April 28, 2004
Updated Season Stats
Stanford Baseball Tickets
Santa Clara, Calif. - No. 2 Stanford (32-6) scored four runs in the top of the 14th inning to lift the Cardinal to a 12-8 victory over Santa Clara (19-24) in a 14-inning non-conference marathon that lasted a season-long five hours and 18 minutes on Tuesday evening at Buck Shaw Stadium. Jed Lowrie (4-8, 2 2B, HR, 3 RBI) and Danny Putnam (4-6, 2B) both collected their first four-hit games of the season and the second of their careers to lead Stanford's 16-hit offensive attack. Lowrie blasted his Pac-10 leading 13th home run with a solo shot in the seventh and increased his conference-best RBI total to 53, while Putnam extended his hit streak to a new career-high 11 games. Drew Ehrlich (1-0) earned the victory as the eighth and final Stanford pitcher, holding the Broncos scoreless on a hit and a walk with two strikeouts over the final 1.2 innings.
"I haven't gotten in there very much lately, and I figured if I did get in the game, I would have to make an impact," said Ehrlich, who made his first appearance in over a month since facing Cal Poly on March 26. "This was a great victory for the whole team."
The teams combined to use 46 players and 15 pitchers in a game that was delayed eight minutes when an infield sprinkler came on with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the 14th inning. John Mayberry, Jr. was a hit by a pitch to start Stanford's four-run 14th frame before Donny Lucy and pinch-hitter Adam Sorgi singled to load the bases prior to the sprinkler coming on. When play resumed, Santa Clara brought in Bryan Fleming as its seventh pitcher of the game, and he walked Chris Minaker to force Mayberry home with the eventual winning run. Jim Rapoport followed with a two-RBI single to score Lucy and pinch-runner Chris Lewis. A sacrifice bunt from Sam Fuld moved the runners to second and third before the second sacrifice fly by Brian Hall in as many innings scored Minaker with the final run.
Both teams scored in the 13th inning.
Fuld bunted the first pitch he saw from McBride between first and second base to lead off the Cardinal 13th. McBride got to the ball and bobbled it briefly while running to pick it up and then tossed the ball over the head of Will Thompson at first base to allow Fuld to go all the way to third base on the play. Hall then lined out to Crosta in right field to score Fuld and give the Cardinal a short-lived 8-7 advantage.
The Broncos answered back in their half of the 13th frame. Nathan Faulkner led off with a single and moved to third on a one-out single from Michael Lange that chased Leva. Panch Romero then pinch-ran for Faulkner and pinch-hitter David Mandley came through with a sacrifice fly off Ehrlich to bring Romero home with the tying run.
Lucy (2-7, 2B, RBI) extended his career-high hit streak and the longest active run by a Cardinal player to 14 games, while Rapoport (2-7, 2 RBI) had his first career two-hit game and drove in a pair of runs. Hall added a pair of RBI and had a third inning single to hit safely for the 22nd time in his last 23 contests.
Will Thompson (2-6, 2 HR, 4 RBI, SB) homered twice and drove in four runs to lead six Broncos with two or more of the team's 14 hits, one shy of the most allowed by the Cardinal pitching staff this season. Lange (3-5, RBI) had three hits for Santa Clara, while Faulkner (2-4), Nic Crosta (2-6, HR, RBI), Michael Thompson (2-6, RBI) and Ryan Chiarelli (2-7, SB) added two hits a piece.
Patrick McBride (0-2), the sixth of seven Santa Clara pitchers, suffered the loss by allowing four runs (three earned) and three hits with a strikeout over 1.0 innings of relief. John Redmond (4.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO) started the game for the Broncos before being relieved by Andrew Slorp (1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO), Thomas Van Buskirk (1.0 IP, 2 SO), Chad Fillinger (0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO), Anthony Rea (5.1 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 6 SO), McBride and Fleming (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO).
Greg Reynolds (2.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER) started the game for the Cardinal, while Matt Manship (2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 SO), Jeff Stimpson (0.1 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER), Kodiak Quick (1.2 IP, 2 H, 3 SO), David O'Hagan (2.0 IP, 1 BB, 2 SO), Blake Holler (4.0 IP, 1 BB, 5 SO) and Matt Leva (0.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER) preceded Ehrlich in relief.
"Blake Holler's performance really gave us a chance to come back in this game," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess about the Cardinal reliever who tossed 4.0 hitless innings of relief. "Drew Ehrlich also did a good job when he got his chance."
"This was the most pressure situation I've probably been in this year with the game tied the whole time I was in there," said Holler. "I was throwing strikes and getting after guys well."
The 15 pitchers on both sides combined to strike out 28 hitters in the contest. Stanford's offense struck out a season-high 15 times, while the Cardinal pitching staff struck out 13 Broncos.
The Cardinal actually trailed on two separate occasions during its 14th come-from-behind win of the season.
"It was just one of those things where we were behind most of the game," said Marquess. "We could have been destroyed, but we kept chipping away at it."
Santa Clara struck first with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first inning. Chiarelli beat out an infield single, stole second, moved to third on a fly ball by Robert Perry and scored on a sacrifice fly from Michael Thompson for the first Bronco run. Will Thompson followed with his first homer of the contest and his ninth of the year, a solo shot down the right field line.
Stanford got on the scoreboard with a single run in the top of the fourth when Putnam doubled to lead off the inning, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI groundout by Lucy.
The Broncos got the run back in their half of the fourth. Faulkner was hit by a pitch with one out, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single from Lange.
Stanford took its first lead of the game with four runs in the fifth to go ahead, 5-3. Rapoport started the rally with a leadoff single before Fuld drew a walk to chase Redmond. The runners moved up on a passed ball on Bronco catcher Matt McColgan before Slorp walked Hall to load the bases. Slorp then uncorked a wild pitch to plate Rapoport and Lowrie followed with a two-RBI double to score Fuld and Hall. Putnam then singled to move Lowrie to third and Mayberry finished off the rally with an RBI groundout to score Lowrie.
Santa Clara came right back in its half of the fifth. Chiarelli started the inning with a single down the left field line but was thrown out by Putnam trying to stretch his hit into a double. Perry was then hit by a pitch to restart the rally before Michael Thompson singled and Will Thompson went deep with a three-run blast over the center field wall to put the Broncos back in front, 6-5. Crosta followed Will Thompson's second homer of the game with a solo shot of his own to extend Santa Clara's lead to 7-5.
Lowrie's leadoff homer in the seventh brought Stanford's deficit back to 7-6 before a run in the ninth forced only the second extra-inning game of the season for the Cardinal. Lowrie also started the ninth inning rally with a leadoff double, moved to third on a groundout by Putnam and scored on a wild pitch from Rea.
In addition to hitting his Pac-10 leading 13th homer of the season and increasing his conference-leading RBI total to 53, Lowrie also improved his season batting average to .399, scored his 50th run, while his two doubles now puts him in the team-lead with 11.
O'Hagan lowered his Pac-10 leading ERA to an even 2.00 with his 2.0 scoreless innings of work.
Stanford left 12 runners on base, while setting a new season single-game high with 55 at bats. Santa Clara stranded 10 runners.
Both teams committed one error in the contest, while the Cardinal turned both double plays. With just one error in 60 defensive chances, Stanford was able to improve its Pac-10 leading fielding percentage by one point to .975, which is just .002 behind the school record of .977 set by the 2001 club. Stanford also has an updated 3.85 team ERA and a .330 batting average, both leading the conference.
Stanford's offense returned with its 13th double-digit hit game in its last 14 contests and its 30th overall after picking up just four hits in its previous game versus Sacramento State. Stanford is averaging 9.1 runs per game and has more than doubled the run total of its opponents (345-162). The Cardinal has won 28 of its games by three or more runs and is a perfect 18-0 in contests decided by five or more runs. Stanford has also scored in double digits 18 times.
Fuld remained at 333 career hits after collecting no hits in six at bats and is 35 behind all-time Stanford and Pac-10 record holder John Gall (368, 1997-2000). His six at bats did move him into a tie for second with Paul Carey (983, 1987-90) on Stanford's career at bat list. He is already Stanford's all-time record holder for runs scored (252), while also ranking among the school's all-time leaders in triples (16, #3T), doubles (58, #6T) and games played (238, #7). Fuld has played in 231 consecutive Stanford games with 148 straight starts.
Stanford's 32-6 record is the second-best in school history after 38 games, ranking behind only the 33-4-1 mark posted by the 1967 club.
The Cardinal won for the fifth time in 11 attempts when tied or trailing heading into the ninth inning this season. Stanford is 2-1 when tied going into the ninth and 3-5 when trailing after eight as it was tonight.
Stanford improved to 15-5 on the road this season and beat the Broncos for the 28th time in the last 30 meetings between the clubs.
The contest completed a four-game stretch of non-conference games for Stanford as the first-place Cardinal (7-2 Pac-10) will return to league action by hosting Washington State (23-15, 5-7 Pac-10) in a three-game series this Friday-Sunday, April 30-May 2 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PDT).
The Cardinal has won 26 of its last 27 games at Sunken Diamond and is 17-1 at home this season.
Tickets are available for all 2004 regular season Stanford Baseball home games online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD.