COLLEGE WORLD SERIES : No.1 Stanford Wins Behind No. 3 Pitcher

Coach Mark Marquess gave the ball to John Reid, who knew what to do with it.

Reid, Stanford’s No. 3 pitcher, got the nod instead of ace Stan Spencer and kept the top-ranked Cardinal alive in the College World Series Tuesday with a 6-1 elimination victory over Mississippi State.

“No doubt, this was the biggest game in my life,” Reid said after giving up nine hits in eight innings. “I was just glad to get the call. I knew I could do the job.”

Stanford (58-11) will play unbeaten Georgia (50-18), already a 16-2 winner over the Cardinal, today. Stanford has to win to force a second semifinal on Friday. A victory by Georgia would put the Bulldogs in Saturday’s championship game.

Reid (8-1) worked out of jams in the seventh and eighth innings before Scott Weiss finished off Mississippi State (50-21) with a perfect ninth.

The Bulldogs loaded the bases with one out in the seventh on singles by Tommy Raffo and Tracy Echols, and a walk to Jim Robinson. But Reid got Rex Buckner to ground into a double play.

Mississippi State put runners on first and third with two out in the eighth, but Reid again escaped unscathed.

“I was fortunate to get the double-play ball because the pitch wasn’t good,” Reid said. “But that was the case all day.

“They seemed to hit the ball right at us, and I have to give credit to our defense.”

Troy Paulsen drove in three runs for Stanford, and leadoff hitter Jeff Hammonds had three hits and scored three runs.

“We were swinging the bats a little better today and had a good pitching performance,” Paulsen said. “We had a solid game all the way around.”

Mississippi State Coach Ron Polk saw it as a game of missed opportunities.

“We knew what we had to do, just score some runs to win it,” Polk said. “There were a lot of double plays and a lot of guys left on base.”

Stanford broke open a 2-1 game with three runs in the seventh off Bobby Reed. Tim Griffin walked and went to third on Troy Tallman’s single. Hammonds grounded to third, but after Burke Masters looked Griffin back to the bag, he threw the ball away trying to get Tallman at second. Griffin scored and Tallman took third, from where he scored on a sacrifice fly by Paulsen.

David McCarty followed with a double down the left-field line to score Hammonds and chase Reed (15-4) from the game.

Louisiana State 6, The Citadel 1--The Tigers broke out of a batting slump with two three-run innings and eliminated the Bulldogs.

LSU advances to Thursday’s semifinal against third-seeded Oklahoma State (55-16), which beat the Tigers, 7-1, Monday. An LSU victory would force a second semifinal Friday; an Oklahoma State victory will put the Cowboys in Saturday’s championship game.

The Tigers, who got only two hits against Oklahoma State Monday, entered the series with the highest team batting average, .331.

LSU didn’t get a hit against starter Billy Baker until the fourth inning. Then the Tigers broke out with four hits and three runs in the fifth, and Tim Clark hit a two-run homer to cap a three-run eighth.