By John Manuel
June 21, 2003

OMAHA--What a way to inaugurate the new best-of-three championship series at the College World Series.

Rice and Stanford broke in the new format with a game for the ages, an extra-inning affair featuring unlikely heroes, wonderful defensive plays (mostly by Owls left fielder Chris Kolkhorst) and standout pitching.

But it ended on a sour note unworthy of the quality of the game. Just as Stanford freshman righthander Kodiak Quick appeared to be working out of a 10th-inning jam, inducing a weak grounder from Rice's leading hitter, Austin Davis, he threw the ball away. The error scored Kolkhorst from second base with the winning run, giving the Owls a 4-3 win and a 1-0 lead in the championship series.

"Obviously it was a huge play, and I made a big mistake," Quick said. "It's something that we've worked on hundreds of times in practice. But I was glad to get the chance to pitch tonight. Fortunately, it's a best-of-three series."

"It looked like he tried to guide it in there," Rice coach Wayne Graham said of Quick's errant throw. "We feel extremely fortunate. Stanford is a great hitting team. Jeff (Niemann's) ability to keep us in the game after the first inning . . . was remarkable, really showed his character. Kolkhorst made great plays, (reliever David) Aardsma was lights out, and we caught a break. I'll take it."

Cardinal senior righthander Ryan McCally ended up taking the loss, his third in 10 decisions this season, despite a gutty effort. He proved to be the equal of Niemann, who received a no-decision that kept him from becoming the first pitcher in NCAA history to go 18-0 in a season, and outlasted him by working into the 10th. McCally gave up eight hits and four runs, three earned, while walking and striking out three.

McCally became the first starter in Omaha to go more than nine innings since Arizona State's Marc Barcelo in 1993, starting the 10th despite having thrown 128 pitches. He walked Kolkhorst on five pitches to start the inning. He stayed in as Dane Bubela sacrificed Kolkhorst to second, and on came Quick. He struck out Vincent Sinisi--mired in a 1-for-16 slump in the CWS--before Davis' grounder and Quick's mishap.

“I really didn’t know what happened," Kolkhorst said. "I was on second base and Austin hit a little roller. I rounded third and just kept running until I touched home plate. I saw the guys running out of the dugout and I asked someone, ‘Did we win?’ I couldn’t believe it."

Added Cardinal coach Mark Marquess: "We lost the game on the last play, but there were so many others where we could have won. We had some chances to score some runs . . . It happens. It's magnified when it's that play, but it happens. It's a tough one to take, but we have to forget it and come back with a good game tomorrow."

McCally was staked to a 3-0 lead after the top of the first, but the Owls scrapped back while Niemann settled down. The sophomore righthander gave up six hits by the time he had gotten seven outs, then didn't give up a hit over his last 5 2/3 frames, yielding just a pair of walks while retiring 17 of 19.

"I was coming at them with my best stuff, but it seemed like they either fouled everything off or got a hit," Niemann said. "I just kept going after them. I wasn't going to change my plan because of what happened in the first inning. They can swing the stick a little bit, but I had to keep going with what got me here, which is getting my slider over, throwing my fastball for strikes, keeping the ball down. My slider is my out pitch. I wasn't going to change that."

Righthander David Aardsma, making his Rice-record 40th appearance of the season, pitched the last two innings. The Giants' first-round pick gave up one hit and struck out one while retiring six of seven batters to move to 7-3.

The Cardinal's aggressive approach at the plate paid dividends early. Junior third baseman Jonny Ash, who hit his first collegiate homer Thursday night against Cal State Fullerton, pulled off an encore in the first inning against Niemann, crushing a 3-2 fastball for another homer, this one a solo shot.

Carlos Quentin followed with an infield hit and scored on Ryan Garko's double, giving the senior catcher 92 RBIs for the year, tying a Stanford record. Garko scored one out later on Sinisi's first error of the season, as he threw away a Jed Lowrie grounder on an attempted 3-1 putout.

However, the Cardinal left runners at first and second in the third inning, had a runner thrown out stealing in the second and left six runners on base for the game.

"Rice is a great team," Marquess said. "We put three on them early, then Niemann settled down. He got his breaking ball over more and his slider was effective, and their left fielder made some great plays."

Rice got one in the third as Kolkhorst tripled with one out and scored on Bubela's sacrifice fly to center. The Owls tied the score in the sixth with three of their eight hits. Bubela was involved again, leading off with a double to right, and he scored on a one-out single by Davis, who is now the Owls' leading hitter in the Series at 7-for-15 (.467).

Davis went to second on the throw and moved to third on a fly ball. Enrique Cruz then delivered a clutch two-out single to center to tie the score.

Kolkhorst helped keep it tied with a pair of sterling plays in left field. He robbed Danny Putnam of an RBI double in the eighth inning when he snagged his two-out drive to the wall, then made a leaping catch of a deep liner by Chris Carter with one on and no outs in the ninth. Making his catches more impressive was the fact that Kolkhorst had bruised his right knee earlier in the game when he tripped over a bullpen mound while chasing a foul fly ball.

"You're not going to get any sympathy from your teammates when you trip and fall like that," said Kolkhorst, who said it felt like his kneecap was "moving around" after his fall when he ran.

Said Niemann: "I was hoping he could get (Putnam's drive). I didn't know if he would, but he turned and made the catch. It was a big break for us."

Turning to Kolkhorst, Niemann then added, "I appreciate it."

The Owls will go for the championship Sunday afternoon at 1:30 Central with sophomore Wade Townsend (11-1, 1.92) on the mound. The Cardinal is likely to throw either junior righthander John Hudgins (13-2, 2.96) or freshman lefthander Mark Romanczuk (12-1, 3.72). Marquess said he would make his decision Sunday morning.