May 1, 2004
Updated Season Stats
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Stanford, Calif. - No. 2 Stanford (34-6, 9-2 Pac-10) held off a late rally by Washington State (23-18, 5-9 Pac-10) for a 13-11 victory over the Cougars on Saturday at Sunken Diamond. Brian Hall (4-4, 2 RBI) tied a career-high for hits by posting his second consecutive 4-for-4 contest in the series and is now 8-for-8 with three sacrifice flies in his last 11 plate appearances. Hall is hitting .394 on the season and improved his batting average in 11 Pac-10 games to .636 (28-44). Chris Carter (3-4, 4 RBI) tied career-highs with three hits and four RBI, while Chris Minaker hit the first grandslam of his career in the sixth inning. Jeff Gilmore (7-2) picked up the victory on the mound, scattering five runs (four earned) on nine hits and one walk with four strikeouts over the first 5.2 innings.
National Player of the Year candidate Jed Lowrie (2-4, HR, RBI) hit his Pac-10 leading 14th homer and increased his league-best RBI total to 54 with a two-out solo shot in the bottom of the seventh, while also improving his team-high batting average to .406 and extending his current hit streak to eight games. Jim Rapoport (2-5) also had a pair of hits. Donny Lucy (0-1, 3 BB, HP) and Danny Putnam (0-3, 2 BB, RBI) both had career-high hit streaks end at 15 and 12 games, respectively, but Lucy did score a career-high four runs.
"We did a great job with the bats today, like we've pretty much done all year," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess.
Matt Manship (1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 SO) recorded the final four outs of the game for the Cardinal to earn his second save of the season and the 11th of his career, moving him into a ninth-place tie on Stanford's all-time list.
Stanford's 34-6 record is the second-best in school history after 40 games, ranking behind only the 34-5-1 mark posted by the 1967 club.The Cardinal extended its season-long home win streak to 12 and is 19-1 at home this season. Stanford has won 28 of its last 29 games at Sunken Diamond dating back to a nine-game home win streak to end last year's home slate. Stanford has posted an overall record of 57-10 in its last 67 games going back to May 5, 2003.
"This team deserves a lot of credit at this point in the season," added Marquess. "They have played well."
The Cardinal, who won Friday's series-opener by a score of 8-3, also extended its regular season three-game series win streak to 15 with Saturday's victory.Justin Hart (4-5, 2B, 2 RBI) had four hits for Washington State as the Cougars outhit the Cardinal, 15-12. Zach Kosturos (2-4, 2 RBI), Jay Miller (2-4, 2 2B, RBI), Jason Freeman (2-6, 2 2B, 2 RBI) and Kaeo Rubin (2-5, 2B, RBI) added two hits each for Washington State. The Cougars had five doubles.Washington State opened up a 3-0 advantage in the top of the first inning. Gilmore hit Rubin to lead off the game before Freeman drove him in with an RBI double and another double from Miller put the Cougars in front, 2-0. Miller than moved over to third on a groundout by Grant Richardson before Kosturos drove him in with an RBI single.
Stanford answered with three unearned runs in the bottom of the first frame. Rapoport singled to left field with one out after he had been given new life when Washington State third base Zach McAngus dropped his foul pop-up. Lowrie followed with a double to move Rapoport to third and Putnam gave Stanford its first run with an RBI groundout that scored Rapoport and moved Lowrie to third. Lucy then drew the first of his three walks before back-to-back RBI singles by Hall and Carter plated Lowrie and Lucy.
Washington State came back with an unearned run in the third on a two-out RBI single from Richardson to take a 4-3 advantage. The inning had potential to be much more damaging to the Cardinal, who allowed the first two Washington State batters to reach on errors. Rubin got aboard when Gilmore dropped a throw from Hall while covering the bag on a grounder to the Cardinal first baseman. Freeman then hit a fly ball to deep rightcenter field that Rapoport chased down from his right field position but dropped. Miller then flied out to Cardinal centerfielder Sam Fuld for the first out and Stanford picked up a double play after Freeman was picked off second when Hall cut Fuld's throw to the plate and threw behind the runner to Minaker, who then chased Freeman all the way to third base for the second out of the inning while Rubin stayed on third.
Stanford took the lead for good with a three-run third, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Hall and a two-RBI single from Carter. The Cardinal loaded the bases with no outs when Washington State starter Aaron Trolia walked Lowrie, Putnam and Lucy in succession to lead off the inning with all three runners eventually coming around to score. Trolia (4-4) allowed eight runs (five earned) and eight hits with five walks over the first 4.0 innings to take the loss.
Stanford scored two more runs in the fifth to extend its lead to 8-4. Lucy drew a leadoff walk and Hall singled before an RBI single by Carter scored Lucy and chased Trolia. Wayne Daman, Jr. (4.0 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO) came on in relief to retire Minaker on a fly out before walking Sorgi and allowing a sacrifice fly to Fuld that brought home Hall.
Washington State cut the Cardinal lead to 8-5 in the sixth on a two-out single by Rubin that scored Hart, who had singled with one out before moving to second when Brandon Reddinger was hit by a pitch and third on a fly out from Justin McClure. Jeff Stimpson (2.0 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB) came on in relief of Gilmore after Rubin's single to retire Freeman on a groundout to Lowrie at second base and get the Cardinal out of the inning.
Minaker gave Stanford a 12-5 advantage with his sixth inning grandslam that came on the heels of an intentional walk to Carter that loaded the bases. Putnam had walked with one out to start the rally but was forced out at second on Lucy's fielders choice. Hall kept the inning going with a two-out single down the left field line and advanced to second when Rubin tried to throw Lucy out going from first to third.
"I figured it was a smart move {to intentionally walk Chris Carter} on their part the way I've been swing the bat," joked Minaker, who had just one hit in his previous 17 at bats before the grandslam. "I was looking for something up in the zone and got the barrel on it."
Washington State began to chip away at the Cardinal lead with a pair of runs in the top of the seventh on a clutch two-out, two-RBI single by Hart that closed the gap to 12-7. Kosturos started the rally with a two-out single before McAngus followed with a single. The Cougars ended up with runners on second and third after the play when McAngus moved up a base on an attempt to throw Kosturos out at third.
Lowrie gave the Cardinal its final run with his two-out solo shot over the left field wall in the seventh.
Washington State continued its comeback in the eighth, cutting the Cardinal lead to 13-10 with three runs. Pinch-hitter Jeremy Farrar walked with one out to start the rally and Rubin doubled to put Cougars runners on second and third. Freeman then brought home Farrar with an RBI groundout. Stimpson then hit Miller and walked Richardson before giving way to Mark Jecmen (0.0 IP, 1 BB), who issued a bases loaded walk to Kosturos and balked to allow another run before being removed. Manship came on to retire McAngus on a groundout to Adam Sorgi at third base to end the inning.
The Cougars scored another run and brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth inning before Manship retired Rubin on a lineout to John Mabyerry, Jr. at first base and struck out Freeman to end the game. Hart had led off the frame with a two-run double and scored on an RBI double two batters later by pinch-hitter Jeff Miller.
Washington State left nine runners on base, while the Cardinal stranded seven.
Stanford came from behind to win for the 15th time this season.
Both teams committed two errors in the contest, snapping a string of nine consecutive games of one error or less for the Cardinal, who still managed to maintain its Pac-10 leading .975 fielding percentage that is just two percentage points shy of the school record .977 mark set by the 2001 club.
Stanford also improved its Pac-10 leading batting average to .332, while its updated Pac-10 leading ERA remained under 4.00 (3.98) despite allowing 10 earned runs.
Stanford is averaging 9.2 runs per game and has more than doubled the run total of its opponents (366-176).
Lowrie's home run increased Stanford's season total to 63 as the Cardinal continues its run at the school record of 102 set by the 1997 club. Stanford has hit 25 of its home runs in 11 Pac-10 contests and has homered at least once in 31 games this season.
Fuld (0-4, RBI) remained at 333 career hits after going hitless for the fourth consecutive game (0-19) and is still 35 hits behind all-time Stanford and Pac-10 record holder John Gall (368, 1997-2000). Fuld is already Stanford's all-time record holder for runs scored (253), while also ranking among the school's career leaders in at bats (991, #2), triples (16, #3T), doubles (58, #6T) and games played (240, #7). Fuld has played in 233 consecutive Stanford games with 150 straight starts.
Stanford and Washington State will conclude their three-game series Sunday (12 pm, PDT). Washington State is scheduled to start LHP Garrett Alwert (4-1, 4.56), while Stanford has not announced a starting pitcher. Stanford has now won 19 consecutive games in the series with the last Washington State victory coming with a 5-3 win over the Cardinal at the UC Riverside Invitational on March 28, 1978.
Tickets are available for all 2004 regular season Stanford Baseball home games online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD.