Disappointment in the Dugout

Two trips to the College World Series. Two traumatic finishes.

In the 1999 world series semifinals at Omaha, it was a baseball game for all seasons -- 13 innings of back-and-forth leads that Florida State finally won. Stanford finished tied for third in the nation.

This year, the Cardinal made it to the championship game for the first time since 1988 and only the third time in school history. Stanford had a 5-2 lead over Louisiana State in the eighth inning. Then, disaster: the Tigers rallied and won 6-5 on a run-scoring single in the bottom of the ninth.

The team's despair was prefigured by the look on Justin Wayne's face as he stood on the mound and watched two long flies leave the park in the eighth. The 21-year-old right-hander had struck out seven batters in three innings after he relieved starter Jason Young, '01. Wayne, '01, was only five outs away from the national title when the Tigers staged their winning comeback.

"The last two years have been very disappointing," coach Mark Marquess, '69, said after the game. "But from my point of view, the thing that makes it a little bit easier to live with is the fact that we played well in both of our final [world series] games. Sometimes you . . . kick yourself saying, 'We gave them the game.' But against Florida State last year and Louisiana State this year . . . we didn't give it away, we didn't lose. They beat us."

Marquess has taken his teams to Omaha 10 times in the last 19 years and won two championships, in 1987 and 1988. He was head coach of the 1988 U.S. Olympic gold-medal-winning baseball team and has been named NCAA Coach of the Year three times. But as important as baseball is to him and his teams, Marquess says losing isn't the worst thing that can happen in life -- a point he tries to impress on his players.

Third baseman John Gall, '00, may speak for other seniors when he says that simply playing at the College World Series was a "once-in-a-lifetime chance -- knowing that you are one of the last two teams on the field, out of all the teams that started the year."

Gall and center fielder Edmund Muth, '00, were drafted as juniors in 1999, but both opted to return for their senior season. Muth led the team with career highs of 22 home runs and 81 rbis, and Gall had 11 homers and 71 rbis.

Eight of last season's Cardinal players signed with Major League teams (see box), but Marquess isn't daunted. "We have many young players and some talented freshmen coming in. We may be a year or two away [from a championship], but we're not going to approach it that way -- but simply as a challenge."