March 26, 2005
Sacramento, Calif. - No. 12 Stanford (14-8) scored six first inning runs on its way to an 8-2 victory over Sacramento State (8-16-1) in a non-conference game at Hornet Field on Saturday. The victory gave the Cardinal a split of the abbreviated two-game series after the Hornets surprised Stanford by a score of 4-3 at Sunken Diamond on Friday evening. Jeff Gilmore (4-1) pitched into the ninth inning before Blake Holler came on to record the final two outs. Gilmore gave up just two runs on six hits and a walk, while striking out six in a season-high 8.1 frames.
"We had some great plays behind me today," said a humble Gilmore after the contest. "I had great defense and a lot of offensive support. These are the days you always want to be pitching."
"That was another typical Jeff Gilmore performance," added Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "He's consistent and always around (the plate). You have to beat him."
Michael Taylor (3-4, 2B, RBI) had the first three-hit game of his career for the Cardinal, while Adam Sorgi (2-5, HR, 2 RBI) hit the second homer of his career. Jim Rapoport (2-4, RBI) and Jed Lowrie (2-5, 2B, 2 RBI) added two-hit games as Stanford outhit Sacramento State, 12-6.
Jim Strombach (2-5) had two of the Hornets' six hits, while Brian Conradi drove in both Sacramento State runs.
Chris Minaker drew a leadoff walk to start Stanford's first inning rally and Sorgi walked before back-to-back doubles by Lowrie (2 RBI) and John Mayberry, Jr. (RBI) gave the Cardinal a 3-0 lead before the Hornets could record an out. Taylor came through two batters later with another RBI double to plate Mayberry and make the score 4-0.
Sacramento State starter and losing pitcher Tim Campbell (1-4, 0.1 IP, 4 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO) then walked Chris Lewis and Ryan Seawell to load the bases before he was removed in favor of reliever Ken Livesey. Rapoport greeted Lindsey with an RBI single to score Taylor and Minaker capped the rally with a sacrifice fly to plate Lewis.
"It was good to bunch some hits together today and come up with a big inning, especially because we haven't been swinging the bats that well lately," said Marquess.
"The first inning was the most important one today, scoring all of those runs," contributed Gilmore.
Livesey (5.2 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 2 SO) and fellow Hornet reliever James Wheeler (2.0 IP, 2 H) kept Sacramento State in the game by not allowing another Cardinal run through the eighth inning.
Sacramento State cut the Stanford lead to 6-2 with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth on Conradi's clutch two-out, two-RBI single to score Brett Flowers and Brian Blauser. Gilmore had retired the first two batters in the inning but issued a walk to Flowers before hitting Blauser and Pat Keiper to load the bases for Conradi.
The Hornets stranded runners in scoring position five times in the contest and left a total of nine runners on base in comparison to six for the Cardinal.
Sorgi gave the Stanford two additional runs in the ninth with a long blast off Warren Rosebrock (1.0 IP, 1 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 2 SO) over the right field wall that also brought home Minaker, who had reached on a throwing error by Hornet shortstop Everet Rincon to lead off the inning.
Stanford will host Pacific in its final tune-up for Pac-10 action on Tuesday, March 29 (6 pm, PT). The Cardinal opens conference play at Washington State next Friday-Sunday, April 1-3 (6 pm, 1 pm, 12 pm, PT).
STANFORD NOTES
Stanford won its second straight road game after starting the season 1-5 away from Sunken Diamond
Stanford won for just the second time in its last four games at Sacramento State
Stanford played errorless baseball for the 13th time in 22 games this season and maintained its .982 fielding percentage that is .005 percentage points better than the school record of .977 posted by the 2001 club
Stanford posted double-digit hits for the sixth time in its last eight contests
Stanford's pitching staff held opponents to fewer than 10 hits for the ninth time in the last 11 games
Jeff Gilmore hit five batters and now has hit 11 opponents in the last two games
After today's six-run first inning, Stanford has now outscored its opponents 28-13 in the first frame this season