March 9, 2003
Stanford, Calif. - No. 7 Stanford (14-7) completed a three-game non-conference sweep of California (11-8) by pounding out a season-high 20 hits in an 11-2 win over the Golden Bears in the series finale at Sunken Diamond on Sunday. Carlos Quentin (3-4, HR, 4 RBI, SB) hit his first homer of the season, drove in a season-high four runs and extended his hit streak to nine games to lead Stanford's offensive attack. The Cardinal rolled to its fifth straight win overall and seventh in a row versus California dating back to last season. Stanford has won four straight series and 11 of its last 13 games after starting the season with a 3-5 record. The Cardinal will take a 12-day break for final exams before resuming action with its first Pac-10 series of the year March 22-24 at #4 Arizona State, who has started the season with a 28-1 record through Sunday.
"This was obviously a good weekend for us to sweep a quality team like California," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We've got a tough draw opening the Pac-10 schedule at Arizona State. But, we played teams on the road like Texas and Cal State Fullerton in our preseason schedule to prepare us for Pac-10 games like this. I'm pleased with winning four straight series heading into the break."
Mark Romanczuk (5-0) scattered two runs and six hits with a career-high seven strikeouts over the first 6.0 innings to pick up his team-high fifth victory in eight appearances. Romanczuk, who started the season as a reliever before moving into the starting rotation for the last two Sundays, also has a pair of saves. David O'Hagan earned his second save of the campaign by pitching effectively over the final 3.0 innings, shutting out the Golden Bears on just one hit and striking out three.
Sam Fuld (3-5, 2B, RBI) also had three hits for the Cardinal, while Jonny Ash (2-4, 2B, RBI), Danny Putnam (2-4, RBI), Tobin Swope (2-4, RBI), Brian Hall (2-5, 2B, RBI) and Ryan Garko (2-5) added two hits each.
John Mayberry, Jr. extended his career-high hit streak to 14 games with a two-RBI single in the third inning as all nine Stanford starters and 11 Cardinal players had at least one hit. Mayberry has hit safely in 20 of his first 21 collegiate games.
California did not have a player with more than one hit.
Stanford got on the scoreboard with a run in the bottom of the second inning when Putnam singled with one out, moved to second when Ash beat out an infield single to keep the inning alive and scored on an RBI single by Swope.
Stanford scored four times in the bottom of the third to take a 5-0 lead with six consecutive hits in the inning off of starter and losing pitcher Kyle Crist (0-1), who was touched for seven runs and 12 hits over the first 3.1 innings. Hall started the hit string with a one-out single but was tossed out trying to steal for the second out of the inning. Quentin restarted the rally with an infield single before a single by Garko put Cardinal runners on first and third. An RBI single by Putnam drove home Quentin for the first run of the inning before Mayberry followed with a two-RBI single to plate Garko and Putnam. Ash doubled home Mayberry to cap the rally.
California scored both of its runs in the top of the fourth to cut Stanford's lead to 5-2. David Horwitz drew a one-out walk before James Holder doubled to give the Golden Bears runners on second and third. Justin Nelson singled home Horwitz with the first run and Jeff Dragicevich followed with an RBI single to score Holder before Romanczuk got out of the jam by forcing David Nicholson into an inning-ending double play.
Stanford answered with three runs in the bottom of the fourth when Quentin greeted reliever Joe Todoroff's first pitch with a three-run homer over the leftcenter field fence.
"I almost forgot how great of a feeling it was," joked Quentin, who leads the team with a .378batting average, about his first homer of the season. "I don't remember ever going this long without hitting a home run but the main thing is that we won the game and were able to sweep."
Stanford picked up another run in the bottom of the fifth inning when Swope singled with one out and scored on Fuld's two-out RBI double.
Stanford's final two runs came in the seventh. Pinch-hitter Chris Minaker started the rally with a single up the middle for his first collegiate hit, moved to third on a throwing error by California reliever Jesse Ingram and scored on an RBI double by Hall. Quentin finished the afternoon's scoring with an RBI single to score Hall.
Stanford raised its team batting average to .314 by reaching double digits in hits for the fifth consecutive game. The Cardinal is averaging 11.8 runs per game during its five-game win streak has scored nine or more runs in each contest.
"It feels good to be swinging the bats so well after a bit of a slow start," explained Quentin. "It's nice to have some momentum going into the break. Hopefully, we can stay focused and continue to both hit and pitch well. It's really great to start swinging the bats and the pitching has been steady all year."
Stanford improved to 40-7 at Sunken Diamond over the last two years and 10-3 this season with the victory.