April 19, 2002
Seattle, Wash. - Aaron Hathaway and Greg Isaacson bounced back-to-back two-out RBI singles through the infield in the bottom of the seventh inning and Shawn Kohn pitched a complete game six-hitter to lift Washington (16-18-1, 4-3 Pac-10) to a 3-1 upset victory over No. 2 Stanford (26-9, 4-3 Pac-10) on Friday at Husky Ballpark. The loss was Stanford's first in 11 series openers this season and also snapped an eight-game win streak against the Huskies dating back to 1999. Stanford needs to sweep the final two games of the series to extend its regular season series win streak to 13. Stanford falls back into a four-way tie for third place in the conference with Washington, California and Oregon State. USC (7-3 Pac-10) leads second-place Arizona State (8-5 Pac-10) by a half-game and the third-place group by 1.5 games.
"(Shawn) Kohn pitched a great game, and we just couldn't really get anything going," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "They got a couple of clutch hits with guys on base, and we didn't. That's why they won the game. They deserved to win."
Kohn and Stanford's Jeremy Guthrie were locked in a pitching dual through the first six innings with the Cardinal leading 1-0 before Guthrie was removed from the game after 6.0 innings. Guthrie struck out seven, while allowing just two hits and one walk as the Huskies had only one runner reach second base through the first six innings. Guthrie received his fourth consecutive no decision to maintain his 11-game win streak on the mound.
"Jeremy was a little sore, nothing serious, but it was a little tough to pitch with the cold weather tonight," added Marquess. "I didn't want to take any chances with him."
Stanford reliever Ryan McCally (3-1) was charged with his first loss of the season after giving up both Washington runs in the bottom of the seventh inning. McCally retired the first batter he faced before a one-out walk to Bryan Johnson and a two-out walk to Michael Done set the stage for the back-to-back RBI singles by Hathaway and Isaacson.
Kohn (7-2) struck out just two Cardinal batters but did not issue a walk while pitching his fourth complete game of the season. He retired the first nine batters he faced and nine of the last 10.
The Huskies added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth inning when they scored on a wild double play to end the frame. Washington loaded the bases with one out off Stanford relievers Darin Naatjes and Jonny Dyer. Jay Garthwaite then grounded the ball to Cardinal first baseman Brian Hall who forced Tila Reynolds out at the plate but a throw from Stanford catcher Ryan Garko trying to double up Garthwaite at first base hit him in the helmet and bounced down the right field line. Tyler Davidson motored around from second to score but Bryan Johnson was cut down at the plate trying to score all the way from first base on a perfect throw from Stanford right fielder Carlos Quentin.
Chris O'Riordan (2-4, 2B) and Sam Fuld (2-4) had two hits each for the Cardinal, while Hathway (2-3, RBI) was the only Washington player with more than one hit.
O'Riordan remained on top of Stanford's career batting average list by improving his lifetime mark to .364 and extended his hit streak to nine games, the longest current streak on the club.
Stanford scored the game's first run in the top of the fourth inning when O'Riordan doubled to lead off the inning moved to third on a bunt single by Fuld and scored on a double play ball hit by Garko.
Stanford had a base runner reach as far as second base in only two other innings and never had another run reach third.
Washington left six runners on base, while Stanford stranded four.
The game clocked in at just two hours and 17 minutes, the shortest game played by Stanford this season.
Stanford and Washington continue their three-game series Saturday and Sunday with starts scheduled each day for 1:00 pm, PT.