May 6, 2003
San Jose, Calif. - No. 7 Stanford (32-14) extended its season-long road win streak to 11 games with a 3-0 victory at San Jose State (22-26) in a non-conference game at Municipal Stadium on Tuesday. Stanford starter Tim Cunningham (2-2), the first of seven Cardinal pitchers that combined for Stanford's third shutout of the year and held the Spartans to four hits, earned the victory with 3.0 scoreless innings of one-hit work. Ryan McCally came on with two outs in the bottom of the ninth and struck out the only batter he faced to end the game and earn his second save of the season and 13th of his career.
"Both pitching staffs did a great tonight, and it was a well-played game," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "That was the best outing Tim Cunningham has had since he returned from his injury and everybody pitched well."
"Today was a step in the right direction for me," said Cunningham, who won his for the 23rd time in his Stanford career but the first time since January 26 thanks in part to a broken finger that kept him out of action for over a month and a half.
Stanford's Danny Putnam (2-4) was the only player for either team with more than one hit.Mark Jecmen (0.1 IP, 1 BB, 1 HB), Kodiak Quick (1.2 IP, 2 SO), Billy Paganetti (1.0 IP, 1 BB), Drew Ehrlich (1.0 IP, 1 H), Jonny Dyer (1.2 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 1 SO) and McCally (0.1 IP, 1 SO) combined with Cunningham for the shutout.
San Jose State starter Jose Amaya (3-4), the first of five Spartan pitchers, suffered the loss by giving up one run and two hits over the first 2.0 innings.
Stanford scored the only run it would need in the top of the first inning when Sam Fuld doubled to lead off the game and scored on a one-out RBI single by Carlos Quentin.
The Cardinal added a pair of insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning. Quentin was hit by his team-high 10th pitch to lead off the inning, moved to third on single by Putnam and scored on an RBI single from Chris Carter for the first run of the frame. Putnam would eventually score on Jed Lowrie's RBI fielders choice.
San Jose State's top two threats came in the fourth and eighth innings. In the fourth, the Spartans loaded the bases with one out on an error, a walk and hit batsmen before Quick came on to get the Cardinal out of the jam by retiring Aaron Bates on a pop-up to shortstop Tobin Swope and Markum King on a ground ball to third baseman Brian Hall. In the eighth, the Spartans put runners on first and third with only one out after a double by David Pierson and a single from Kevin Frandsen before Dyer retired a pair of batters that represented the tying run when he struck out Jordan Bergstrom and got Nick Guerra to hit into a groundout to Lowrie at second base.
San Jose State left nine runners on base, while the Cardinal stranded eight.
Stanford won both games during its 2003 regular season series with San Jose State.
Stanford will resume Pac-10 action and conclude its season-long seven-game road trip with a three-game series at California (27-24, 10-11 Pac-10) this Friday-Sunday, May 9-11, 2:30 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm. With six conference games remaining on its schedule, Stanford (13-5 Pac-10) currently leads the Pac-10 race by one and a half games over Arizona State (10-5 Pac-10) and is two games in front of Arizona (11-7 Pac-10).