Currier a Junior Achiever

Rik Currier will be on the mound today at Rosenblatt Stadium for the first time since deliriously dog-piling there with his USC teammates after winning the 1998 College World Series.

Currier was a freshman then. After beating Mississippi State in his first World Series start, he started the championship game against Arizona State but was knocked out after 1 1/3 innings of a 21-14 Trojan victory.

“I’m looking forward to getting out there on the mound again,” Currier said. “I can’t even describe what it’s like to stand there and take in the stadium backdrop, which has been a fixture in my mind from the time I was a kid.

“For college baseball, this is as good as it gets.”

Currier has been very good this season.

The junior right-hander from Dana Point takes a 14-3 record and 3.22 earned-run average into the Trojans’ nationally televised World Series opener against Florida State at 9:30 a.m. PDT. Texas plays Louisiana State at 4 p.m.

Currier has won four consecutive decisions during USC’s nation-leading 15-game winning streak, including victories over Virginia Tech in a regional at Fullerton and Georgia Tech in a best-of-three super-regional at Atlanta.

He has 137 strikeouts in 117 1/3 innings this season, is third on USC’s all-time strikeout list with 325 and is the leader in strikeouts per nine innings, averaging 10.92.

Major league scouts were apparently unimpressed.

While fellow Pacific 10 Conference co-pitcher-of-the-year Justin Wayne of Stanford was selected in the first round of last week’s amateur draft, Currier was not chosen in 50 rounds. Currier’s height--he is generously listed as 5 feet 10 inches on the roster--and the velocity of his fastball--which has been clocked in the mid- to upper 80s--worked against him. Telling scouts he would not sign unless he was drafted in the first five rounds did not help.

“I’m not going to be thinking about the draft or proving anything when I pitch against Florida State because I’m just out there to win,” Currier said. “But I will say that there have been plenty of major league players that were overlooked and proved everybody wrong. I look at myself like that.”

Florida State Coach Mike Martin would not be surprised if Currier turns in a Cy Young-type performance against the Seminoles, who are still seeking their first national title after losing to Miami in last year’s final.

“We’ve been told that [Currier] is a Greg Maddux type,” Martin said. “He can throw three pitches for strikes at any time. Sometimes you’d rather see a guy who throws 93 or 95 mph who sometimes throws a bad pitch.”

Currier made his mark on the national scene as a freshman when he helped USC stave off elimination in the World Series. After the Trojans lost their opener against Louisiana State and beat Florida, Currier gave up four hits and struck out 12 in eight innings against Mississippi State.

The Trojans then beat LSU twice, earning Currier the championship-game start.

USC scored three runs in the top of the first inning against Arizona State and Currier struck out the side in the bottom half. “I was like, ‘I still have it from the Mississippi State game,’ ” Currier said.

USC added five more runs in the second.

“After that, he got real, real tentative,” USC Coach Mike Gillespie said. “He was pitching like, ‘I have a big lead. I can’t walk anybody. I have to throw strikes.’ He wasn’t as aggressive.”

Currier gave up five runs before he was removed with one out in the second. His early exit was only a footnote in the record-breaking game that featured nine homers.

“I’ve thought about that game plenty of times,” Currier said. “It was just one of those games.”

Currier’s struggle in the championship game carried over to his sophomore season. He went 5-7 with a 6.38 ERA.

“It just kind of snowballed when I didn’t perform the way I wanted to each weekend,” he said. “The confidence wasn’t there. Every time out, I was trying to make up for the previous outing.

“It was a learning experience. I knew that when I was going through it, but it was tough to put that spin on it.”

Currier regained his confidence last summer in the Cape Cod League where he was named pitcher of the year.

He spent much of this season as the Trojans’ No. 2 starter behind sophomore transfer Mark Prior. But when Prior got sick before a Pac-10 series with UCLA in early April, Currier stepped in and struck out a season-high 12 in a complete-game victory.

He has started every series opener since.

“My goal the whole year was to just get into a rhythm,” Currier said. “I knew I would catch on and be there at the end.”

Currier will need to be in top form against Florida State, which is making its 18th World Series appearance and is trying to become the first Atlantic Coast Conference school to win the title since Wake Forest in 1955.

The Seminoles are riding the momentum of having defeated rival and defending champion Miami in the super-regional.

Sophomore right-hander Blair Varnes (11-2, 3.50) will start for Florida State.

The Seminoles feature outfielder Marshall McDougall, the most outstanding player at last year’s World Series, who is batting .341 with 13 homers and 65 runs batted in.

“They’re one of the best teams in the country every year, so this is going to be a challenge,” Currier said. “But we’re playing as well as anyone right now.

“We can’t wait to get started. And hopefully, it will end with us celebrating like we did in 1998.”

Today’s Game

Florida St. (51-17)

vs. USC (43-18)

Today, 9:30 PDT

Channel 2