March 10, 2002
Berkeley, Calif. - No. 1 Stanford (14-5) picked up a 4-2 victory over California (13-9) at Evans Diamond on Sunday to take of two-of-three games in the non-conference series and extend its regular season series win streak to eight dating back to last year. Jason Cooper hit his third home run of the series and extended his career-high hit streak to 11 games. John Hudgins (3-0) earned the victory by holding the Golden Bears to one run on six hits over the first 6.0 innings, while Darin Naatjes earned his first collegiate save by retiring the only batter he faced for the final out of the game. Stanford has now won six of its last seven games and avenged a series victory by California when the Golden Bears won two-of-three the last time the teams met (April 27-29, 2001), marking the last time the Cardinal has lost a regular season series.
"It was a good series," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess about the hard-earned series victory. "The teams played three excellent games."
California trailed 4-2 heading into the bottom of the ninth but Stanford reliever Dan Rich walked two batters in California's final turn to put the tying run on base and the winning run at the plate before Naatjes came on to retire Conor Jackson on a ground ball back to the pitcher for the final out of the contest.
Stanford jumped on the scoreboard in the top of the first inning. Chris O'Riordan and Sam Fuld led off the game with back-to-back singles and O'Riordan scored on a double play ball hit by Ryan Garko.
California came back to tie the score at 1-1 with a run in the bottom of the second inning when the first three hitters of the inning singled. Jackson started the rally with a single, moved to second on a single by John Baker and scored on an RBI single by Brian Horwitz.
Stanford jumped back in front 2-1 with an unearned run in the top of the fourth inning, taking advantage of the third error of the game by California second baseman Carson White. Cooper walked to lead off the inning, advanced to third when White booted a ground ball by Chris Carter and scored on a sacrifice fly from Carlos Quentin.
Cooper extended Stanford's lead to 3-1 with a solo homer to lead off the sixth inning.
Stanford added its second unearned run of the game in the top of the seventh frame as the Cardinal took advantage of California's fourth and final error. Arik VanZandt beat out an infield single to lead off the inning and advanced to second when Jackson was charged with an error at first base after he failed to come up with a throw by Golden Bear third baseman David Nicholson. VanZandt then moved to third on a fly ball to right field by O'Riordan and scored on a wild pitch.
California cut the lead to 4-2 when Nicholson led off the bottom of the seventh with a single and scored on an RBI double by David Weiner to great Rich before Stanford second pitcher of the day retired seven straight batters and notched a career-high five strikeouts in 2.2 innings.
VanZandt (2-3, 2 SB) and Fuld (2-5) had a pair of hits each for the Cardinal, while Weiner (2-4, 2B, RBI) was the only California player with more than one hit.
Joe Todoroff (0-1) took the loss for the Golden Bears, allowing four hits and two runs (one earned) over the first 4.0 innings.
Stanford will be out of action for 12 days before resuming its season with a three-game non-conference series at USC (Saturday-Sunday, March 23-24). The Cardinal and Trojans will play a rare doubleheader on Saturday before concluding the series with a single game on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled both days for 1:00 p.m.