May 13, 2001
Stanford, Calif. - No. 7 Stanford (39-14, 14-7 Pac-10) closed its 2001 regular season home schedule with an 8-2 victory over Arizona (30-23, 9-12 Pac-10) in a Pac-10 baseball game at Sunken Diamond on Sunday. The victory gave Stanford two-of-three games in the series after the Cardinal had dropped two-of-three in two previous series at USC and California. Junior lefthander Mike Gosling (6-0) picked up his sixth consecutive Pac-10 victory and won his fifth straight conference start. Gosling allowed only two hits and two runs in 6.0 innings, while striking out six.
"I had to try to come out today and help our team to win the series," said Gosling. "All the games in a series are important but when you have a chance to win the series that is huge, especially after we had lost two in a row. We had to come out with a win today."
Sam Fuld (4-5, SB) tied a career-high with four hits, while Ryan Garko (2-5, 2B, 2 RBI) extended his career-high hitting streak to 12 games and Carlos Quentin (2-3, HR, 2 RBI) blasted his team-leading 10th home run. Jonny Ash (2-4, 2B) added a pair of hits for the Cardinal, while Jason Cooper had two RBI.
Stanford remained 1.5 games behind first-place USC (35-16, 15-5 Pac-10) in the race for the conference title. The Trojans were a 7-0 winner over Washington State on Sunday. Stanford will conclude its 2001 regular season with a Pac-10 series at Washington State next Friday-Sunday, May 18-20 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm). USC will complete a three-game series versus Washington State on Monday in Los Angeles before visiting Oregon State for its final regular season games next Friday-Sunday, May 18-20.
"Obviously, I would like to win the Pac-10," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "But, I think it is more important that we have a good week of practice, finish up strong at Washington State and get ready for the post-season."
The NCAA will announce the 16 regional sites for the first week of 2001 NCAA Tournament play on Monday, May 14 (12 pm) before the entire 64-team NCAA Tournament field is announced live on ESPN on Monday, May 21 (12 pm, PDT).
The Cardinal jumped out to an early 7-0 lead after three innings in Sunday's win. Stanford scored four times in the bottom of the first inning as Quentin capped the four-run outburst with a two-run homer that knocked Arizona starter and losing pitcher Chris Goodman (3-2) from the game. The Cardinal scored runs earlier in the inning on an RBI double by Garko and the first of Cooper's two sacrifice flies.
Stanford added two more runs in the bottom of the second inning on another RBI single from Garko and another sacrifice fly by Cooper.
Ash doubled to lead off the bottom of the third inning and eventually scored on a sacrifice fly by Brian Hall to increase Stanford's margin to 7-0.
Gosling shut out the Wildcats through the first six innings, retiring 10 straight batters in one stretch and not allowing a Wildcat to reach second base.
Arizona finally picked up a couple of runs in the top of the seventh inning. Gosling struck out Matt Abram on a pitch in the dirt to open the inning but Abram reached first base when he ran into the ball on his way down the first base line. Gosling then walked Brian Anderson and was removed from the game for reliever Mike Wodnicki, who hit Justyn St. Clair to load the bases with no outs. Pinch-hitter Marc Kaiser's RBI ground out to first base ended Stanford's shutout bid. Wodnicki then issued a free pass to pinch-hitter Kenny Huff to reload the bases and walked Brad Hassey to give Arizona its second run before settling down to strike out Erik Torres and Ernie Durazo, ending the Wildcat threat.
The Cardinal added an unearned insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning when Durazo dropped Garko's two-out line drive to first base, allowing Chris O'Riordan to cross the plate.Durazo (2-4) picked up both of Arizona's hits.
Stanford finished its 2001 regular season home schedule with a 24-4 record at Sunken Diamond.