March 28, 2004
Updated Season Stats
Stanford Baseball Tickets
Stanford, Calif. - No. 1 Stanford (20-3) completed a three-game sweep of Cal Poly (22-12-1) with a 10-3 victory in the finale of a three-game non-conference series before a crowd of 2866 on Sunday at Sunken Diamond. Stanford continued its best start since 1998 when the club was 20-2-1 after 23 contests by sweeping its fourth series in six efforts this season and winning for the 11th time in its last 12 games overall, as well as its fifth in a row.
John Mayberry, Jr. (3-5, HR, 4 RBI, SB) and Ryan Seawell (3-4, 3 RBI, SB) had three hits each to lead the Stanford offense, while Cardinal starter Jeff Gilmore (5-1) earned his fifth victory of the season by allowing just one run and five hits over a career-high-tying 7.0 innings, striking out two and not walking a batter.
"It's really exciting to contribute to an offense like ours," said Seawell, who was making just his second start of the season and now has six hits in his first 11 collegiate at bats and a .545 batting average. "I lot of what I did (today) is due to their help."
Gilmore cruised along through most of the game, facing only three batters in five of his seven innings of work. He retired the side in order in the second, third and fifth frames. In the first, he caught Brandon Roberts breaking off first base for the third out of the inning after Roberts had reached on a two-out single and he benefited from a double play to end the sixth after a one-out single by Herbert. The Mustangs had only one inning during Gilmore's stint in which a runner reached as far as second base when they scored in the fourth.
"The difference for me today was being able to mix my pitches," said Gilmore, who is now tied with Mark Romanczuk for the team lead with five wins. "I didn't have any one dominating pitch, but each pitch was working. I could use each one of them in every at bat, and that kept the hitters off-balance for the most part."
"We got a great pitching performance from Jeff Gilmore today," added Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "He was in command the whole game."
Jonny Ash (2-4, RBI), Sam Fuld (2-4, SB) and Brian Hall (2-4) each added a pair of hits as Stanford outhit Cal Poly, 13-8, to post a double-digit hit game for the 17th time in 23 games this season. Stanford's 10-run effort also marked the 10th time this season that the Cardinal has scored 10 or more runs in a contest.
Stanford scored three times in the bottom of the second inning to take an early 3-0 lead with the first two runs coming on a two-RBI single by Seawell. The Cardinal had loaded the bases for Seawell with no outs on a leadoff walk by Donny Lucy, a single from Hall and an error by Mustang starting pitcher Garrett Olson on Chris Minaker's sacrifice bunt that allowed Minaker to reach safely at first. The Cardinal reloaded the bases when Olson threw late in an effort to get the lead runner on a sacrifice bunt by Fuld and scored its final run of the frame when Ash hit into a double play that brought Minaker home with an unearned run.
The Cardinal added another run in the third when Mayberry led off with a single up the middle, stole second base and scored on Lucy's RBI single.
Cal Poly scored its fourth inning run when Matt Guiliano reached on a one-out single to center and came all the way home on a two-out RBI double by Chalon Tietje that cut the Cardinal advantage to 4-1.
Stanford made the score 6-1 with a pair of fourth inning runs. Seawell started the rally with a one-out single and stole second before moving to third on a one-hop infield single by Fuld off the glove of Olson. Ash then brought Seawell home with a sacrifice fly before Fuld stole second base and scored on Mayberry's two-out single finish.
Mayberry's sixth homer of the year with two outs in the sixth inning, a three-run shot over the left field wall, increased Stanford's lead to 9-1. Seawell and Ash both contributed singles earlier in the inning but Fuld and Jed Lowrie scored on Mayberry's homer after both reached on fielders' choices that erased Seawell and Ash from the base paths.
Stanford picked up an unearned run in the bottom of the seventh to finish its scoring. Hall started the rally with a one-out single before moving to second when Mustang centerfielder Sam Herbert dropped a shallow fly ball by Minaker, third on a balk by Cal Poly reliever Nick McMillan and scoring on Seawell's RBI groundout.
Cal Poly scored twice in the top of the eighth. Pinch-hitter Drew Gillmore greeted Cardinal reliever Greg Reynolds by leading off the inning with his first homer of the season over the left field fence. The Mustangs then loaded the bases with one out when Adam Leavitt singled before Reynolds hit Herbert and walk Guiliano. Jeff Stimpson came on to relieve Reynolds and surrendered an RBI single to pinch-hitter Bret Berglund before Tietje lined into a double play to end the rally.
Stimpson then pitched a perfect ninth and still has not been charged with a run in 8.2 innings over his first four appearances this season.
Olson (5-3) suffered the loss for Cal Poly, giving up six runs (five earned) and eight hits over the first 3.2 innings. Tony Saipe shut Cardinal out with one hit over the next 1.1 innings before McMillan (2.0 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER) and Dennis LeDuc (1.0 IP, 1 SO) finished up for the Mustangs.
No Cal Poly player had a multiple-hit game or drove in more than one run.
Stanford's Danny Putnam had his career-high-tying 10-game hit streak snapped by going 0-for-4.Lucy was hit by his team-leading sixth pitch to lead off the fifth.
Stanford has now won 20 of its last 21 home games and 43 of 50 overall dating back to last season.
The game featured five double plays with the Mustangs turning three and the Cardinal recording a pair as Stanford left six runners on base and Cal Poly just four.
The Cardinal recorded its 10th errorless game of the season, breaking a string of seven consecutive games with at least one error.
Stanford also continued winning in dominating fashion and has still more than doubled its opponents' run total this season, scoring 204 runs compared to just 94 for its opponents.The Cardinal also extended its win streak over Cal Poly to 10 games.
Stanford will next be in action when it begins an eight-game road trip by traveling to San Jose State for its final Pac-10 tune-up on Tuesday, March 30 (7 pm, PT), prior to opening league play with a three-game series at UCLA next Friday-Sunday, April 2-4 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT). Stanford has won 23 of its last 25 games on the road.
"We're playing well and our record indicates that," said Marquess. "Hopefully, we can continue to do that. There will probably be a few bumps in the road because we're playing some good people but this group is working hard and hopefully we'll continue to get better."
Stanford returns to Sunken Diamond for a six-game homestand that begins with a non-conference game versus Santa Clara on Tuesday, April 13 (6 pm, PT), before continuing with a three-game Pac-10 home series against California (Friday-Sunday, April 16-18, 6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT), as well as single contests versus Saint Mary's (Tuesday, April 20, 6 pm) and Sacramento State (Friday, April 23, 6 pm) the following week. Tickets are available for all 2004 regular season Stanford Baseball home games online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD.