May 12, 2002
Stanford, Calif. - No. 7 Stanford (35-13, 11-7 Pac-10) moved into a second place tie in the Pac-10 standings with a 3-1 victory over Arizona State (28-18, 10-8 Pac-10) in the rubber game of a three-game series at Sunken Diamond on Sunday. The Cardinal remains 2.0 games behind first place USC (13-5 Pac-10) after the Trojans defeated Washington, 8-6, in Los Angeles on Sunday. Washington (11-7 Pac-10) is now tied with the Cardinal for second place in the Pac-10 standings. Stanford won for the sixth time in the last seven games overall and has also won six of its last seven Pac-10 contests after dropping to a season-low of 5-6 in the conference after a loss at Oregon State on April 27.
Tim Cunningham (6-2) picked up his first victory since April 6 by scattering seven hits over 7.0 scoreless innings, while Ryan McCally recorded his seventh save by getting Stanford out of a bases loaded ninth inning jam.
"Tim Cunningham pitched a great game and came up with big pitches when he needed them," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess.
Arizona State stranded 10 runners on base, seven of them with Cunningham on the mound. The Sun Devils had baserunners in six of the seven innings pitched by Cunningham, leaving two runners on in the first, second and fifth innings. Cunningham also benefited from double plays in the fourth and seventh innings.
"I didn't let it affect me when Arizona State got runners on base," said Cunningham.
Sam Fuld (3-4, 2B, 3B) posted his ninth multiple-hit game in the last 10 contests and his 15th in the last 17 to lead the Cardinal offense, while Chris O'Riordan hit his eighth home run of the season. Fuld is hitting .522 (35-67) over the 17-game stretch and remained Stanford's all-time batting average leader with an updated career mark of .369.
Stanford scored twice in the bottom of the sixth inning to break a scoreless tie. Fuld tripled to rightcenter field to lead off the inning and scored on a sacrifice fly by Brian Hall. O'Riordan followed with a long home run over the left field fence.
Arizona State scored its only run of the game when Sergio Garcia greeted Cardinal reliever Dan Rich with his first career homer, a solo shot to lead off the top of the eighth inning.
The Cardinal added an insurance run in the bottom of the eighth when Carlos Quentin was hit by Sun Devil reliever Mark Sopko with the bases loaded to score Arik VanZandt, who had led off the inning by drawing a walk off Arizona State starter Robbie McLellan.
Arizona State threatened in the top of the ninth inning, loading the bases with one out before McCally retired Steve Garrabrants on a fielders choice back to the mound and Garcia on a line out to center field to end the game.
Garcia (3-5, HR, SB, RBI) was the only Arizona State player with more than one hit.
Scott Dragicevich (2-3) added two hits for the Cardinal.
McClellan (7-5) suffered the loss for Arizona State, allowing three runs and six hits in 7.1 innings.
Stanford won its 21st consecutive regular season series at Sunken Diamond dating back to 1999 and has now won 31 of its last 35 regular season series overall. The Cardinal improved to 21-4 at Sunken Diamond this season and 10-4 in series finales.
Stanford will travel to Nevada for its final non-conference game of the regular season on Tuesday, May 14 (2 pm, PDT) before visiting UCLA for a three-game Pac-10 series Friday-Sunday, May 17-19 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PDT).