May 8, 2001
Stanford, Calif. - Freshman Jonny Ash drew a bases loaded walk on a 3-1 pitch with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning to lift No. 7 Stanford (36-13) to a come-from-behind 11-10 victory over Cal Poly (28-21) in a non-conference game at Sunken Diamond on Tuesday. Freshman Carlos Quentin (3-4) hit a pair of homers and drove in four runs, including an RBI single in the ninth inning to tie the game. Quentin became the first Cardinal to homer twice in a contest this season."Coming back like we did tonight just proved that we could do that like we did in the first part of the season," said Quentin.
Chris O'Riordan (3-4, 2B, HR, RBI) also had a solo homer in the bottom of the fifth inning and scored four runs. O'Riordan and Quentin are tied for the team lead in homers this year with nine each. Ryan Garko (3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI), Jason Cooper (2-4, RBI) and Sam Fuld (2-5) also had multiple-hit games for the Cardinal. J.D. Willcox (3-0) earned the victory, holding the Mustangs scoreless in the final three innings after giving up a pair of runs in the top of the sixth inning. Cal Poly reliever Nathan Choate (4-2) gave up a pair of runs in the final 1.1 innings to suffer the loss.
"This was a good victory for us," said a pleased Stanford head coach Mark Marquess following his team's first victory this season in a game the Cardinal trailed after eight innings. "I liked the way we came back and swung the bats tonight."
O'Riordan walked to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning and advanced to second base on a passed ball by Keith Anderson. O'Riordan then moved to third when Garko doubled off the glove of a sprinting Billy Saul near the leftcenter field fence. Cooper then drew an intentional walk to load the bases for Quentin, who hit a bloop single into right field on a 1-2 pitch to tie the game and set up Ash's game-winning walk.
Stanford trailed 10-7 before Quentin hit a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the eighth inning. The Cardinal added a run on an RBI groundout by Brian Hall to cut Cal Poly's lead to 10-9.
"I was just trying to get on base any way I could," said Quentin about his second homer to start the Cardinal comeback. "I was sitting fastball, but he threw me a changeup. I just reacted really well to it."
Cal Poly's Kyle Wilson was 3-for-5 with a double and five RBI, while Bryan Gant was 4-for-5.Stanford scored the first run of the game on a double play ball hit by Garko in the bottom of the first inning.
Both teams scored in the second inning. Cal Poly tied the game at 1-1 on an RBI single by Anderson in the top of the second before the Cardinal regained a 2-1 advantage on Quentin's first homer of the evening in the bottom of the frame.
Cal Poly went back ahead 4-2 with three runs in the top of the third inning on a bases loaded three-RBI double by Wilson. Stanford scored three runs of its own in the bottom of the third inning, tallying twice on Garko's two-RBI double and once on a sacrifice fly from Quentin to take a 5-4 lead.
Cal Poly answered with two more runs in the top of the fifth inning to regain a 6-5 advantage, scoring on an RBI single by Wilson and a two-out error by Cardinal shortstop Scott Dragicevich. Stanford regained the lead again, 7-6, with two runs in the bottom of the fifth inning on O'Riordan's solo homer and an RBI single by Cooper.
The Mustangs scored four times in the top of the sixth to take a 10-7 lead that lasted until the eighth inning. Scott Sheldon's two-RBI single keyed Cal Poly's four-run sixth inning.
Stanford improved to 22-3 at Sunken Diamond this season.
Stanford, currently 1.0 game behind USC in the Pac-10 standings with six conference games remaining for both teams, will visit USF in its final non-conference regular season game of the year on Wednesday. The Cardinal return to Pac-10 action by hosting Arizona in a three-game series this Friday-Sunday, May 11-13 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm). Friday's game will be followed by the 3rd Annual Stanford Baseball Fireworks Show presented by the Palo Alto Town & Country Village. Sunday's regular season home finale will double as Fan Appreciation Day and Little League Day.