May 11, 2001
Stanford, Calif. - No. 7 Stanford pulled to within a half-game of the Pac-10 lead after beating Arizona, 6-5, today at Sunken Diamond before a record-breaking crowd of 4,458. The Cardinal is now 13-6 in the conference and trails first place USC (13-5).Jeremy Guthrie (9-4) picked up his ninth win of the season and J.D. Willcox, who pitched the final two innings, recorded his fourth save of the year. Guthrie struck out eight and did not walk a batter in seven innings while Willcox allowed just two hits and struck out three in his two innings of work.
The Cardinal has now won three straight and five of its last six games.Chris O'Riordan, Carlos Quentin and Scott Dragicevich each had three hits for Stanford to spearhead the Cardinal offense.
"We've been finding ways to win games," said Cardinal head coach Mark Marquess. "And tonight, we got a big hit from Cooper and a good relief performance from Willcox. J.D. pitched very well in a clutch situation. I thought we swung the bats well against a very good Arizona pitcher."Stanford took a 6-5 lead with four runs in the bottom on the seventh. The first three runs came on Jason Cooper's eighth home run of the season and tied the score at 5-5. Three consecutive singles by Quentin, Jonny Ash and Dragicevich netted the Cardinal the go-ahead run.
The Wildcats scored four runs off Guthrie in the sixth inning to take a 5-2 lead. Erik Torres led off the inning with a double and scored one out later when Shelley Duncan's single to right was misplayed by Quentin, allowing Torres to score. Matt Abram followed with a double, scoring Duncan and putting Arizona on top, 3-2. Centerfielder Brian Anderson then hit his first home run of the year, a two-run shot that pushed the score to 5-2.
The two teams will play game two of a three-game series tomorrow (Saturday, May 12) at Sunken Diamond beginning at 1:00 pm. The series concludes on Sunday (May 13) with a 1:00 pm game. Stanford will complete its regular season with a three-game series at Washington State next Friday-Sunday, May 18-20 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm).