May 4, 2002
Stanford, Calif. - Scott Dragicevich and Ryan Garko each drove in a career-high four runs to lead No. 9 Stanford (31-13, 8-6 Pac-10) to a 13-6 comeback victory over California (26-25, 8-12 Pac-10) in the second game of a three-game Pac-10 series at Sunken Diamond on Saturday. Dragicevich blasted his first career grand slam and his first home run of the season in the bottom of the sixth inning, following a three-run homer hit by Garko earlier in the frame as the Cardinal scored seven times to erase a 4-0 California lead. Stanford added six runs in the eighth inning to complete its 16th comeback victory in 31 wins this season and improves to 18-3 at home.
"We got seven runs on two swings of the bat today," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "The grand slam from Dragicevich was huge and lifted us to the comeback."
Stanford will be attempting to sweep California for the first time since February 25-27, 2000, when the teams complete the three-game series on Sunday (1 pm, PT). The Cardinal has won four-of-five games against the Golden Bears this season. Stanford has also now won 30 of its last 34 series overall.
Brian Hall (2-2, 2B), Garko (2-3, HR, 4 RBI), Jason Cooper (2-4, 2B), Carlos Quentin (2-5, RBI) and Sam Fuld (2-5, RBI) had two hits each for the Cardinal, who recorded 13 hits to pick up double digit hits for the 30th time this year. Fuld notched his 11th multiple-hit game in the last 12 contests, going 28-50 (.560) over the period to increase his batting average to .372 this season. Fuld also remains Stanford's leader in career batting average with an updated .364 lifetime mark.
California starter Trevor Hutchinson (7-5) suffered the loss, giving up seven runs on nine hits in 7.0 innings despite holding the Cardinal scoreless for the first five innings.
Ryan McCally (4-2) notched his fourth win of the season with 2.0 innings of hitless relief. McCally did allow two runs after walking the first two batters of the seventh inning. Dan Rich picked up his second save of the season, giving up just one hit over 3.0 scoreless innings and striking out three.
Stanford's sixth inning began when Chris O'Riordan drew a leadoff walk and Fuld followed with a single to set up Garko's three-run homer to left field. Hutchinson then walked Cooper and gave up a single to Quentin before a sacrifice bunt by Danny Putnam advanced both runners. Stanford loaded the bases on an intentional walk to Brian Hall before Dragicevich launched an 0-1 pitch from Hutchinson over the left field wall.
"You love to come up in that kind of situation," said Dragicevich. "I was just trying to get the ball in the air so we could score a run, but it just hit the barrel of the bat and got out of the ballpark."
California scored two runs in the top of the seventh inning without a hit to cut the Cardinal lead to 7-6. The Golden Bears took advantage of five walks by McCally and Rich, including a bases loaded pass to Brian Horwitz. California also scored a run on a sacrifice fly by Conor Jackson before a bases loaded fly ball out by Chris Grossman ended the threat.
Stanford added six insurance runs in the eighth inning to break the game open. The Cardinal loaded the bases on a hit batsmen and a pair of walks before the first run scored on a sacrifice fly by Andy Topham. O'Riordan and Fuld followed with back-to-back RBI singles before O'Riordan scored on a wild pitch. A sacrifice fly by Garko and an RBI single from Quentin finished Stanford's scoring.
Stanford has now scored five or more runs in an inning 20 times this season.
The game was scoreless before Carson White led off the fourth inning with a solo homer off Cardinal starter Tim Cunningham to give California an early 1-0 lead.
The Golden Bears added three more runs in the top of the fifth inning to increase their lead to 4-0. Grossman led off with a walk and advanced to third on a double by Justin Nelson down the right field line before scoring on a RBI single by Matt Einspahr. Jeff Dragicevich then doubled to left field to drive in Nelson and chase Cunningham. McCally entered the game and gave up an RBI groundout to Nick Medrano and hit White before striking out Jackson and inducing a John Baker fly out to get the Cardinal out of the jam.
California left seven runners on base, while Stanford stranded five.
With the win, Stanford gained one-half game on idle USC in the Pac-10 standings, moving within 2.5 games of the first place Trojans (11-4 Pac-10). Stanford remains in a fourth place tie with Oregon State (8-6 Pac-10) in the Pac-10 standings after the Beavers won 10-6 at Washington State on Saturday. Washington (9-5 Pac-10) remained in second place after beating UCLA, 5-4, on Saturday. Third place Arizona State (9-6 Pac-10) was idle, while California fell into eighth place.