The Owls put the game away with a strange seven-inning rally against four Longhorns pitchers in the sixth inning. The loaded the bases with no outs on a hit batsman, single and walk, but reliever Brantley Jordan nearly got Texas out of it. He got Bubela on a fielder's choice force at home, and struck out Ruchti to get within an out of escaping the jam. But he walked Kolkhorst on a full count, forcing in a run. Seven Texas pitchers--a CWS record-tying number--combined to walk nine while tying another Series record with four hit by pitches.

"That was a close pitch, 3-2, sometimes the umpire expands his zone," said Kolkhorst, who went 2-for-4 with two RBIs and two runs. "I thought it was low and outside, and it turned out to be a huge pitch in the game."

Stansberry followed his walk with a two-run single to center, and when Joe Ferin's throw to try to nab Kolkhorst at third got away from Street, the Owls had scored four runs in the inning and had a comfortable 7-2 lead. They kept stretching it with a walk, another HBP, a wild pitch and a pair of RBI singles, pushing the score to 10-2 and putting the game away.

"I thought we did a good job laying off pitches and working the count," Graham said. "That might be the most gratifying seven runs I've had. It takes a lot of concentration to built an inning like that."

And to build a season and team like Rice, which at 55-11 is a win away from the national championship series. The top-ranked Owls will send sophomore righthander Philip Humber to the mound for their next game Wednesday.

They will play the winner of Tuesday's Texas-Miami redux, with Brandon Camardese going for the Hurricanes. Garrido said the Longhorns could start any number of pitchers, including freshman Sam LeCure, junior Danny Muegge or freshman J. Brent Cox, who pitched an inning in relief Monday night. All three are righthanders.