Texas Routs Miami, 13-2

By Eric Stephens

June 15, 2003 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

OMAHA —

In a dream matchup at the College World Series that drew a record crowd, the game was anything but a dream.

Defending champion Texas took advantage of sloppy fielding and shaky pitching by Miami to score an easy 13-2 victory in a first-round game in front of 26,327 at Rosenblatt Stadium.

In a matchup between the last two NCAA champions, the Longhorns had 15 hits and got home runs from shortstop Omar Quintanilla and left fielder Eric Sultemeier. J.P. Howell, a transfer from USC, pitched six innings to get his 10th victory.

“We capitalized on a couple of errors, sustained rallies pretty well and stayed focused throughout the game,” Texas Coach Augie Garrido said. “We had some two-out hits to keep rallies going and at least put one run on the board.”

Miami (44-16-1), which plays plenty of freshmen and sophomores, looked jittery. The Hurricanes committed five errors, leading to eight unearned runs. It was Miami’s worst loss in 74 CWS games.

Texas (49-18) roughed up Miami starter J.D. Cockroft in the second. After Hurricane third baseman Gaby Sanchez committed the first of his two errors to allow Curtis Thigpen to score, Quintanilla followed with a three-run homer for a 5-0 lead. Dustin Majewski singled and Sultemeier made it 7-0 with a two-run homer to left.

Sultemeier went three for five and scored twice, and Majewski went two for four and scored three runs. Thigpen had four singles and also drove in two runs.

Miami Coach Jim Morris called it one of the ugliest performances in his 10 years at the school.

“We didn’t do anything right to speak of,” Morris said. “Any mistake we made, they capitalized and took advantage of it. Bottom line, you can’t play against a team like Texas and expect to be close to winning the way we played today.”

Rice 4, Southwest Missouri State 2 -- The Owls won their first opening game at the CWS in four tries as sophomore Jeff Niemann took a one-hit shutout into the ninth inning and improved to 17-0 this season.

Niemann, a 6-foot-9 right-hander, used a devastating slider to strike out 10 and gave up only three hits.

Greg Mathis and Jacob Hilgendorf hit back-to-back solo home runs to knock Niemann out, but David Aardsma, a first-round draft pick of the San Francisco Giants, got three outs for his 12th save.

Vince Sinisi and Austin Davis each hit solo home runs for the Owls (54-11). Enrique Cruz had a run-scoring single and Craig Stansberry hit a sacrifice fly to give Rice a 2-0 lead in the first inning.

Despite becoming a national power in recent years, the Owls are only 2-6 in the CWS.

“I’m tired of getting beat in the first round,” Rice Coach Wayne Graham said. “I want to hang around for a while. I like this place.”

College World Series

All times PDT

at Rosenblatt Stadium, Omaha.

JUNE 13

BRACKET 1

* Game 1 -- Stanford 8, South Carolina 0

* Game 2 -- Cal State Fullerton 8, LSU 2

JUNE 14

BRACKET 2

* Game 3 -- Rice 4, SW Missouri State 2