March 29, 2005
Stanford, Calif. - Matt Berezay broke a scoreless tie with a two-out, two-RBI single in the top of the 10th inning to lift Pacific (12-15) to a 2-0 upset victory in 10 innings over No. 12 Stanford (14-9) in a non-conference game at Sunken Diamond on Tuesday. Josh Schmidt (4-1) pitched the final 2.2 hitless innings to earn the victory, while Jeff Stimpson (0-1) took the loss. The defeat was Stanford's second straight at home and fourth in its last seven contests at Sunken Diamond.
Matthew Pena (3.0 IP, 3 H, 1 SO), Tyler McReady (2.2 IP, 3 BB) and Gregg Reynolds (1.2 IP) preceded Schmidt for the Tigers as the foursome combined to hand Stanford its first shutout since the Cardinal was blanked, 2-0, by Santa Clara at Sunken Diamond on April 29, 2003.
Adam Ching (3-4) and Ramon Glasgow (2-4) had multiple-hit games for the Tigers, who outhit the Cardinal by a count of 9-4.
Jesse Kovacs drew a leadoff walk to start Pacific's 10th inning and Ching came up with his third consecutive hit to put Tiger runners on first and second base with no outs. Glasgow then legged out a single on a sacrifice bunt attempt placed nicely between Stimpson and Cardinal third baseman Adam Sorgi to load the bases. Dale Hall followed with a ground ball up the middle that Lowrie fielded behind the pitchers mound and threw home to retire Kovacs, who was originally signaled safe on the play. Stimpson nearly got out of the mess when he struck out Pacific's top power hitter in Justin Baum for the second out before allowing Berezay's clutch hit.
Lowrie (2-4, 2B) had half of Stanford's four hits.
Six Stanford pitchers - Matt Leva (2.0 IP, 1 SO), Greg Reynolds (2.0 IP, 1 SO), Nolan Gallagher (1.0 IP, 2 SO), Erik Davis (1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 SO), Matt Manship (1.0 IP, 1 H) and Blake Holler (2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 4 SO) - kept the Tigers scoreless through the first nine innings. The Cardinal staff actually retired the first 17 batters it faced before finally losing a combined perfect game on a two-out single by Ching in the sixth.
Stanford left 10 runners on base as four Pacific pitchers combined to walk six batters and hit another. The Tigers also made a pair of errors. The Cardinal stranded runners in scoring position in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings after lining into double plays in the fourth and fifth frames.
Stanford's best opportunity to score arguably came in the bottom of the eighth inning when Schmidt struck out Brendan Domaracki with the bases loaded to end a Cardinal threat. Lowrie was credited with a one-out double when Pacific leftfielder Will Brendza slipped while starting back on a well-hit fly ball. Reynolds then issued an intentional walk to John Mayberry, Jr. before Schmidt came on in relief, retiring John Hester on a fly ball to Glasgow in center field for the second out before hitting Michael Taylor to load the bases for Domaracki.
In the sixth, Stanford had another opportunity to score with runners on first and second base when Reynolds struck out Taylor to end the frame.
Pacific stranded nine runners of its own despite not even getting a runner on base Ching's two-out single in the sixth when the Tigers eventually loaded the bases before Davis got Baum to pop up to Lowrie to end the inning.
The Tigers also stranded runners on first and third in the eighth when Holler struck out Baum to get the Cardinal out of a jam.
Stanford, the two-time defending Pac-10 champion, will open conference action with a three-game series at Washington State this Friday-Sunday, April 1-3 (6 pm, 1 pm, 12 pm, PT).
STANFORD NOTES
Stanford lost for the fourth time in its last seven games at Sunken Diamond after opening the season with eight consecutive home victories
Stanford had a 14-game home win streak versus Pacific snapped (Stanford was actually 15-0-1 in its last 16 games versus the Tigers at Sunken Diamond) as the Tigers won on The Farm for the first time since February 8, 1977
Stanford had one error in the contest to snap a string of four consecutive errorless games but still maintained its .982 fielding percentage that is .005 percentage points better than the school record of .977 posted by the 2001 club
Stanford's pitching staff lowered its ERA to 3.64, on track to be the team's second lowest since 1977 when the club posted a 3.44 ERA
Stanford's offensive struggles continued as the team was held to five or fewer hits for the fifth time this season and its .280 team batting average would be the squad's lowest since Stanford hit .276 in 1989
Stanford played its first extra innings game of the season