Guthrie hopes to give Stanford a good start in the CWS Guthrie hopes to give Stanford a good start in the CWS (June 08, 2001)

by Rick Eymer

J eremy Guthrie will get the call to open the College World Series for Stanford in the opening-round game against Tulane today at noon (ESPN).

Stanford (48-16) is the national No. 4 seed and ranked sixth in the nation. Tulane (55-11) is the No. 5 seed and ranked 12th.

No. 1 Cal State Fullerton (46-16) and No. 8 Nebraska (50-14) comprise the remainder of Bracket 1 and will also square off today, at 4 p.m. on ESPN.

The Cardinal will face either Fullerton or Nebraska in the second round on Sunday,win or lose. Stanford played the Titans this season, and beat the Cornhuskers two of three to win last year's Super Regional at Sunken Diamond.

USC (46-17) meets Georgia (48-20) and Miami (48-12) plays Tennessee (46-18) in the other bracket.

The College World Series is a double-elimination tournament until the final game on Saturday, June 16, which pits the winner of each bracket in a winner-take-all situation.

Stanford has reached the College World Series for the third time in a row for the first time in school history, and for the fourth time in five years. The Cardinal won CWS titles in 1987 and 1988, while finishing as the runneru in 2000 in their third trip to the CWS title game.

Stanford has a 6-2 postseason record this year and is 14-5 in postseason games over the past two years.

Tulane defeated defending national champion Lousiana State, 7-1, to advance to the CWS for the first time in school history. The Green Wave are led by Andy Cannizaro, who carries a .390 batting average with 69 RBI into the series. Jake Gautreau is hitting .346 with 20 homers and 91 RBI.

Tulane is batting .337 as a team this year. Stanford has a team average of .315.

The Green Wave, with starters Matt Foster (9-4, 3.54), College of San Mateo product Beau Richardson (7-1, 4.04) and Barth Melius (10-2, 5.60) have a team ERA of 4.33 as compared to Stanford's 3.34 team ERA, led by starters Guthrie (12-4, 2.58), Jeff Bruksch (9-3, 3.21) and Mike Gosling (7-2, 3.57). That's the lowest at Stanford since the 1973 club had a 2.64 ERA.

Stanford is 4-0 in elimination games during the 2001 postseason and has won seven straight Regional or Super Regional elimination games. Six of Stanford's eight postseason games in 2001 have been decided by one run with the Cardinal sporting a 4-2 record.

Stanford has played a total of nine games this season versus the 2001 College World Series Field, recording a combined 6-3 record versus USC and Cal State Fullerton. The Cardinal took two-of-three games over the top-seeded Titans in February. Tulane has not played anybody in this year's field, though the Green Wave are a combined 1-3 against Pepperdine and UCLA, while sweeping four games from LSU.

Stanford's all-time record against each of the other five clubs during the Mark Marquess era (since 1977) is as follows: Stanford vs. Miami, 2-4, Stanford vs. Tulane, 1-1, Stanford vs. Georgia, 3-2, Stanford vs. Tennessee, 1-0, Stanford vs. Nebraska, 4-1.

Stanford posted a 30-6 record at Sunken Diamond and an 18-10 road mark during the 2001 season.

Chris O'Riordan is Stanford's all-time leading hitter (.370) and this year leads or co-leads the Cardinal in batting average (.374), home runs (12), RBI (66), stolen bases (16), hits (99), runs (60), doubles (17), slugging percentage (.589), total bases (156), bases on balls (31), on base percentage (.446), sacrifice flies (8), at bats (265), games played (64) and assists (204).

Stanford's team fielding percentage of .977 is currently .005 percentage points ahead oSf the school record.