49ers Finish with 39 Wins in NCAA Regional Championship June 2, 2002 PALO ALTO, CA-- The top-seeded and National Eight seeded Cardinal (43-16) survived the toughest NCAA Regional in the country, defeating second-seeded Long Beach State (39-21), 8-4 in the Championship Game at Sunken Diamond on Sunday. The Beach, who ended the season with their most wins in four seasons, had four players named to the All-Regional Tournament team, led by junior CF Jeremy Reed, sophomore 1B Mike Hofius, senior RF Nick Covarrubias and freshman RHP Jered Weaver. Stanford went up 2-0 after two innings, as Chris Carte hit a solo homer in the first followed by an unearned run in the second. The Beach were able to tie it at 2-2 in the fifth with two runs off a botched bunt attempt which scored a run off a throwing error followed by an RBI single from Edgar Varela. The Cardinal though came back with five in the bottom of the fifth to lead 7-2. Ryan Garko hit an RBI double to break the tie before Jason Cooper followed by a two-run homer to lead 5-2. Stanford then scored two more unearned runs off of LBSU's third error to lead 7-2. Josh Alliston, making only his second career start, gave up two runs early before shutting down the Cardinal for two innings before leaving in the fifth. Alliston tied his career-best with 4.1 innings pitched and gave up five runs (four earned) on eight hits, striking out eight. Chris Wright finished his career first at Long Beach State in career hits (260) and at-bats (829), tied for first in games played (228), second in starts (200), third in doubles (47) and triples (10) and tied for third in RBIs (133). Alliston finished his career second in both appearances (90) and saves (26). In another indicator of the Dirtbags tough non-conference schedule, four opponents (Miami, Arkansas, USC, Louisiana State) advanced to Sunday's Regional Championship games. Eight opponents had reached regional play to begin the weekend. Reed finished his junior year second all-time wiht 54 steals. For the season, Nick Covarrubias finished second on the single-season charts in doubles (25) while second team All-American Abe Alvarez tied for fifth in a season with 12 wins. It was the eighth time since 1989 that the team had at least 39 wins. The Dirtbags will now look towards the Major League Baseball Draft on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week. BOX SCORE | 
