Feb. 18, 2002
Fresno, Calif. - Tim Cunningham won his ninth consecutive decision dating back to the beginning of the 2001 season and the Cardinal hit a season-high three home runs as No. 1 Stanford (7-3) rolled to an 8-3 victory over Fresno State (4-6) in the rubber game of a three-game non-conference series at Beiden Field on Monday. Andy Topham, Donny Lucy and Carlos Quentin all homered for the Cardinal. The victory gave Stanford two-of-three wins in a three-game series for the third straight series this season and extended the club's series winning streak to five in a row dating back to last season.
"Tim Cunningham pitched a whale of a ballgame for us today," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "The double play ball was a big turning point for us today."
The Cardinal turned a season-high four double plays.
Cunningham (3-0) held the Bulldogs without an earned run in 7.2 innings of work, scattering six hits and striking out six as he improved to 14-2 overall in his career at Stanford, fourth on the school's all-time won-loss percentage list for pitchers. Cunningham forced the Bulldogs into four groundball double plays, the most by a Cardinal opponent this season.
"I just wanted to keep going as long as I could, but I got really tired that last inning," said Cunningham, who was bidding for both the first shutout and the first complete game of his career.
Cunningham has tossed 12.0 innings without giving up an earned run in the past week to pick up a pair of victories.
Quentin (3-5, HR, 2 RBI), Lucy (2-4, HR, 3 RBI) and Chris O'Riordan (2-5, 2B, 3B) led the Cardinal offense. Quentin finished 8-for-11 (.727) in the three-game series and hit his team-leading third home run on Monday, while Lucy now paces the club with 15 RBI.
Casey McGehee (3-4, 2 RBI) was the only Fresno State player with more than one hit.Fresno State starter Francisco Nieves (0-1) was tagged with the loss, allowing five runs and six hits over the first 2.1 innings.
Stanford scored the first run of the game in the top of the second inning when Scott Dragicevich doubled down the left line with two outs and scored on an RBI single by Lucy.The Cardinal extended its lead to 5-0 with four runs in the top of the third inning as the Cardinal batted around and five of the first six hitters in the inning had hits. Chris Carter led off the inning with a hard-hit bad hop single through the right side of the infield and Topham followed with his first home run of the season to straight away center field to put the Cardinal ahead 3-0. O'Riordan then tripled to center field and scored one out later on an RBI single by Quentin to chase Nieves. Quentin scored the final run of the inning when he stole second base moved to third on a single by Ryan Garko and came home on Jason Cooper's RBI fielders choice.
Lucy gave the Cardinal a 7-0 advantage with a two-run homer in the top of the sixth inning and the Cardinal scored its final run on Quentin's solo homer in the top of the seventh inning.Fresno State scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the eighth inning. Jared Walker led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a balk. The Cardinal had two outs and only one runner on before Cunningham hit Chris Patrick and then Scott Beshears reached on a catchers interference by Garko to load the bases. Cunningham then walked Ben Fritz to give the Bulldogs their first run of the game. John Hudgins relieved Cunningham and was greeted by McGehee with a two-out, two-RBI single before he retired Tobey Riday-White to get the Cardinal out of the jam.
Hudgins finished the game by tossing a scoreless ninth inning.
Stanford will next be in action when the Cardinal hosts Santa Clara for the first game of a three-game series this Friday, February 22 (6 pm). The second game of the series on will be played at Santa Clara on Saturday (4 pm) before the teams return to Sunken Diamond for the series finale on Sunday (1 pm).