Miami wins World Series title

Associated Press

OMAHA, Neb. — Danny Matienzo had been practicing the celebration pileup with a few Miami teammates before the College World Series championship game. And after helping lead the Hurricanes to their second national title in three years, he decided there was nothing like the real thing.

"To be able to jump around with the whole team, it's amazing," Matienzo said after Miami routed Stanford, 12-1, yesterday.

"It's incredible when you're focused and when a team is together as one, what you can achieve," the sophomore designated hitter added. "You can practically do anything. And what we did this year was amazing."

Kevin Brown hit a home run and had five RBIs, and Kevin Mannix drove in three runs for the Hurricanes (53-12), who won their fourth national title, the others coming in 1982, 1985 and 1999.

"It's unbelievable," coach Jim Morris said. "It was a total team effort. We pitched great, played flawless defense and we swung the bats. You could never ask for any more than the way we played that game."

Miami ended the season with a 17-game winning streak and became the 18th team to go undefeated in the College World Series.

The Hurricanes capitalized on Matienzo's fly ball to right that was lost in the sun and fell for an RBI double, sparking a four-run third inning.

Tom Farmer (15-2), Luke DeBold and Alex Prendes combined to hold the Cardinal to five hits. The loss stopped a four-game winning streak for Stanford (51-17), which also lost in last year's championship game to LSU.

"Obviously, we're disappointed because we didn't give them much of a game," Stanford coach Mark Marquess said. "They were the better team. And as they have the entire College World Series, they kind of exploded on us and we could get nothing going."

Stanford won national titles in 1987 and '88.