May 25, 2001

The Marist College baseball team put quite a scare into the nationally fourth ranked Stanford Cardinals at Suken Diamond Field in the Palo Alto regional of the NCAA Tournament, dropping a narrow 3-4 decision. The Red Foxes completed the evening with nine hits on the Cardinals' top pitcher and at one point took a 2-1 lead for three innings over one of the country's top teams.

Senior co-captain Ryan Brady (Mahopac, NY) recorded the Red Foxes' first hit of tournament play with a single to second base, but was later picked off at first as Marist went down 1-2-3 to open up the game. Standford, however used two hits and capitilized on a Steve O'Sullivan error at first to take a early 1-0 lead after one complete inning of play.

However, the Red Foxes did not lie down as Marist took the lead, 2-1, on three hits with its at-bat in the top of the second. Junior leftfielder Tim Bittner (Wilimington, DE) led off the inning with a single through the right side of the Suken Diamond field and moved over to second base on a groundout to third by sophomore Tim Allen (Wappingers Falls, NY). Junior Ben Cueto (Guttenburg, NJ) drove Bittner in for a RBI single down the leftfield foul line to tie the score at 1-1. Two batters later, designated hitter Jimmy Board (Shrewsbury, MA) hit a chopper to the left side of the pitcher's mound sending the ball careening past the Cardinal shortstop into centerfielder, scoring Cueto from second to take the lead.

After two scoreless innings, Stanford caught up and tied the ball game at 2-2 in the bottom of the fifth. The Cardinal's rookie outfielder Sam Fuld sailed the ball to the rightfield corner, causing lead-off hitter Chris O'Riordan to touch home from first. However, with O'Riordan in scoring position, Marist's defense held together with a hard hit ground out to sophomore Spike Ridgley (Massillion, OH) and fly out to Brady at center.

The Cardinals regained the lead in the bottom of the seventh to take a 4-2 edge. Fuld, whose RBI triple tied the ball game, used a suicide squeeze to send home Stanford's third run, ironically the same play which Marist used to win the both 1997 Play-In game against Siena to send them to their first ever NCAA Tournament and its first ever NCAA game win against McNeese State last year in the Lafayette, Louisiana regional. Rightfielder Carlos Quentin later double to the corner of left to score Fuld for what would be the game-winning run, before starting pitcher Chris Tracz (North Bradford, NY) was relieved by sophomore lefthander Kevin Ool (Middletown, NY). Ool shut down Stanford causing Cooper to pop out to short and Dragicvich to line out to centerfield. The sophomore also kept the Cardinals in check in the eighth allowing no hits.

The Red Foxes closed the gap to within one in the eighth. Brady, the second batter of the inning, walked, setting up a RBI for junior Anthony Bocchino (Brooklyn, NY) who smacked in a double off the centerfield wall.

Cueto led off the ninth with a walk and moved to second on a ground out by junior first baseman Jimmy Willis (Ft. Montgomery, NY). Rookie Jason Guidicipietro (Montainside, NJ) pinch ran for Cueto at second, but Stanford reliever Mike Wodnicki went on to strike out the next two Red Fox batters to seal the victory.

Tracz, the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference's Rookie of the Year, dropped his first game of the 2001 season, falling to 10-1. The freshman lefthander tossed 6 1/3 innings, giving up nine hits and surrendering just two earned runs with three strikeouts. Jeremy Gutherie improved his mark on the mound to 11-4 for Stanford, with Wodnicki picking up his sixth save on the year.

At the plate, Marist was paced by Brady, who ended the evening 2-for-3 with a run and Cueto, who was 1-for-3 with a run and a RBI. Stanford's Fuld led the Cardinals, going 2-for-3 with two runs and two runs batted in.

The Red Foxes, who fall to 32-20-1 on the year, face Long Beach State at 11:00 PST (2:00 EST) on Sunken Diamond Field tomorrow in the consolation bracket. Should Marist emerge victorious, they will advance to play the loser of Stanford/Texas at 7:00 PST (10:00 EST) . Live Stats and real audio for all games in the Palo Alto regional are available at www.gostanford.com.