April 8, 2002
Tucson, Ariz. - Administrators from Arizona and Stanford have consulted with Pac-10 officials and have announced that Sunday's suspended baseball game between the two schools has been declared a 15-13 victory in favor of the Wildcats. The contest was suspended after eight innings on Sunday in order to accommodate Stanford's travel plans.
The victory improves Arizona's records to 22-14 overall and 3-6 in the Pac-10, while Stanford falls to 22-7 on the season and 2-1 in conference play.
Stanford is currently one and a half games behind first place USC (18-14, 5-1 Pac-10) in the Pac-10 standings as the Trojans were a 7-0 winner over Oregon State on Sunday. Stanford will host USC in a three-game series at Sunken Diamond this Friday-Sunday, April 12-14 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT). Saturday's game will be televised by FOX.
Chris Goodman (2-2) picked up the victory with 4.2 innings of relief, holding the Cardinal to one run and four hits with three strikeouts. Wes Zlotoff was credited with his first save of the season by pitching a scoreless eighth inning.
J.D. Willcox (1-1) suffered the loss for the Cardinal, allowing two runs and one hit in 1.0 innings as the fourth of five Stanford pitchers.
Stanford jumped out to a 10-1 lead after two and a half innings in Sunday's contest. The Cardinal began the scoring with a run in the top first inning when Chris O'Riordan singled, moved to third on a single by Sam Fuld and scored when Ryan Garko hit into a double play.
The big Cardinal inning came when Stanford scored seven times in the top of the second, marking the 15th time this year that Stanford has scored five or more runs in an inning. The first nine Stanford batters reached safely in the inning. Carlos Quentin started the inning with a single but was picked off first base for the first out. Arizona did not record another out until a sacrifice fly by Quentin in his second at bat of the inning gave the Cardinal its seventh and final run. Danny Putnam singled with one out to re-start the rally and moved to second when Wildcat second baseman Moises Duran made an error on a ground ball hit by Chris Carter. Tobin Swope followed with a two-RBI double to right center. Andy Topham drove home Swope with an RBI single before advancing to second on a Chris O'Riordan single, stealing third and scoring on a fielders choice hit by Fuld. Garko doubled to drive in O'Riordan and Jason Cooper followed with an RBI single before Quentin's sacrifice fly to score Garko ended the rally.
Arizona put its first run on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second when Chris Cunningham led off with a triple down the right field line and scored on an RBI single by Marc Kaiser.
Stanford increased its lead to 10-1 on a two-run homer to left field by Topham in the top of the third inning.
Arizona began its comeback in the bottom of the third inning with a one out solo homer to left field by Brian Anderson.
The Wildcats then tallied six times in the bottom of the fifth inning to cut Stanford's lead to 10-8. Justyn St. Clair started the rally with a leadoff solo homer to left field. Arizona picked up two more runs on RBI singles by Pat Reilly and Duran to chase Stanford starter John Hudgins and cut Stanford's lead to 10-5. Stanford reliever Drew Ehrlich came on to strike out Ken Riley for the second out of the inning before giving up three consecutive RBI singles to John Hardy, Brad Hassey and St. Clair for the final three runs of the frame. Stanford reliever Darin Naatjes prevented further damage when he replaced Ehrlich with the bases loaded and struck out Chris Cunningham to end the Wildcat rally.
Cooper got one run back for the Cardinal with a solo homer off the scoreboard behind the right field fence to lead off the top of the sixth.
Arizona then tied the score at 11-11 by scoring three times in the bottom of the sixth inning. Kaiser and Pat Reilly led off the rally with back-to-back doubles for the first Wildcat run. Riley then singled home Reilly with one out before eventually coming around to score on an RBI single by Hassey to tie the game. Willcox relieved Naatjes and retired the only two batters he faced in the inning to end the Wildcat rally.
Arizona took a 15-11 lead by scoring four more times in the bottom of the seventh as Hardy provided a key two-out, two-RBI single to give Arizona its first lead of the game. Kaiser started the rally when he was hit by a pitch and Reilly singled to chase Willcox. Stanford reliever David O'Hagan walked Duran to load the bases but retired Riley on a short fly ball to center field before giving up Hardy's key hit. The final two runs scored when Stanford shortstop Tobin Swope made an error on a ground ball hit by St. Clair.
Stanford scored twice in the top of the eighth inning to cut the lead to 15-13. Garko drew a leadoff walk from Arizona reliever Tony Sulser before moving to third on a double by Cooper. Quentin drove in Garko and Cooper with a two-RBI double before Arizona reliever Wes Zlotoff retired three straight Cardinal hitters to end the inning.
O'Riordan (4-5, RBI, SB) tied a career-high four hits in the contest, while Cooper (3-5, 2B, HR, 2 RBI) and Quentin (3-4, 2B, 3 RBI, SB) had three hits each for the Cardinal. Topham (2-4, HR, 2 RBI, SB) and Swope (2-4, 2B, RBI, SB) collected two hits each.
Reilly (3-6, 2B, 2 RBI) led the Arizona attack with three hits. Seven other Wildcats had two hits each - Hardy (2-3, 3 RBI), Kaiser (2-4, 2B), Riley (2-4, RBI), Hassey (2-5, 2 RBI), Anderson (2-5, HR, RBI), Cunningham (2-5, 3B), St. Clair (2-6, HR, 2 RBI).
Stanford will host San Jose State in a non-conference game on Tuesday, April 9 (6 pm, PT).