University of Washington
Rice
Huskies Fall To Rice After Dramatic Garthwaite Homer
June 02, 2002 | Baseball
June 2, 2002
HOUSTON - A two-out, three-run homer by Washington center fielder Jay Garthwaite beat Rice, 7-6, to force a second championship game Sunday in an NCAA Regional at Reckling Park, but the No. 2-ranked Owls came back to blow out the UW in game two, 14-2. Rice won the regional championship and will advance to the NCAA Super Regionals next weekend against either Louisiana State or Louisiana-Lafayette.
Washington, which reached a winner-take-all regional final for the third time in the last eight years, finishes the 2002 season with a 33-27-1 record while Rice, the No. 4 overall seed in the NCAA tournament, won its 50th game in the nightcap to improve to 50-12.
Garthwaite's dramatic homer came after the Huskies' season had been down to its last strike twice. Freshman Kyle Larsen (Redmond/Eastlake) singled on a full-count pitch from Rice reliever Philip Tribe and Tribe hit DH John Otness (Tacoma/Wilson) with a two-strike pitch.
He started Garthwaite, a junior from Kent (Kent-Meridian), with three balls before throwing a strike that was taken. Garthwaite then belted a high breaking pitch so far over the fence in left that the Rice left fielder didn't even turn to watch it go out.
The homer was a reminder of the Huskies' 1994 NCAA Regional in Wichita, Kan., when Brian Loucks belted a three-run homer in the bottom of the 14th to beat Georgia Tech in the first game of a two-game championship, forcing a second.
The Owls led the whole way, scoring a run in the first and taking a 4-1 lead with three runs in the fourth and, after the Huskies had drawn back to 4-3, Rice got a two-run homer from Enrique Cruz to stretch its lead to 6-3. An RBI single from Otness in the eighth gave cut the lead to 6-4, setting up Garthwaite's ninth-inning stunner.
Freshman reliever Will Fenton (Kingston/North Kitsap) got the game one win, holding the Owls without a run or a hit over three and one-third innings. Fenton upped his record to 3- 3 on the year. Tribe took the loss to fall to 4-4.
The Huskies ran out of gas in the second game as the Owls compiled a 14-0 lead before the UW scored its first run in the sixth inning. Freshman starter Jeff Niemann (5-1) threw five and one-third innings, allowing only four hits, for the win. Husky sophomore Jeff Petersen (Covington/Kentwood) suffered the game-two loss, falling to 1-3 on the season after allowing five earned runs over three innings.
Rice left fielder Chris Kolkhorst had five hits, three runs and reached base six times to lead the Owls offense. A.J. Porfirio added a pair of doubles and a single in five at bats. Rice scored at least a run in every inning from the second through the sixth, posting five each in the third and the fifth.
LINESCORES NCAA Regional, Houston, Texas Game One: Washington 7, #2 Rice 6 Rice 100 302 000 -- 6 7 1 Washington 001 020 103 -- 7 12 2 Philip Humber, Philip Tribe (8) and Jeff Blackinton. Zack Daniels, Will Fenton (6) and Aaron Hathaway. W - Fenton (3-3). L - Tribe (4-4). 2B - Rice, Chris Kolkhorst, Hunter Brown; UW, Tila Reynolds. HR - Rice, Vincent Sinisi (11), Enrique Cruz (16); UW, Jay Garthwaite (16). T - 2:54. A - 3,044.Game Two: #2 Rice 14, Washington 2 Rice 015 152 000 -- 14 17 1 Washington 000 001 100 -- 2 9 3 Jeff Niemann, Wade Townsend (6) and Justin Ruchti. Jeff Petersen, David Dowling (4), Trevor Gibson (4), Brian Carter (5), Greg Colburn (7) and Aaron Hathaway, Ben Johnson (6). W - Niemann (5-1). L - Petersen (1-3). 2B - Rice, Dane Bubela, A.J. Porfirio 2, Ruchti, Enrique Cruz, Chris Kolkhorst; UW, Tyler Davidson, Greg Isaacson. T - 3:12. A - 2,412.
