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By John Manuel
June 15, 2002

Jeremy Guthire Photo: David Gonzales

OMAHA--All those complete games, all those times Jeremy Guthrie has gone past 100 pitches, seemed to pay off Saturday.

Guthrie, bounced early in his College World Series start last year against Tulane, bounced back with a gem against Notre Dame. The junior righthander had one bad inning, but otherwise stifled the Fighting Irish to lead Stanford (46-16) to a 4-3 victory.

Guthrie went the distance for the sixth time this year--all in the last eight starts, all since April 26 at Oregon State. He scattered 10 hits, walked only one and struck out four while throwing 119 pitches. The Fighting Irish (49-17) avoided the shutout on a seventh-inning three-run homer by shortstop Javier Sanchez, but stranded eight runners, including three over the last two frames.

"The difference for us was Jeremy Guthrie," Stanford coach Mark Marquess said. "He pitched a fabulous game. He was obviously a little tired in the eighth and ninth, but he was able to get a little extra when he needed it, as he has done all year."

Guthrie, as was the case in his 13-inning, 144-pitch gem two weeks ago against Cal State Northridge, was ruthlessly efficient. While his slider wasn't at its best, he spotted his fastball well and made liberal use of the outside corner. Of his first 29 pitches, 24 were strikes, and started six of the Irish's nine frames by retiring the first two batters.

Irish senior outfielder Steve Stanley, third in Division I history in hits, was the only Notre Dame player with two, though every other starter had one.

He compared Guthrie favorably with Rutgers righthander Bobby Brownlie, who has set the standard in the Big East for three years.

"We hit the ball hard some, but often right at people," Stanley said.

"(Guthrie) had a hard slider and threw three pitches for strikes, like Brownlie when Bobby had it going. They were very similar to me in that they both keep the ball down and hit their spots away. Their stuff has a little sink to it, like in my first at-bat--I thought the ball would stay up a little and ended up grounding the third.

"They have similar stuff, though Bobby throws more of a curve. Guthrie has the hard slider, then he had more of a slurve he was throwing for strikes.

They both really battle and have good velocity on their fastball--when they need it, they can reach back and get it."

Guthrie also got plenty of help, offensively and defensively as the Cardinal extended their season-long winning streak to 10 games. Shortstop Andy Topham made two solid plays in the hole on Steve Sollmann grounders, and the Cardinal improved on their .971 fielding percentage.

"(The defense) has helped me throughout the year," said Guthrie. "That's a reflection of the good numbers our pitching staff has had. The defense allows us to do well."

Guthrie improved to 13-1, 2.38 for the year and 6-0, 2.47 in seven career postseason starts, with last year's 1 1/3 inning, five-run debacle against Tulane the lone blemish. He said an early lead helped him settle in Saturday, and so did some Irish jitters.

Stanley said his team came out nervous--"I think the seniors were, so I think that had to affect the younger guys." And freshman righty Grant

Johnson started his outing by walking Chris Carter on four pitches. After a fielder's choice, catcher Ryan Garko hit the first of his two doubles, and two runs came home on outfielder Jason Cooper's single to center.

"It was huge for me and for the team," said Cooper, often maligned by scouts for an all-or-nothing swing. "I was able to shorten up and try to go to left field or up the middle."

The Cardinal added to the lead in the fourth when Carter, part of the team's talented but rarely used freshman class, tripled home Arik VanZandt, who had singled with two outs. Sophomore center fielder Sam Fuld chased Johnson (9-5), who had won his previous seven decisions, with a home run to right field in the sixth to make it 4-0. The homer ended a 1-for-22 postseason slump for Fuld and was his seventh homer of the year after he failed to go yard last year.

Fuld's blast proved crucial when the Irish rallied in the seventh. Matt Bok stroked a one-out double and moved to third on Kris Billmaier's single.

After seeing his sixth straight strike over three at-bats, Sanchez got a hanging slider and drilled a three-run homer to left to cut the lead to one.

It was Sanchez' fifth home run, all of them coming after he replaced injured starters Matt Macri and Matt Edwards as the Irish shortstop.

"For me, it's been an amazing run," said Sanchez, who is 13-for-40 in the postseason. "I started the year as the third-string shortstop, and the team has really rallied around me and given me the confidence to compete."

Saturday, Sanchez was the only Irish hitter to win a battle with Guthrie, who won the overall war.

"It was a great game, and Guthrie was definitely phenomenal," Irish coach Paul Mainieri said. "After we got our feet on the ground a little, we had better at-bats, but he was throwing three pitches for strikes, and we were just one hit shy of getting over the hump."

The Irish announced righthander Chris Neisel to start Monday's elimination game against the Texas/Rice loser. Stanford will face the winner with lefty Tim Cunningham on the hill.