Cardinal baseball teams had played in the College World Series 15 times, but no one thought there'd be a 16th trip to Omaha this year. Ranked seventh in the Pac-10 conference after preseason play, the team faced other challenges. The season was shortened by three weeks, but the number of games stayed the same, upping the pace from last year's three games a week to four or five.
But the men proved their mettle, emerging with a 41-24-2 record (14-10 Pac-10) and a place at the CWS. The Cardinal's ultimate defeat at the hands of the Georgia Bulldogs came following triumphs over Florida State and top seed Miami. “I'm very proud of this team,” coach Mark Marquess, '69, said at a postgame conference. “We surprised a lot of people, including me.”
