June 15, 2007

College World Series Capsules

College World Series Schedule and Recaps

Rice storms back for 15-10 win over Louisville

Owls score 11 in final four at-bats

Louisville scored early, putting 10 on the board in the first five innings, but Rice fought back with 11 runs in its final four at-bats to outscore Louisville 15-10 in the opening game of the 2007 College World Series in front of 18,807 fans at Rosenblatt Stadium in Omaha.

The Owls (55-12) will face North Carolina on Sunday evening, while the Cardinals (46-23) meet Mississippi State in an elimination game earlier in the afternoon.

Trailing 10-9, the Owls scored six in the bottom of the eighth against closer Trystan Magnuson (3-3). Rice tied the game on a base hit by Joe Savery and took its first lead of the game on a double by Danny Lehmann, who went 3 for 4 with three runs and two RBI. Jordan Dodson added a two-run double later in the frame.

Louisville scored single runs in the first and second innings and a three-run homer by Chris Dominguez in the third gave the Cardinals a 5-0 lead in their first College World Series contest. Rice pulled to within one with four in the bottom of the third, but Louisville kept the bats going with a run in the fourth on Logan Johnson’s homer. The Cards got four more in the fifth as Boomer Whiting had a two-run single and Johnson hit a second home run, this one a two-run shot, to give Louisville a 10-4 cushion.

Rice rallied for three in the bottom of the fifth, capped by an RBI double by Dodson. Savery went deep in the sixth and Aaron Luna homered in the seventh to pull the Owls to within one at 10-9, setting the stage for the winning rally in the eighth.

The 15 runs by Rice were the most it ever scored in a College World Series contest, surpassing the 14 it scored to win the 2003 title against Stanford (14-2).