May 20, 2001
Pullman, Wash. - No. 7 Stanford (42-14, 17-7 Pac-10) closed out its regular season with a 12-1 win at Washington State (15-39, 6-18 Pac-10) in a Pac-10 baseball game on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep of the Cougars at Bailey-Brayton Field. The Cardinal finished in second place in the Pac-10 after USC squeaked out a 1-0 victory at Oregon State on Sunday to win the Pac-10 title outright. Stanford had pulled to within one game of the first-place Trojans on Saturday after the Trojans were handed a 6-0 loss at Oregon State. Stanford won nine of its last 11 regular season games, while Washington State finished the year by losing 10 in a row and 15 of its last 16.
"Sure, we would have liked to have won a Pac-10 title," said head coach Mark Marquess. "But, the most important thing is that we are playing good baseball heading into the post-season."
The Cardinal will begin post-season play as one of 16 regional hosts for the 2001 NCAA Division I Baseball Championships. The NCAA Regional at Sunken Diamond runs next Friday-Sunday, May 25-27. The entire 64-team field for the 2001 NCAA Division I Baseball Championships, including regional pairings, will be announced live on ESPN on Monday, May 21 (12 pm, PDT).
Mike Gosling (7-0) won his seventh consecutive Pac-10 game on Sunday, limiting the Cougars to four hits and one run in the first 5.0 innings. Gosling struck out five and walked just one.
Jason Cooper (4-5, 2B, HR, 5 RBI) drove in a career-high five runs to lead the Stanford offense. Chris O'Riordan (2-4, 2B, RBI) and Arik VanZandt (2-4, RBI) added two hits each for the Cardinal. Andy Topham also had a double and a pair of RBI.
Stanford broke the game open with eight runs in the top of the third inning, scoring all eight runs after the first two Cardinal hitters were retired. Six of the eight runs were unearned. O'Riordan beat out an infield hit up the middle to begin the rally. Ryan Garko drove home O'Riordan with the first run of the inning with an RBI single to left field that also extended Garko's career-high hitting streak to 15 games. Cooper followed with his first of four hits, a two-run single to drive in Sam Fuld and Garko. An error by Cougar shortstop Richard Hall kept the inning alive before Jonny Ash singled home Cooper to give Stanford a 4-0 lead. Carlos Quentin scored the fifth run of the frame on a passed ball. Topham, who had made the first out of the inning, hit a two-run double in his second at bat of the frame and VanZandt finished the scoring with an RBI single.
Stanford added two more runs in the top of the fourth inning, both coming on Cooper's ninth home run of the season.
Washington State picked up its only run of the game in the bottom of the fourth inning on a solo homer by Stefan Bailie, his 18th of the year.
Stanford finished the scoring with single runs in the sixth and eighth innings. Cooper had an RBI double in the sixth and O'Riordan had an RBI double in the eighth.
O'Riordan extended his torrid hitting streak to eight games in which he is 21-for-34 (.618) and has a current team-high overall batting average of .379. The All-American candidate has also posted career-highs in homers (10), RBI (63), stolen bases (15), hits (88) and runs scored (53).
Bailie (2-4, HR, RBI) was the only Cougar with more than one hit.
Zach Fisher (0-7) suffered the loss, allowing eight runs and seven hits in 3.0 innings. Donny Davis pitched the final 5.0 innings for the Cougars, limiting the Cardinal to two runs and three hits.