April 17, 2001
Stanford, Calif. - USF (22-16) upset No. 1 Stanford (31-8) by a final score of 5-4 in a non-conference baseball game at Sunken Diamond on Tuesday. USF beat Stanford for the first time since 1996 and snapped a six-game losing streak against the Cardinal. The Dons jumped out to a 3-0 lead and never trailed as the club won its eighth consecutive game and snapped Stanford's six-game win streak. David Seccombe (3-2) picked up the victory and struck out four batters in 2.1 innings of middle relief work. USF ace Jesse Foppert earned his first save of the season by pitching a hitless ninth inning. Armand Gaerlan (2-3, HR, RBI) hit his first home run of the season and was the only USF player with more than one hit. Four Stanford players - Scott Dragicevich (2-3, HR, 2 RBI), Ryan Garko (2-4), Carlos Quentin (2-4, HR, RBI) and Jason VanMeetren (2-5, 2B) - had two hits each.
Stanford trailed 5-3 before loading the bases off Seccombe with no outs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Andy Topham hit a sacrifice fly to score Quentin, who had led off the inning with a base hit, to cut the Dons' lead to 5-4. Chris Thogersen then retired Mario Garza on a fly out to center before Kevin Rose came on to retire pinch-hitter Jonny Ash and get the Dons out of the jam.
"Give USF credit because they played well," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess after the game. "They got hits at the right time and we had some opportunities to get a hit at key times but we didn't. When we only got one run after loading the bases with no outs in the bottom of the eighth inning that obviously hurt us. But give them credit, they came up with big pitches when they had to."
"They played better than we did," continued Marquess. "They deserved to win. They did a good job."
The Dons scored the game's first run in the top of the first inning on an RBI single by Chad Soares. USF then extended its lead to 3-0 with two more runs in the top of the second inning on a sacrifice fly by Jared Carvalho and a solo homer from Jason Howard, his fifth homer of the year.
Stanford came back with a run in the bottom of the second inning on Carlos Quentin' solo homer, his sixth long ball of the year, to cut the USF lead to 3-1.
USF immediately answered with an unearned run in the top of the third frame. Taggert Bozied reached on an error by Topham at third base to lead off the inning and came all the way around to score on three consecutive balks by Stanford pitcher Tim Cunningham.
Stanford cut the lead to 4-3 on a two-run homer by Dragicevich with one out in the fourth inning.
USF answered back again in the top of the fifth inning with Gaerlan's solo homer.
The Dons held the Cardinal scoreless for the next three innings, leaving Stanford runners stranded on third base in both the fifth and sixth innings.
Stanford visits #8 USC in a key three-game Pac-10 series this Friday-Sunday, April 20-22 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm). Saturday's game will be televised nationally live on FOX Sports Net. Stanford (10-2 Pac-10) currently leads USC (8-4 Pac-10) by two games in the Pac-10 race. The Cardinal and the Trojans are the only teams that currently have Pac-10 records of .500 or better. Stanford swept USC in a three-game non-conference series earlier this season at Sunken Diamond. USF, currently tied with Santa Clara for first place in the WCC's Coast Division with a 10-8 league record, visits Pepperdine for a three-game series this Saturday-Sunday, April 21-22 (12 pm - DH, 1 pm). The 13th-ranked Waves are in first-place in the WCC's West Division.