May 11, 2004
Updated Season Stats
Stanford Baseball Tickets
Stanford, Calif. - No. 2 Stanford (38-8) scored three runs in the bottom of the first inning and held on for a 3-1 win over Santa Clara (22-28) on Tuesday at Sunken Diamond to complete a four-game season sweep of the Broncos. Stanford won its 15th straight home game and improved to 22-1 at Sunken Diamond this season. Danny Putnam (2-4, 2B, 2 RBI) had a key two-RBI double in the bottom of the first inning and was the only player on either team with a multiple-hit or multiple-RBI contest. Donny Lucy immediately followed Putnam's first inning double with an RBI double of his own to bring home Putnam.
Putnam now leads the team with a season-high .393 batting average after hitting safely for the 18th time in his last 19 contests and picking up his team-leading 25th multiple-hit game of the campaign.
Blake Holler (4-2) earned the victory in a predetermined pitching rotation, striking out two in a hitless top of the first; while David O'Hagan picked up his fifth save of the season. O'Hagan came on in relief with a 3-1 Stanford lead and the bases loaded with no outs in the top of the eighth and left all three Bronco runners stranded before pitching a perfect ninth to retire all six batters he faced with one strikeout.
"I just want to pick up the team when I'm in that situation," said O'Hagan. "The hitter has as much pressure as the pitcher in that situation. The best thing about pitching is that you have the ball in your hand, so you control when the play starts."
"Nobody wants to let each other down, because we are all working for the same thing," added O'Hagan
Seven Stanford pitchers limited the Broncos to one run and four hits and struck out 10 batters as Jeff Stimpson (2.0 IP, 1 SO), Kodiak Quick (2.0 IP, 1 BB, 3 SO), Mark Jecmen (1.0 IP, 1 H, 3 SO), Pete Duda (1.0 IP) and Matt Manship (0.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER) saw action between Holler and O'Hagan with Duda making his collegiate debut.
"Just about everybody pitched well for us tonight," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess.
Sam Fuld started Stanford's rally in the bottom of the first inning with a leadoff single before moving to second on a swinging bunt by Jim Rapoport. Lowrie then drew his team-leading 37th walk of the season before Putnam's double to the leftcenter field gap scored both runners. Lucy then doubled down the left field line off the glove of a running Bronco leftfielder Ryan Chiarelli to score Putnam.
Santa Clara's only run came when Nathan Faulkner led off the top of the eighth with a pinch-hit solo homer off Manship. Robert Perry and Michael Lange continued the Santa Clara uprising with back-to-back singles and Ryan Chiarelli was hit by a pitch before O'Hagan came in to slam the door. O'Hagan struck out pinch-hitter Shawn Epidendio before retiring Nic Crosta on an infield fly and Michael Thompson on a groundout to Cardinal second baseman Jed Lowrie.
Santa Clara starter Bryan Fleming (0-1) took the loss, allowing three runs on five hits and two walks with four strikeouts over the first 4.2 innings. Jason Matteucci made his first collegiate appearance as a pitcher and got Putnam to fly out with a pair of runners on base to end the Cardinal fifth. Thomas Van Buskirk (2.0 IP, 1 BB) and Anthony Rea (1.0 IP, 2 SO) pitched the final three innings for the Broncos.
Santa Clara left six runners on base, while the Cardinal stranded five. The Broncos had just one runner in scoring position prior to its eighth inning rally, while Stanford put just two runners in scoring position after the first.
Neither team committed an error as Stanford played errorless baseball for the 18th time this season to improve its fielding percentage to .975, which is just two percentage points shy of the school record .977 mark set by the 2001 club. The Cardinal also leads the Pac-10 with a .329 batting average and a 3.86 ERA.
The Broncos turned the only double play of the contest.
The first inning hit by Fuld (1-3) brought his career total to 341, while his three at bats give him 1015 for his career as he moved to within 27 hits and 15 at bats of all-time Stanford and Pac-10 record holder John Gall (368 hits/1027 at bats, 1997-2000). Fuld is already Stanford's all-time leader for runs scored (255), while also ranking among the school's all-time leaders in triples (16, #3T), games played (246, #5T) and doubles (58, #6T). He has played in 239 consecutive Stanford games with 153 straight starts.
Stanford will travel to Arizona (25-20-1, 7-8 Pac-10) for a three-game Pac-10 series this Saturday-Monday, May 15-17 (7 pm, 7 pm, 1 pm, MST) to conclude its regular season road schedule. Stanford (11-4 Pac-10) currently holds a slim one-half game lead in the Pac-10 standings over Washington (12-6 Pac-10), who handed the Cardinal its first series loss of the season by taking two-of-three games in Seattle last Friday-Sunday.
The Cardinal will return home for four home games next week, hosting San Francisco in its final regular season non-conference game of the season on Tuesday, May 18 (6 pm, PDT) before welcoming USC for a three-game Pac-10 series Friday-Sunday, May 21-23 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PDT). Stanford will host its annual Youth Baseball Day on Sunday versus the Trojans.
Tickets are available for all 2004 regular season Stanford Baseball home games online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD.