March 7, 2001
Stanford, Calif. - Chris O'Riordan's one-out home run over the left field wall in the bottom of the tenth inning lifted Stanford (15-5) to a dramatic 3-2 victory in 10 innings over California (10-7) in a non-conference game at Sunken Diamond on Wednesday. Stanford has now won 13 of its last 15 games overall.
"I was definitely pumped up and a little relieved when I saw the ball go out," said O'Riordan, who had been just 1-for-12 in the series prior to his game-winning homer.
The victory gave Stanford its 12th consecutive series win over the Golden Bears dating back to 1995. The series finale had been postponed twice earlier in the week (Sunday, Monday) due to rain. The teams split the first two games of the series with Stanford winning 3-1 last Friday and the Golden Bears handing the Cardinal its only home loss of the 2001 season on Saturday, 3-2.
"Thank goodness we got the big hit at the end there," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess.
Stanford's victory marked just the second time this season the Cardinal had won a one-run game as all five of the team's losses this year have been by a single run.
"This was a great college baseball game and a great series with California," Marquess continued. "It was a real big win because it gave us the series victory. We've been able to win every series we've played this year and that is a good thing."
J.D. Willcox (1-0) picked up the victory for Stanford, pitching four scoreless relief innings of one-hit baseball and striking out four.
Stanford was first to score when Scott Dragicevich launched a home run to left centerfield in the bottom of the second inning to give the Cardinal a 1-0 lead.
Cal took a 2-1 lead after scoring single runs in the fifth and sixth innings. Ben Conley had an RBI single to score Rob Meyer, tying the score at 1-1 in the fifth. Carson White's RBI single in the sixth inning drove home Clint Hoover and gave the Golden Bears a short-lived 2-1 advantage.
Stanford tied the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh inning on an RBI single by Ken Tirpack to drive in Dragicevich, who had walked to lead off the inning.
Arik VanZandt (2-4, 2 2B) became the first Cardinal player with a pair of doubles in a game this season and was the only Stanford player with a multiple-hit game. Conley (3-5, RBI) had half of the Golden Bears' six hits.
Matt Brown (1-2) took the loss for the Golden Bears.
The game also marked the return of Stanford's Mike Gosling, who had not pitched since starting the team's season-opener at Cal Poly on January 21. Gosling started the game for the Cardinal and struck out four in 2.0 innings of work.
Stanford will next host #4 USC in a three-game non-conference series at Sunken Diamond this Friday-Sunday, March 9-11 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm). Following the USC series, the Cardinal will break for 11 days before opening the Pac-10 schedule with a three-game series versus Washington at Sunken Diamond (Friday-Sunday, March 23-25, 6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm).