May 1, 2001
Stanford, Calif. - No. 7 Stanford (35-12) erupted for 20 hits in a 15-8 victory over Santa Clara (21-27) in a non-conference game Tuesday at Sunken Diamond. The victory was Stanford's 19th straight against Santa Clara dating back to 1997. The freshman trio of Jonny Ash (3-3, 2 RBI), Brian Hall (3-4, 2B, 3 RBI) and Carlos Quentin (3-6, 2B, RBI) had three hits each and all nine Stanford starters had at least one hit. Ash, who entered the game as a pinch-hitter in the third inning, set a new career-high for hits. The Cardinal scored nine times in the bottom of third inning to break the game open. Ryan McCally (2-1) earned the victory, while A.J. Ampi (0-3) suffered the loss.
"We hit the ball well tonight," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We had a bunch of different guys contribute and that felt great for the entire team."
Stanford led 2-0 after scoring twice in the second inning, picking up runs on an RBI double by Jason Cooper and an RBI single from Arik VanZandt.
The Cardinal's nine-run third inning featured nine hits, all singles. The first four batters of the inning (Sam Fuld, Chris O'Riordan, Ryan Garko and Quentin) all singled. O'Riordan picked up an RBI on his single and Stanford led 4-0 after a sacrifice fly by Cooper. Hall singled home two more runs and Ampi was finally removed from the game after giving up Ash's first hit of the day. Andy Topham greeted reliever Anthony Rea with a two-RBI single and the Cardinal led 8-0. O'Riordan had another RBI single, Garko drove in a run on a sacrifice fly and Quentin finished the scoring with an RBI single.
Santa Clara answered with five runs and eight hits in the top of the fourth inning as six of the first seven hitters singled. Joey Gomes singled in the first run and Norm Hayes singled home a pair of runs to cut the Cardinal led to 11-3. Clint Cleland and John Hilvert finished the Broncos' rally with two more RBI singles.
Stanford scored another run in the bottom of the fourth inning on an RBI single by Topham and finished its scoring with three runs in the bottom of the fifth frame on an RBI double by Hall and a two-RBI single from Ash.
Santa Clara added single runs in the fifth, seventh and eighth frames. The Broncos scored on a Drew Ehrlich wild pitch in the fifth. McCally hit pinch-hitter Alex Anderson to score a Bronco run in the seventh and Mike Balestreri hit a solo homer, his first of the year, to lead off the eighth.
Garko (2-3, 2B, RBI), Topham (2-5, 3 RBI), Fuld (2-5, SB) and O'Riordan (2-6, 2 RBI) added two hits each for the Cardinal.
Matt Queen (3-5) led the Broncos' offensive attack. Hilvert (2-4, RBI), Jack Headley (2-4), Matt Miller (2-5) and Gomes (2-5, 2B, RBI) had two hits each for the Broncos, who finished with 15 hits.
Stanford will play Sacramento State tomorrow night (6:30 pm) at Raley Field in Sacramento. The Cardinal, currently 1.0 game behind USC in the Pac-10 standings with six conference games remaining for both teams, will be off from Pac-10 action this weekend.