March 6, 2005
Stanford, Calif. - No. 11 Stanford (11-7) and California (11-6) split a doubleheader played before a season-high crowd of 2544 at Sunken Diamond on Sunday to conclude a three-game non-conference series between the local rivals. Stanford won the opener, 3-2, when Jim Rapoport squeezed home Cameron Matthews with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning for the game-winning run. California responded with a 10-4 victory in the nightcap to end an 18-game losing streak to the Cardinal dating back to the last Golden Bear win in Berkeley on March 9, 2002. California had also lost 12 in a row to Stanford at Sunken Diamond with the team's most recent victory on The Farm taking place on March 3, 2001.
"That was just an unusual streak," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess about his squad's long winning stretch over California.
Stanford's dramatic ninth inning in the opener started when Michael Taylor singled with one out and moved to third on a single by Chris Lewis, setting up Rapoport's game-winning squeeze.
"I had a lot of confidence that he was going to get the bunt down," said Matthews, who was well over half way down the line when Rapoport made contact.
Blake Holler (4-0) earned his Pac-10 co-leading fourth win in relief of Stanford starter Jeff Gilmore in the contest as the duo held the Golden Bears to just three hits. Holler retired all six batters he faced with one strikeout over the final 2.0 innings after Gilmore had given up just two runs and three hits with four strikeouts and one walk over the first 7.0 frames.
"I know that when I come in out of the bullpen, I'm in a situation where I can't make a mistake," commented Holler. "When it's late in the game and the score is close, it helps you be that much more on top of your game."
"I had good stuff today," said Gilmore. "For the first five or six innings, I really just felt like I could throw any pitch at any time for a strike. When you have that going, it makes it difficult for hitters."
John Mayberry, Jr. (2-4, 2B), Taylor (2-4) and Chris Lewis (2-4) had two hits each for the Cardinal, who had eight of nine starters pick up at least one hit to outhit the Golden Bears by a count of 11-3. Adam Sorgi and John Hester both tripled for the first time in their collegiate career before scoring the team's first two runs of the contest.
Stanford left eight runners on base, while the Golden Bears stranded only one.
Stanford took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first when Sorgi tripled to lead off the frame and scored on an RBI single by Chris Minaker.
The Cardinal went ahead 2-0 in the fourth when Hester led off the inning with a triple and scored on an RBI groundout by Brendan Domaracki.
After allowing a single to Kyle Spraker to lead off the game, Gilmore then retired 16 in a row before Matt Einspahr singled with two outs in the sixth.
Brannan Boesch brought home both California runs when he hit a two-run homer over the right field wall with one out in the seventh to tie the game at 2-2. Mike Van Winden, who had worked Gilmore for a seventh inning leadoff walk, also came around to score on the home run.
California jumped out to an early 5-0 lead after an inning and a half of the nightcap and never trailed as Boesch (3-4, HR, 2 RBI) hit his second home run of the day in the top of the first inning before Einspahr (1-3, HR, 3 RBI) came up with a two-run shot to key a three-run second frame. Josh Satin (3-4, 2B), Mike Van Winden (2-4, 2B, 2 RBI) and Jeremy Burchett (2-4, RBI, SB) joined Boesch with multiple-hit contests for the Golden Bears.
A stellar relief effort by Matt Swanson (3-0) earned the second of three Golden Bear pitchers a victory. Swanson came on in relief of starter Brandon Morrow (3.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO) to begin the fourth and pitched 4.0 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and two walks while facing just two batters over his minimum thanks in part to two of the three double plays that the Golden Bears turned in the contest.
Mayberry (2-3, HR, 3 RBI) kept Stanford in the game with a three-run shot in the third. Rapoport (2-3), Sorgi (2-4) and Minaker (2-5, RBI) also had multiple-hit games for the Cardinal.
Stanford starter Nolan Gallagher (0-3) suffered the loss, allowing five runs and seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts in the first 2.1 innings.
Van Winden started California's first inning rally with a one-out single and the inning was kept alive when Lowrie threw the ball away on the back end of a potential inning-ending double play ball hit by Chris Errecart before Boesch connected on his home run.
Satin started California's second inning with a leadoff double and was sacrificed to third base on the first of three sacrifice bunts executed in the contest by Travis Howell before Burchett singled Satin home and Einspahr rocked his home run to left.
Mayberry's three-run homer in the third to deep rightcenter cut the California lead to 5-3 but the Golden Bears would go on to the score the next five runs to regain momentum before Stanford finished the scoring with one run in the ninth.
A one-out walk to Van Winden and an RBI double by Errecart accounted for a single California run in the fourth.
In the fifth, the Golden Bears added another run when Satin led off with a single. Howell moved him to second base with his second sacrifice bunt of the game, and he moved to third when Burchett hit a line drive shot off Cardinal reliever Erik Davis (2.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 SO) that ended up as an infield single before scoring on a sacrifice fly from Einspahr.
California broke the game open with three unearned runs in the seventh. Satin drew a leadoff walk from the Matt Leva (0.1 IP, 3 R, 2 BB), the third of four Cardinal relievers, to start the rally and moved to second on a wild pitch before scoring on the next play when Hester threw the ball away at first base trying to put Howell out on his third sacrifice bunt of the game. Burchett then drew a walk before the runners moved to second and third on a sacrifice bunt by Einspahr. Van Winden capped the rally two batters later with a two-out, two-run double to plate Howell and Burchett.
Three consecutive two-out singles by Rapoport, Sorgi and Minaker gave the Cardinal a run in the bottom of the ninth before Golden Bear reliever Alex Trafton (2.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO) retired Lowrie on a fly ball to end the contest.
Stanford will be out of action for 12 days before resuming play with a two-game non-conference series versus Pacific from Saturday-Sunday, March 19-20. The Cardinal will open the abbreviated set on Saturday at Sunken Diamond before traveling to Stockton the following day with both contests scheduled to start at 1 pm, PT.
STANFORD NOTES
Stanford extended its win streak against California to 18 in a row by taking the first game of the doubleheader before the Golden Bears ended their skid against the Cardinal with their 10-4 victory in the night cap
Stanford took two-of-three games in the series to extend its home regular season three-game series win streak to 14
Stanford had swept the last six doubleheaders it had played in dating back to April 7, 2001, prior to splitting today's twin bill with California
Adam Sorgi and John Hester both had their first career triples in the opener
Blake Holler won his co-Pac-10 leading fourth game of the season in the opener
Chris Lewis had a career-best seven-game hit streak snapped in the nightcap
The game was played in front of 2544 fans, the largest crowd at Sunken Diamond this season
Jeff Gilmore's 7.0 inning outing in the opener tied his longest start of the campaign