April 19, 2003
Stanford, Calif. - Danny Putnam (2-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI) homered twice and drove in five runs, while freshmen Mark Romanczuk and Matt Manship combined on a two-hit shutout to lift No. 4 Stanford (25-11, 9-3 Pac-10) to a 10-0 win over Oregon State (17-19, 4-8 Pac-10) in the rubber game of a three-game Pac-10 series between the schools Saturday at Sunken Diamond. The victory, combined with Arizona's loss at Washington State on Saturday, increased Stanford's lead over Arizona and Arizona State (both 7-5 in the Pac-10) to two games at the midway point of the conference schedule. Stanford has now won eight consecutive series, 15 straight Pac-10 series and five home series in a row. Stanford has also won eight of its last nine games and 23 of 29 overall.
Putnam finished the three-game series with a .545 batting average (6-11), a double, two homers, 10 RBI and a 1.182 slugging percentage.
"I've been really just working on letting the ball get into my zone," said the lefthanded Putnam, who hit both of his homers to the opposite field over the left field fence. "It's really been paying off."
"Danny Putnam was our offense today, and we got a dominating pitching performance from Mark Romanczuk," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We didn't swing the bats as well as we would have liked, but we had a couple of big innings that made the difference."
Stanford scored three times in the bottom of the first on Putnam's three-run blast and thenput up a seven-spot in the bottom of the sixth inning as Putnam hit a two-run homer to highlight the rally. The seven runs equaled Stanford's most in an inning this season. The Cardinal also scored seven in the fourth inning of an 18-2 victory over USC on March 2.
"It was huge to get on the board first today," explained Putnam.
Stanford's Carlos Quentin (2-3, 2B, RBI) extended his hit streak to 25 games and raised his season batting average to .426. Quentin, who is hitting .485 (48-99) during the 25-game streak, is now 12 games shy of the school record 37-game hit streak set by current Milwaukee Brewers' outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds in 1990 and is attempting to become the first Stanford player to hit .400 or better in a season since David McCarty batted .420 in 1991.
Romanczuk, who now leads the Pac-10 in victories with a perfect 8-0 record after his second win of the week, gave up just two hits and struck out a career-high nine batters in 7.2 innings of work. Manship retired all four batters he faced to complete Stanford's shutout of the season. Manship also finished Stanford's other shutout, a 5-0 victory over Santa Clara on January 26.
"It really gives you that little extra push to do well when the series is tied", said Romanczuk, who was credited with a win in the rubber game of a series for third time this season. "It's a bit more fun because there's a little more riding on it, but you want to perform well every time you step on the mound."
Jonny Ash (2-3, 2B) and Donny Lucy (2-4, SB) each had two hits for the Cardinal, while Tobin Swope drove in a pair of runs. Lucy extended his hit streak to a career-high-tying seven games.Oregon State starter Stephen Copeland (3-4) suffered the loss, allowing eight runs (seven earned) and seven hits over the first 5.1 innings.
Levi Webber's fourth inning single and Aaron Matthews' sixth inning single were the only hits for Oregon State.
Quentin drew a two-out walk and Ryan Garko was hit by a pitch to set up Putnam's three-run homer in the bottom of the first.
The score remained 3-0 in favor of Stanford until the Cardinal struck for its seven-run sixth. Quentin hit his team-leading 19th double to lead off the inning and Putnam's one-out homer two batters later made the score 5-0. Lucy restarted the rally with a one-out single, Chris Carter walked and Ash singled to load the bases for Swope, who came through with a two-RBI single to score Lucy and Carter. The Cardinal capitalized on an error by Oregon State third baseman Mark Jackson to score three additional unearned runs. The first unearned run scored on Jackson's error and the final two on back-to-back RBI singles by Quentin and Garko, who increased his team-leading RBI total to 48.
Oregon State did not put a runner in scoring position after the fourth inning after leaving four stranded in scoring position and six total over the first four frames.
Oregon State left just seven runners on base for the game as Stanford pitchers retired the final 10 batters they faced.
Stanford's 11 hits marked the 18th time in the last 21 games that the Cardinal has reached double-digits in hits.
Stanford will travel to Sacramento State next Tuesday, April 22 (2:30 pm), for a non-conference makeup game in an attempt to extend its season-best six-game road win streak, before hosting Arizona for three key Pac-10 games Friday-Sunday, April 25-27 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm).
The Arizona game on April 25 will be the first Stanford Baseball game to be televised by the College Sports Television Network (CSTV), which made its debut earlier this month. Stanford's home game versus UCLA on Sunday, May 18, is also scheduled to be televised by CSTV.