April 2, 2005
Pullman, Wash. - Jed Lowrie's two home runs led No. 12 Stanford (16-9, 2-0 Pac-10) to an 11-4 victory at Washington State (15-16, 0-5 Pac-10) on Saturday as the Cardinal won its second straight contest of its Pac-10 opening three-game set on a pleasant afternoon at Bailey-Brayton Field. Stanford's National Player of the Year candidate stayed hot with his fourth consecutive multiple-hit game, going 3-for-5 with his third career two-homer game and three RBI. Adam Sorgi (2-4, 2B, 2 RBI), John Mayberry, Jr. (2-5, 2B, 2 RBI) and John Hester (2-5, RBI) added a pair of hits each for the Cardinal.
"We got some clutch hits today and won a couple of big spots when they were on offense," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "This was really a much closer game than the score indicated."
"It's always important to win any Pac-10 game you can," added Marquess. "Every team in this league is good. If you get a chance to win a Pac-10 game, you take it."
"It's nice to win the first two games of the series, but we want to go for the sweep tomorrow," contributed Lowrie, who had his ninth and 10th homers of the season. "I was able to get a couple of good swings on the home runs today, and it's just nice to see that we're starting to put some things together offensively."
Jeff Gilmore (5-1) picked up his fifth win of the season despite allowing a season-high 10 hits and four runs over a 5.2 inning start that was his shortest since his only loss of the campaign at Texas on February 19.
Stanford relievers Matt Manship (1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB) and Blake Holler (2.0 IP, 1 H, 2 SO) shut the Cougars out over the final 3.1 innings.Jason Freeman (3-5, 2 RBI) led a Washington State offense that equaled Stanford's 12 hits. Zach McAngus (2-3, 2B) was the only other Cougar with more than one hit but seven other Washington State players had one hit each.
Washington State starter Wayne Daman, Jr. (4-2) was tagged with the loss, allowing seven runs (six earned) on eight hits and one walk with two strikeouts over the first 3.1 frames. Dane Renkert (5.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO) went the rest of the way for the Cougars.
Stanford struck in the top of the first inning when Lowrie launched a two-out solo homer over the right field wall.
Washington State answered with a run in the bottom of the first. Jay Miller drew a two-out walk to start the rally, moved to third on a single by Brady Everett and scored on an RBI single from Jim Murphy.Stanford broke the game open with three runs in the third and three more in the fourth.
Mayberry keyed the Cardinal third with a clutch two-out, two-run double off the glove of a leaping McAngus at third base to score Sorgi and Lowrie, who had both singled earlier in the frame. Hester finished the rally when he drove home Mayberry with an RBI single.
Stanford's fourth started when Taylor led off by reaching on a fielding error charged to Daman when the Cougar starter failed to find the bag while covering first on a grounder to Murphy at first base. Taylor then stole base and scored on an RBI single by Chris Lewis before a walk to Jim Rapoport set up a well-hit two-RBI double to the leftcenter field gap by Sorgi.
The Cardinal made it 9-1 with two more runs in the sixth, taking advantage of a walk and the Cougars' second error of the contest. Lewis drew the base on balls and Rapoport singled to lead off the inning before Sorgi sacrificed the runners to second and third. Chris Minaker brought home Lewis with an RBI groundout to McAngus and when Rapoport tried to move from second to third on the play, Miller's return throw from first was wild to allow Rapoport to come all the way around to score.
Gilmore cruised through four shutout innings from the second to fifth before giving up three runs when the Cougars batted around in the sixth. The uprising started after Gilmore had retired the first two batters in the inning on Zach Kosturos' two-out single. Jeff Miller followed with an RBI double for the first Washington State tally in the inning. Gilmore then gave up a single to pinch-hitter Garrett Kimbrel and walked Kaeo Rubin before Freeman bounced a two-run single up the middle to knock the Cardinal starter out of the contest. Manship came on and wild pitched the runners to second and third before walking Jay Miler to load the bases but got out of the jam when Sorgi snagged Everett's line drive to the Cardinal third baseman.
A two-run homer by Lowrie down the right field line in the ninth that also scored Minaker, who had singled in the previous at bat, finished the game's scoring.
Washington State stranded nine runners in the game with the Cardinal also squashing three rallies with a season-high-tying trio of double plays. Stanford left just three runners on base.
The victory was Stanford's 22nd in a row over Washington State dating back to the last Cougar win in the series on March 28, 1978.
Stanford will go for a three-game sweep when the teams conclude the series on Sunday (12 pm, PT). Washington State is scheduled to start RHP Nick Cebula (2-2, 5.19), while the Cardinal has not announced a probable starter.
STANFORD NOTES
Stanford won its fourth consecutive road game (the team's longest road win streak since taking five in a row from March 23 - April 3, 2004) to improve to 5-5 away from Sunken Diamond this season
Stanford's victories in each of the first two games of the Washington State series assure the Cardinal of its 10th consecutive Pac-10 opening series victory
Stanford's victories in each of the first two games of the Washington State series also snaps a four-series road losing streak that was the club's longest since Stanford dropped seven straight road series from April 29, 1988 - April 10, 1989
Stanford needs a victory on Sunday to wrap up its third sweep of the season and its first Pac-10 sweep since taking three in a row from Washington State at Sunken Diamond from April 30 - May 2, 2004
Stanford won its 22nd consecutive game against Washington State dating back to the last Cougar victory in the series at the UC Riverside Invitational on March 28, 1978
Stanford played errorless baseball for the 14th time in its first 25 games this season to maintain 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 ERA rose just two percentage points to 3.67 and is on track to be the team's second lowest since 1977 when the club posted a 3.44 ERA
Jed Lowrie, who had homered just once in his previous 12 contests, had the third two-homer game of his career and his second of the season while posting his fourth straight multiple-hit game
Adam Sorgi tied a career-high with two RBI for the second straight contest
Jim Rapoport had a sixth inning single and has now hit safely in 10 of his last 11 contests
Matt Manship (1.1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB) made his sixth consecutive scoreless relief appearance and has still not allowed a run in 7.2 innings of work this season
Blake Holler (2.0 IP, 1 H, 2 SO) made his fourth straight scoreless relief appearance and has not allowed a run over his last 7.2 innings
Jeff Gilmore (5.1 IP, 10 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO) had his shortest start since lasting just 4.2 innings in his only loss of the season at Texas (February 19) while also allowing a season-high 10 hits
Stanford tied a season-best by turning three double plays
Stanford posted double-digit hits for the eighth time in its last 11 games and the 16th time this season
Stanford has scored double-digit runs in back-to-back contests for the first time this year over the past two games
Stanford is now 11-0 in games in which the Cardinal scores in the first inning and 11-2 when Stanford scores first