March 30, 2004
Updated Season Stats
Stanford Baseball Tickets
San Jose, Calif. - No. 1 Stanford (21-3) recorded its first shutout of the season and won its sixth game in a row with a 5-0 victory over San Jose State (14-13-1) in a non-conference contest on Tuesday at Municipal Stadium. Five Stanford pitchers combined on the shutout with starter Matt Leva (2-0) picking up the victory in the predetermined pitching rotation with 3.0 scoreless two-hit innings with three strikeouts. John Mayberry, Jr. (2-4, RBI) was the only Stanford player with more than one hit, while Chris Minaker (1-2, 2 RBI) drove in a pair of runs. The shutout marked the second straight occasion in which the Cardinal has blanked the Spartans as Stanford came up with 3-0 victory in San Jose in the final meeting between the teams last season on May 6, 2003.
"I was quite pleased with our pitching performance tonight," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess.
"Tonight was a prime example of how deep our bullpen is," added Leva. "Most people don't see our bullpen that much because our starters have pitched so well."
Stanford's current six-game win streak equals a season-best accomplished twice before, while the Cardinal has also won 12 of its last 13 to continue its best start since the 1998 club began the season with a 21-2-1 record in its first 24 contests. The Cardinal has also won 24 of its last 26 true road games and 44 of its last 51 contests overall dating back to last season.
Stanford broke a scoreless tie with a four-run fourth inning by batting around the entire lineup off San Jose starter and losing pitcher Jose Amaya (1-3). Amaya walked Jed Lowrie to start the inning and a single by Putnam put runners on first and second base before Mayberry drove home Lowrie with the first run of the game. Donny Lucy followed with another RBI single to score Putnam and Brian Hall followed with a sacrifice bunt to move the runners up to second and third base with just one out. Chris Carter followed with an RBI groundout to plate Mayberry and Minaker finished the rally with a two-out RBI single to score Lucy.
Stanford scored the only other run of the game by either teams in the top of the eighth when Mayberry led off with a single, moved to third on a single by Hall two batters and after a walk to pinch-hitter Ryan Seawell, scored on Minaker's sacrifice fly.
Hall's eighth inning single in his final at bat extended his season-high hit streak to nine games, while Jonny Ash's one-out bunt single in the top of the seventh increased his hit streak to six.
Four Stanford relievers followed Leva to complete the shutout.
After Leva had allowed only two base runners in the first three frames on singles in the first and second innings, Jeff Stimpson came on to pitch a scoreless fourth and fifth innings. Stimpson, who has not been charged with a run in his first 10.2 innings over five relief appearances, got out of a fourth-inning first and third jam by retiring Josh Lansford on a comebacker for the final out. In the fifth inning, he allowed just a two-out walk.
"We played great defense tonight, and we were just trying to get guys to put the ball in play," said Stimpson. "We were really attacking hitters and just trying to throw strikes."
Mark Jecmen gave up the only extra-base hit by either team when Nate Corrick doubled to leftcenter field to open the top of the sixth but stranded Corrick at second base.
Matt Manship pitched 2.0 scoreless innings in the seventh and eighth frames, benefiting from a pair of double plays. Manship hit Travis Becktel to lead off the seventh before he was erased from the base paths when Mark Bautista hit into a 3-6-3 double play. Ryan Angel led off the eighth with a single before Corrick bounced into a 6-4-3 pitchers' best friend.
David O'Hagan came on to retire all three batters he faced in the ninth inning, striking out Lansford to end the game. O'Hagan lowered his ERA to 1.26 as he has allowed just four runs and 18 hits in 28.2 innings of work over nine relief appearances this season.
Amaya pitched the first 5.0 innings of the game for the Spartans, allowing four runs and four hits with three strikeouts and three walks. Danny Gemma (2.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO) and Brad Kilby (1.2 IP, 1 BB, 1 SO) pitched in relief for San Jose State.
Anthony Contreras (2-3) and Kevin Frandsen (2-4) combined for four of the Spartans' six hits, marking the fifth straight game that the Stanford pitching staff has held its opponents to a single-figure hit total.
Stanford left eight runners on base, while the Spartans left six runners stranded.
Stanford turned the only two double plays of the contest, while also recorded its 11th errorless game of the season and its second in a row.
Stanford also continued winning in dominating fashion and has still more than doubled its opponents' run total this season, scoring 209 runs compared to just 94 for its opponents. Stanford has been victorious by three or more runs in 18 of its 21 victories.
Sam Fuld played in his 224th career game to move into a tie for 10th on Stanford's all-time list.
Stanford will continue its current seven-game road trip by beginning Pac-10 play with a three-game series at UCLA (14-11, 0-0 Pac-10) this Friday-Sunday, April 2-4 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT).
The Cardinal, who became the nation's unanimous No. 1 team for the first time this season on Monday and has been the top-ranked by Baseball America for six consecutive weeks, next 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.