April 21, 2002
Seattle, Wash. - Washington (17-19-1, 5-4 Pac-10) upset No. 2 Stanford (27-10, 5-4 Pac-10) with a 4-3 victory in 10 innings on Sunday to win two-of-three games in a Pac-10 series at Husky Ballpark. Kyle Larsen's RBI single up the middle off the glove of diving Cardinal second baseman Chris O'Riordan with one out in the bottom of the 10th inning scored Greg Isaacson with the game-winning run.
"We didn't give them this game, they won some big spots and earned the victory," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "This was a tough one for us to lose."
The series victory marked the first time Washington has defeated Stanford in a regular season series. Stanford's overall regular season series win streak was snapped at 12 as the Cardinal dropped a series for the first time since losing two-of-three at California from April 27-29, 2001. The loss dropped the Cardinal into a three-way tie for third place with Washington and California, 2.5 games behind league leader USC (9-3 Pac-10) after the Trojans completed a three-game sweep at Washington State with a 15-9 victory on Sunday.
Washington's Shawn Kohn (8-2) picked up his second victory in the series by holding the Cardinal scoreless over the final 2.0 innings in his first relief appearance of the season. The Husky ace entered the game to begin the ninth inning and was pitching on just one day's rest after tossing a six-hit complete game to beat the Cardinal, 3-1, in the series opener Friday.
Isaacson started Washington's rally in the 10th inning with a leadoff single off losing pitcher Ryan McCally (3-2) and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Taylor Johnson. Tila Reynolds followed with a single to right field but Isaacson did not test the arm of Cardinal rightfielder Carlos Quentin and remained at third base before eventually scoring on Larsen's game-winner.
The game was scoreless before Larsen hit a solo homer over the rightcenter field fence with two outs in the bottom of the fourth inning to give the Huskies an early 1-0 lead.
Stanford's Ryan Garko answered with a two-out solo homer in the top of the seventh to tie the game at 1-1.
Stanford scored twice in the top of the eighth inning to take a brief 3-1 lead. Arik VanZandt started the rally by drawing a one-out walk from Washington starter Clay Johnson, moved to third base on a hit and run single by Sam Fuld and gave the Cardinal a 2-1 lead when he scored on a sacrifice fly from Danny Putnam. Fuld then stole second base and scored on an RBI single by Chris O'Riordan.
Washington matched the Cardinal with two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning to tie the score at 3-3. Aaron Hathaway homered over the left field fence to lead off the inning. Isaacson restarted the Washington rally by following Hathaway's homer with a one-out single. The Huskies eventually tied the game when Tyler Davidson beat out the tail end of a potential double play ball with the bases loaded for an RBI fielders choice to score Taylor Johnson.
Stanford put a runner on second base in the top of the 10th inning when Fuld singled and stole second base before Kohn retired Putnam on a foul out to Husky third baseman Michael Done.
O'Riordan extended his hit streak to a career-high-tying 11 games with his eighth inning RBI single and has now reached base at least once in all 37 games this season, while hitting safely in 34 of 37. He also remained Stanford's all-time leader in batting average with an updated career mark of .363 after a 1-for-4 performance.
Both starting pitchers had impressive performances in no-decision outings. Stanford's John Hudgins allowed just three runs and five hits in 7.1 innings and retired the first 11 batters he faced, while Clay Johnson also gave up three runs and five hits in 8.0 innings.
Larsen (2-3, HR, 2 RBI), Isaacson (2-4) and Reynolds (2-5) had two hits each for Washington, while Fuld (2-5, 2 SB) was the only Cardinal player with more than one hit.
Washington left seven runners on, while the Cardinal stranded five.
Stanford will host Sacramento State in a non-conference game on Wednesday, April 24 (6 pm, PT) before returning to Pac-10 action with a three-game series at Oregon State next Friday-Sunday, April 26-28 (6 pm, 4 pm, 1 pm, PT).