April 22, 2003
Sacramento, Calif. - Carlos Quentin (3-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI) and Danny Putnam (2-4, HR, RBI) each homered to lead No. 4 Stanford (27-11) to a 5-1 win over Sacramento State (24-17) in a non-conference game at Hornet Field on Tuesday. The victory completed a two-game season sweep of the Hornets in a contest that lasted just two hours and 19 minutes. Quentin extended his career-high hit streak to 26 games and raised his season batting average to .434, while Putnam's homer was his third in the last two games and his ninth of the season as he moved into a tie for the club lead with Ryan Garko. Stanford won its seventh consecutive road game and for the ninth time in the last 10 contests.
"Carlos (Quentin) and Danny (Putnam) continued to swing the bats well today," said Marquess. "We also got some great pitching and defense."
"I was just seeing the ball well today and saw some good pitches to hit," added Quentin.
The first place Cardinal (9-3 Pac-10) will resume conference action by hosting second place Arizona (7-5 Pac-10) this Friday-Sunday, April 25-27 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm). Friday's series-opener will be the first Stanford Baseball game to be televised by the College Sports Television Network (CSTV), which made its debut earlier this month. CSTV is available on DirecTV Channel 610. The game will be joined live in progress at 6:30 pm.
"Every series including the one versus Arizona this weekend is big," said Quentin. "We will just try to approach it the same way we have been and try to play some good baseball by swinging the bats just a little better, pitching well and playing some good defense."
Jonny Dyer (1-1), the second of four Stanford pitchers, was credited with his first victory of the season. Dyer, who allowed one run and two hits in 1.2 innings of work, was Stanford's pitcher when the Cardinal scored three runs in the top of the fourth inning to snap a 1-1 tie and go ahead to stay.
Matt Manship picked up his team-leading fourth save by retiring all four batters he faced with a pair of strikeouts after coming on with two outs in the bottom of the eighth inning.
Stanford starter Kodiak Quick worked 3.0 scoreless two-hit innings and tied a career-high with four strikeouts. Ryan McCally also pitched 3.0 scoreless innings of three-hit relief with three strikeouts.
Sacramento State starter Chris Kinsey (5-4) suffered the loss despite limiting the Cardinal to five runs (four earned) and seven hits with eight strikeouts in 8.0 innings.
Jesse Schmidt (2-4, SB) and Mikela Olsen (2-4) had two hits each for the Hornets. Schmidt extended his school-record hit streak to 24 games. Kinsey accounted for Sacramento State's only run with a solo homer to lead off the bottom of the fourth, his sixth longball of the season.
Stanford's Donny Lucy had his career-high-tying seven-game hit streak snapped with an 0-for-4 performance.
The game was scoreless until the Cardinal broke through for a run in the top of the fourth inning when Quentin led off with a single, moved to third on a single by Garko and scored on an RBI from Putnam.
Kinsey tied the game at 1-1 with fourth inning homer over the centerfield fence.
Stanford took the lead for good when a two-run homer by Quentin highlighted a three-run fifth. The rally started when Tobin Swope struck out but reached safely and advanced all the way to third on a three-base throwing error by Sacramento State catcher Matt Wilson. Sam Fuld walked and Brian Hall followed with a sacrifice fly to score Swope before Quentin launched a high fly ball over the leftcenter field wall for his fifth homer of the campaign.
Stanford added an insurance run on Putnam's long homer over the rightcenter field fence with two outs in the top of the eighth.
Quentin, who is hitting .495 (51-103) during his 26-game streak, is now 11 games shy of the school record 37-game hit streak set by current Milwaukee Brewers' outfielder Jeffrey Hammonds as a freshman in 1990. His current .434 batting average is .004 percentage points higher than the school's single-season record of .430 set by Tom Williams in 1971. Quentin is also attempting to become the first Stanford player to hit .400 or better in a season since David McCarty batted .420 in 1991 and only the sixth player in Stanford history.
Stanford was errorless for the third time in the last five contests.
Stanford improved to 18-8 in non-conference games this season and is 10-5 on the road.