OMAHA, NE — The last time Notre Dame reached the College World Series,
Jim Morris went on the hitting tear of a lifetime.
Morris, who played right field for the Fighting Irish
in 1957, batted .714 (10-for-14) in Omaha. For 45 years, he has held
the record for the highest batting average at the College World
Series.
The Irish won two games before being eliminated by
Penn State in the semifinals.
"Nothing could go wrong," Morris said Saturday. "It
was one of those freak things that you dream of all your life."
Morris hinted he was fortunate to even be in the
lineup. In Omaha this weekend to cheer on the Irish, Morris recalled
he had been hitting just over .300 for the season when he came to the
series and "had played myself out of my position. I had four errors in
a game."
In Omaha, however, he went back to right field. It was
his first night game and he committed an error in that CWS opener. He
later threw a runner out, however, to help his cause.
Morris, who went on to teach and coach in Illinois,
said he is surprised his record remains in this era of aluminum bats.
He said with today's bats and other changes in the game, the advantage
belongs to the hitter.
As for what he thinks he could have done with an
aluminum bat, Morris just chuckled: "I don't know."
Big hitter
On a team that features three 20-home run hitters, a
player who didn't hit any during the regular season has become a
surprising power source.
Clemson designated hitter Zane Green has hit five home
runs in the Tigers' seven NCAA tournament games. The latest was a
three-run shot that helped Clemson erase a 7-2 deficit in an 11-10 win
over Nebraska on Friday.
Green, a 5-foot-10, 180-pound sophomore, took over the
leadoff spot June 2 and the Tigers have gone 5-1 since.
"He's just done a nice job since we put him in the
leadoff spot. He's got his confidence going," Clemson coach Jack
Leggett said. "We had some other guys
playing ahead of him. He's just taken on that challenge and done a
good job with it. Hopefully, he'll stay hot."
Coach loss
Notre Dame coach Paul Mainieri was taking a short
leave from the College World Series following his team's game Saturday
against Stanford.
He was leaving to be with his wife, Karen, in Oregon,
Ohio, Sunday morning. Karen's father, Bill Fejes, died Friday morning.
His funeral was scheduled for Monday morning.
Irish officials said Mainieri expects to return to
Omaha on Sunday night and will be on hand for Monday's game.
Close games
Nebraska has played 15 one-run games this season and
the Cornhuskers have been tough to beat in the close ones lately. They
had won three of the last four games decided by one run since April
16th before Friday's 11-10 loss to Clemson in the first round of the
College World Series.
"We have been finding ways to win," coach Dave Van
Horn said.
That wasn't the case earlier this spring. Nebraska, at
one point, lost eight straight games decided by a single run.
The Huskers had been missing a dominant closer since
2001 relief ace Thom Ott (11 saves) left for pro ball. The entire
Husker staff had 11 saves this season. No one had more then three.
Hostile crowd
Clemson's Jeff Baker said the Nebraska-partisan crowd
at the College World Series was not that big a deal. He had seen
worse.
Baker recalled playing in a Junior World Championships
game in Taiwan. He said the crowd of about 17,000 there was banging
drums and chanting non-stop.
"That was nuts," he said. "It was the biggest game
I've ever experienced."
That is until Friday night. Baker silenced the Big Red
chants from most of the 24,711 in attendance at the CWS with his
ninth-inning single to drive in the winning run.
"This surpassed that," he said comparing it to the
Junior World experience, "because we actually could understand what
they were saying."
Just in time for
Sunday
COLUMBIA, SC — South Carolina outfielder-second
baseman Justin Harris was reinstated by the team Saturday after a
one-game suspension for being arrested on disorderly conduct and
public drunkeness charges.
Gamecocks coach Ray Tanner said Harris could make his
first appearance Sunday in the College World Series when South
Carolina takes on Nebraska in an elimination game. South Carolina lost
to Georgia Tech 11-0 on Friday.
Harris, arrested Monday, applied for a pre-trial
intervention program in Columbia on Wednesday and met the team later
that day in Omaha. He must be accepted in the program, which allows
first-time offenders to wipe their record clean through community
service, by prosecutor Barney Giese's office.
Copyright 2002
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be
published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Bonesville.net
contributed to this report.
