2003 College World Series Game 11
Complete CWS Index

By John Manuel
June 18, 2003

OMAHA--Once again, Stanford and Cal State Fullerton played a classic California battle, featuring good pitching, defense and a game that went down to the wire.

But this one also featured power, from the bat of Carlos Quentin, and it made all the difference as Stanford got its first win in five tries against the Titans this year, and it couldn't have come at a better time.

In the second matchup of the 2003 CWS between the two schools, Quentin and righthander John Hudgins made the difference. Quentin hit a pair of home runs, including a towering shot to left in the eighth, and Hudgins held the Titans in check after a shaky start for his second win of the tournament, leading the Cardinal to a 5-3 victory. Stanford's win forced a one-game, winner-take-all bracket championship game Thursday. The game will be at 7 p.m. Eastern if Rice beats Texas in Wednesday's second game, and at 2 p.m. Eastern if the Longhorns prevail.

Quentin's second home run was a towering shot, perhaps the most impressive shot of the event so far. In his first 10 career CWS games, Quentin, the 29th overall pick last week to the Diamondbacks, was 6-for-36 (.167). In his last two games, he's 6-for-7 with five RBIs, and he's doing it all with a ligament tear in his right elbow that will require Tommy John surgery.

"The injury is there; I deal with it," said Quentin, who politely added he'll discuss the injury in detail after the season but would prefer not to now. "I choose to be out on the field. It's my choice. I ice (the elbow) as soon as I get off the field."

Quentin was more than happy to discuss his reversal of fortunes in Omaha, where he had not only struggled offensively, but dropped a fly ball as a freshman in the Cardinal's championship game loss to Miami in 2001. He's put that in the past with several sterling defensive plays in addition to his newly hot bat.

"I won't forget what happened then," he said. "I've had more bad memories here than good ones, so it's good to come back here and play well. It definitely helped that when I wasn't swinging it as well, I was able to do something (defensively) to help the team win. I think that helped me get a little more relaxed and have a little more fun."

His fun started in the first, as the Cardinal took an early two-run lead with an aggressive approach. The Titans started junior righthander Wes Littleton, and he used just seven pitches in the inning, but the third pitch was lined by Jonny Ash for a single, and Quentin jumped on the fourth pitch and lashed a liner for a home run, his 11th of the season.

"I didn't think I pitched that well," said Littleton, who was an injury replacement for freshman lefthander Ryan Schreppel. "I couldn't get my change over and I left some balls up in the zone. I just tried to keep my team in it."

Cal State Fullerton recovered with three runs over the next two innings. P.J. Pillitere continued his surprising season with a solo homer to right that just eluded the leaping Quentin. In the third, Ronnie Prettyman reached on a one-out error by shortstop Tobin Swope and moved to second on Justin Turner's single.

Junior right fielder Shane Costa then jumped on a 1-0 pitch from Hudgins, lining one down the left-field line for a two-run double. It was the fourth hit off Hudgins in three innings, but he worked out of that jam and then didn't allow another hit until Pillitere lined a single to left field to lead off the ninth.

A key in the stretch was the first pitch following Costa's double, a long, towering drive by Kyle Boyer that just hooked foul down the left-field line. He grounded out on the next pitch, and Hudgins was on his way.

"I threw a changeup there and I was hoping he got out in front of it, and apparently I took just enough off it, I guess," Hudgins deadpanned. "I wasn't really loose early, but I started to feel looser and stronger, and I was able to execute my pitches better because of that."

Littleton got the start when freshman Schreppel reported some shoulder soreness, according to Titans coach George Horton. Littleton went six and yielded the 3-2 Titans lead in the fifth, as Stanford started the inning with three straight hits by Jed Lowrie, Chris Carter and Brian Hall, the last of which drove in a run. Hall's at-bat was the best of the lot, as he recovered from an 0-2 hole, fouled off two pitches and then lined an RBI single to right. A wild pitch brought home Carter for the lead, but the Titans got out of the inning with a 4-6-3 double play.

Then it was up to their offense, but Hudgins was too good. He allowed five baserunners the rest of the way, and the Titans were unable to advance anyone past second base. In the sixth, Pillitere was thrown out stealing when Danny Dorn apparently missed a hit-and-run sign. The next inning, Kurt Suzuki got on as the leadoff hitter when he was hit by a pitch for a CWS-record fourth time, but the Titans couldn't move him up. Jason Corapci popped up on a 3-1 pitch attempting to hit-and-run after Horton took the bunt off, and Prettyman followed by hitting into a 6-4-3 double play.

"Hudgins really mixed it up well and we didn't execute," Horton said. "With Corapci, that was a slash-and-run, where they thought we were going to bunt. Jason is a pretty good execution guy, but that outside pitch he swung at is a hard one to slash to the six hole, which ideally is where you want to go with a slash and run.

"Young people tend to get too excited, and maybe coaches get too excited. We were all trying to do our best; maybe we were just trying too hard."

Both teams will try their best Thursday for the right to play in the best-of-three championship series.