Feb. 13, 2004
Stanford, Calif. - No. 4 Stanford (6-1) won its 13th straight home game and Mark Romanczuk struck out a career-high 13 batters as Stanford opened a three-game non-conference series with a 7-1 victory over Kansas (7-5-1) in the first ever meeting between the schools at Sunken Diamond on Friday the 13th. Romanczuk (2-1) gave up a run in the first inning before shutting the Jayhawks out over the next six frames to pick up the victory, scattering six hits. Donny Lucy (3-4, HR, RBI), Jonny Ash (3-4, 3B, 2 RBI) and Jed Lowrie (3-4) picked up three hits each, while Danny Putnam (2-4, RBI) had a pair of hits and extended his team-high hit streak to eight games. Brian Hall also doubled and drove in a pair of runs.
"Mark Romanczuk gave us a great performance tonight," said Cardinal head coach Mark Marquess, who won his 1150th game at Stanford. "He had a great curve ball and excellent command."
"I felt comfortable out there tonight and knew I had good stuff," added Romanczuk. "I was able to utilize my curve ball a lot tonight. I think it was the best I've thrown that pitch in a couple of years."
Romanczuk's 13 strikeouts were the most by a Stanford pitcher since Jeremy Guthrie also struck out 13 at UCLA on May 17, 2002. He struck out at least one batter in each of his seven innings, striking out the side in the third inning, as well as two batters in the second, fifth and sixth frames.
Drew Ehrlich (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 SO) and Jonny Dyer (1.0 IP, 1 SO) closed out the game for the Cardinal.
Kansas scored its only run of the contest in the top of the first inning Matt Baty drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a groundout by Ritchie Price and scored on an RBI single from Jared Schweitzer.
Stanford, who has trailed at one point in five of its six wins this season, scored an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning to tie the score at 1-1 when Ash singled with one out, moved to second base on a single by Lowrie and scored when Price made an error at shortstop on a potential inning-ending groundout that allowed Ash to come across the plate.
The Cardinal took the lead for good with two more unearned runs in the bottom of the second when Ash came through with a two-out triple down the right field line to score Hall and Sam Fuld. Hall reached on an error by Kansas third baseman Travis Metcalf to lead off the inning and moved to second two batters later when Baty made a wide throw from second base on a potential double play ball hit by Adam Sorgi, leaving Cardinal runners on first and second base with one out. The Jayhawks just missed getting out of the inning when Fuld hit a comebacker to the mound but narrowly beat out Price's throw on the back end of a double play attempt before Ash's tie-breaking hit.
Stanford added a run in the bottom of the fourth when Lucy singled with two outs and scored on a long RBI double off the leftcenter field fence by Hall, who was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple.
Lucy made the score 5-1 with his first homer of the season to lead off the sixth, a solo shot down the left field line.
Stanford finished the scoring with a pair of runs in the bottom of the seventh. Ash started the rally by beating out an infield single between home plate and the mound on a swinging bunt, moved to second on a single by Lowrie and scored on an RBI single from Putnam. Lucy would single with two outs to load the bases and Hall was hit by a pitch to force home Lowrie.Sean Richardson (4-4) had a game-high four of the seven hits by Kansas.
Kansas starter Ryan Knippschild (1-2) took the loss, giving up seven runs (four earned) and 10 hits with five strikeouts over the first 6.1 frames.
Kansas left 10 runners on base, while the Cardinal stranded six.
Stanford did make its first error since the season-opener when Romanczuk threw a ball away on a pickoff attempt in the second inning to snap a five-game errorless string for the Cardinal, who has a .988 fielding percentage on the season and has made just three errors in its first seven contests. The one run allowed by Stanford marks the fifth consecutive game and sixth time in seven contests this year that the Cardinal has allowed four or fewer runs as the team's season ERA dipped to 3.05, while the 10 hits was the sixth time in seven games that Stanford has reached double-digit hits this season.
The Cardinal also won for the 29th time in its last 34 games dating back to last year.
Stanford and Kansas continue their three-game series Saturday (1 pm, PT) and Sunday (11 am, PT). Saturday's scheduled starting pitchers are Stanford RHP Jeff Gilmore (1-0, 1.64) versus Kansas RHP Chris Smart (2-2, 7.63). Kansas has announced LHP Mike Zagurski (1-0, 2.53) as its starter for Sunday, while the Cardinal has not announced a starter. The Cardinal needs to win just one of the two remaining games to pick up its 15th series victory in its last 16 attempts.