Download Free Acrobat ReaderMay 4, 2005
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California (29-20, 9-9 Pac-10)
Friday, May 6 (2:30 pm, PT)
RHP Jeff Gilmore (7-1, 3.53) vs. RHP Adam Gold (6-5, 5.23)
Saturday, May 7 (1 pm, PT)
LHP Mark Romanczuk (5-4, 4.70) vs. RHP Eric Dworkis (5-5, 3.68)
Sunday, May 8 (1 pm, PT)
TBA vs. RHP Michael Cooper (3-2, 3.42)
FRIDAY-SUNDAY'S LIVE GAME COVERAGE
Audio Broadcast: KZSU 90.1 FM/gostanford.com (Sean Bruich, Alex Gyr and Jeff Love)
Gametracker: Friday | Saturday | Sunday
STANFORD-CALIFORNIA SERIES HISTORY
All-Time Series: Stanford 231-208
2005 Results - Series Stanford 2-1 (Non-Conference at Stanford, March 5-6) Stanford 10-3, Stanford 3-2 (Game 1), California 10-4 (Game 2)
2004 Results - Series Stanford 6-0 (Non-Conference at California, February 27-29) Stanford 12-9, Stanford 10-3, Stanford 6-2; (Conference at Stanford, April 16-18) Stanford 7-4, Stanford 9-2, Stanford 8-3
Series Notes: Stanford had won an amazing 18 straight games against California before the Golden Bears finally broke the string the last time the teams met in the nightcap of a doubleheader earlier this season at Sunken Diamond on March 6 Stanford had also swept five consecutive three-game series against the Golden Bears prior to California's win Stanford has still won seven straight games between the teams in Berkeley since California was a 2-1 winner on March 9, 2002 The Cardinal has also won seven consecutive series over the Golden Bears since California won two-of-three in Berkeley from March 27-29, 2001
STANFORD NOTES
Pac-10 Update
Two-time defending Pac-10 champion Stanford is in sole possession of fifth-place in the conference with a 7-5 league mark after sweeping Washington in its final series of the first half of Pac-10 action April 22-24 before being idle last Friday-Sunday The Cardinal, who resumes conference play at California this Friday-Sunday, May 6-8, is still just two games behind league-leader Arizona (12-3 Pac-10) in the loss column and 3.5 overall with a three-game set still scheduled against the Wildcats at Sunken Diamond from May 20-22 to close out its home regular season Oregon State (11-4 Pac-10) is 1.0 game behind Arizona in the chase for the 2005 Pac-10 title, followed by Arizona State (10-5 Pac-10), USC (9-6 Pac-10), Stanford, California (9-9 Pac-10), Washington (7-8 Pac-10), UCLA (1-11 Pac-10) and Washington State (0-15 Pac-10) Stanford has won at least a share of a Pac-10 or Pac-10 Southern Division title in six of the last eight years and has picked up a total of 20 conference titles in school history The Cardinal has finished either first or second in the prestigious Pac-10 a total of 22 times in the last 24 seasons Stanford was picked in a preseason poll of the Pac-10 coaches to win the conference title again in 2005
Road Trip
Stanford has opened its longest road trip of the season with back-to-back shutout victories at UC Davis (8-0) and Nevada (13-0) on Monday and Tuesday The six-game stretch marks the only time during the regular season the Cardinal is scheduled to play more than three consecutive games in a row away from Sunken Diamond After continuing the road swing with a three-game Pac-10 set at California this Friday-Sunday, May 6-8, the Cardinal concludes the series of road games at Santa Clara on Tuesday, May 10) The Cardinal next returns to the comfy confines of Sunken Diamond for a three-game Pac-10 series against UCLA from Friday-Sunday, March 13-15 Stanford has evened its road record this season at 8-8 after the wins at UC Davis and Nevada Stanford has been swept twice (at Texas, February 18-20; at Arizona State, April 15-17) on the road this season but did win a season-high five straight road games (March 20 - April 3) prior to the sweep at Arizona State
Rankings
Stanford dropped four spots to No. 24 in the most recent Baseball America poll released May 2 after losing to Santa Clara in its only game last week (April 26) The Cardinal also moved down one place to No. 23 in the latest Collegiate Baseball poll, as well as three spots to No. 21 in this week's Sports Weekly/ESPN rankings and two places to No. 27 on the NCBWA list Stanford has been ranked No. 1 in the Baseball America poll at some point during seven of the last eight campaigns prior to this season but has not reached the top in 2005 with No. 6 the highest ranking the Cardinal has attained Cal State Fullerton has taken over as the No. 1 team in the most recent Baseball America poll, while Tulane held onto its top spot in the Collegiate Baseball rankings and also took over for Texas as the No. 1 squad in both the Sports Weekly/ESPN and NCBWA polls
This Week's Remaining Opponent (California)
California is 29-20 overall and has a 9-9 record in Pac-10 action The Golden Bears had won four straight before dropping the final contest of a three-game set at UCLA last Sunday and falling at San Francisco in their most recent game this past Tuesday The Golden Bears have put up a .289 batting average (#6 Pac-10), 4.20 ERA (#4 Pac-10) and .975 fielding percentage (#3 Pac-10) Individual, California is led offensively by Brennan Boesch (.374, 7 HR, 33 RBI), ranking fifth in the Pac-10 in batting average and tied for ninth in homers On the mound, Friday starter Adam Gold (6-5, 5.23) has a team-high six games while Travis Talbott has saved seven games (#3 Pac-10)
2005 Stanford vs. California
(March 6 - at Stanford 3, California 2 - Game 1; California 10, at Stanford 4 - Game 2) Stanford and California split a doubleheader in front of the largest Sunken Diamond crowd of the season with 2544 fans watching the Cardinal take a 3-2 victory in the opener before the Golden Bears captured the nightcap by a score of 10-4 to end Stanford's 18-game win streak against California. Stanford won the opener when Jim Rapoport squeezed home pinch-runner Cameron Matthews with one out in the bottom of the ninth for the game-winning run. Jeff Gilmore and Blake Holler combined on a three-hitter for the Cardinal, while John Mayberry, Jr. (2-4, 2B), Michael Taylor (2-4) and Chris Lewis (2-4) had two hits each. California jumped out to a 5-0 lead after an inning and a half of the nightcap and never trailed as Brannon Boesch (3-4, HR, 2 RBI) had three hits and his second homer of the day as Stanford had its string of six straight doubleheader sweeps snapped
(March 5 - at Stanford 10, California 3) Mark Marquess picked up his 1200th career victory when Stanford snapped California's nine-game win streak with a 10-3 victory. Mark Romanczuk pitched his second consecutive complete game to earn the victory, limiting California to three runs and five hits, including no runs on only one hit over the final 7.0 frames, as he finished with seven strikeouts and three walks. Six different Stanford players had a pair of hits as the Cardinal outhit the Golden Bears, 13-5.
This Week's Action
(May 3 - Stanford 13, at Nevada 0) Stanford scored its largest win of the season with a 13-0 victory at Nevada. Four Stanford pitchers - Matt Leva, Nolan Gallagher, Blake Holler and Matt Manship - combined on the second Cardinal shutout in as many days as Stanford recorded back-to-back shutouts for the first time since 1996. Leva was credited with the victory as the first Stanford pitcher in a predetermined rotation of three or more pitchers. Adam Sorgi drove in a career-high four runs, while John Hester (2-4, HR, 3 RBI) and Chris Minaker (2-5, HR, 3 RBI) both homered and drove in three runs
(May 2 - Stanford 8, at UC Davis 0) Stanford began a season-long six-game road trip with an 8-0 win at UC Davis. Jeff Gilmore, Mark Romanczuk and Greg Reynolds combined on the three-hit shutout and struck out a season-high 13 batters. Adam Sorgi (2-5, 3B, 3 RBI) drove in a career-high three runs to lead the Cardinal offense, while Jim Rapoport (1-1, 2B, RBI, 2 SB) walked a career-high five times, reached base in all six of his plate appearances and tied a career-high with a pair of stolen bases. Gilmore earned the win as the first of three or more Stanford hurlers in a predetermined pitching rotation, scattering three hits and walking one with two strikeouts over the first 3.0 frames. Romanczuk retired the final 12 batters he faced in a stellar outing, not allowing a hit and striking out seven while giving up only a walk to the first batter he faced. Reynolds pitched the final 2.0 innings, striking out four
Stanford Starts New Series Streak At Sunken Diamond
Stanford had won 14 straight regular season home series before Oregon State took two-of-three at Sunken Diamond on April 9-10 The Cardinal, who did suffer a loss in its most recent game at Sunken Diamond against Santa Clara on April 26, rebounded by sweeping Washington in last three-game set at home April 22-24
Pitching Staff On Fire
Stanford's pitching staff recorded back-to-back shutouts in its last two outings at UC Davis (May 2) and Nevada (May 3), marking the first time Stanford has posted back-to-back shutouts since blanking San Jose State and UCLA in back-to-back contests on April 23 and 26, 1996 The back-to-back shutouts and 19 consecutive scoreless innings posted by the staff has helped bring its ERA down to 3.95, marking the first time the team's earned run average has been under the 4.00 mark since it stood at 3.98 after Stanford's game at Arizona State on April 15 Stanford is attempting to record an ERA under 4.00 for the fourth time in the last six seasons Stanford's pitchers allowed just seven hits in the back-to-back shutouts and walked only four, while striking out 20
Month Of May
Stanford has traditionally played some of its best baseball in May, especially since the Pac-10 North and South Divisions merged prior to the 1999 campaign Including its 2-0 record to start May 2005, Stanford is 78-18 (.813) in May games since 1999
Head Coach Mark Marquess Nearing Top 15 On All-Time Win List
Head coach Mark Marquess, in his 29th season at the helm of the Stanford program, is nearing 15th-place on the all-time win list Marquess has an all-time record of 1216-580-5 (.677) and has moved to within one win of the 1217 victories recorded by Al Ogletree in 39 seasons at Texas Pan-American On March 5, 2005, he became just the 16th NCAA Division I head coach to reach the 1200-career win mark when Stanford defeated California by a score of 10-3 at Sunken Diamond He is currently ranked ninth among active Division I coaches in wins and 16th on the NCAA's all-time list
Jed Lowrie
Stanford's National Player of the Year candidate (USA Baseball Golden Spikes Watch List, Wallace Award Watch List) and First Team Preseason All-American has put up solid offensive numbers this season, leading the team in homers (11, #2T Pac-10), RBI (48, #5T Pac-10), slugging percentage (.605, #9 Pac-10), total bases (92), sacrifice flies (9, #1 Pac-10), walks (27, #8 Pac-10) and multiple-RBI games (15) to go with a .322 batting average that ranks fourth on the club Defensively, he has made just three errors in 194 chances for a .985 fielding percentage while leading the team in assists (117, #6 Pac-10) and ranking second in fielding double plays (28, #10T Pac-10)
John Mayberry, Jr.
Stanford's First Team Preseason All-American paces the club in hits (52), doubles (15, #8T Pac-10, co-leader) and multiple-hit games (18), while ranking second in batting average (.323), RBI (42, #8 Pac-10), multiple-RBI games (12) and home runs (5, tied for second with Chris Lewis) Defensively, he has made just two errors in 390 defensive chances (#5 Pac-10) for a .995 fielding percentage Mayberry also leads the team in putouts (367, #5 Pac-10) and fielding double plays (32, #7T Pac-10)
Jim Rapoport
Leads the team with a .360 batting average (#7 Pac-10), a .464 on-base percentage (#5 Pac-10), 10 stolen bases and six sacrifice bunts Also ranks second on the team in walks (26) and third in hits (50) Has walked 10 times in his last three contests, including a career and team-season-high five walks that was one shy of the NCAA single-game record at UC Davis (May 2) Raised his average 168 points from .224 to a season-high .392 during a stretch in which he hit safely in 19 of 20 games from February 27 - April 17, including a career-high and team season-high 13-game hit streak from March 26 - April 17 (.521, 25-48) but is just 3-for-19 (.158) in his last six contests
 Adam Sorgi has been Stanford's hottest hitter of late with a current career-best eight-game hit streak  | |
Adam Sorgi
Boasts a current career-high eight-game hit streak, going 14-for-31 (.452) and driving in 11 runs during the stretch to move his average up to .323 (third on the club) Also ranks second on the team in runs scored (39) and hits (51)
John Hester
Has a current five-game hit streak and has hit safely in 16 of his last 18 contests since April 1 to raise his average .261 at the start of the hot stretch to its current .302 Has caught every inning of all 41 games this season
Jeff Gilmore
Moved into the team's No. 1 starter role versus Washington on April 22 and responded with his first complete game of the season and the third of his career to post a 2-1 victory over the Huskies Picked up his seventh win of the campaign in his most recent outing at UC Davis (May 2), tossing 3.0 scoreless innings as one of first of four Stanford pitchers to combine on a shutout Leads the team and tied for third in the Pac-10 with seven wins (7-1), while posting a 3.53 ERA (#10 Pac-10) and a .234 opponents' batting average (#8 Pac-10) that are both the lowest among Stanford pitchers that have pitched at least one inning per team game played Also paces the club in innings pitched (79.0, #6 Pac-10) and starts (12, #7T Pac-10, co-leader), while ranking second in strikeouts (61)
Mark Romanczuk
Has won 28 career games at Stanford (28-9), good for a sixth-place tie on the school's all-time win list with Brian Mignano (1979-82) and is just nine victories behind all-time school-leader Jeff Ballard's 37 from 1982-85 Has a 5-4 record and a 4.70 ERA this season, while leading the team in strikeouts (64, #10 Pac-10) and starts (12, #7T Pac-10, co-leader), as well as ranking second on the club in innings pitched (76.2, #8T Pac-10) Pitched 4.0 scoreless and hitless innings with seven strikeouts in his most recent outing at UC Davis (May 2) in his first relief stint of the season On the Roger Clemens Award Watch list for the award given annually to the nation's top pitcher
Blake Holler
Has developed into one of Stanford's top relievers, posting a 6-2 record and a 3.12 ERA that is second on the club Shares the team lead with 15 appearances and has a 9.15 strikeout per nine innings ratio that is second on the club behind Nolan Gallagher's 9.49
Matt Manship
Has been charged with only one run in 21.0 innings of work over 14 appearances this season, going 2-0 with an 0.43 ERA while striking out 16 and allowing a team-low opponents' batting average of .213 Has also recorded a pair of saves and has 14 in his career, good for sole possession of sixth-place on Stanford's all-time list
Outstanding Defense
Stanford has been errorless in 20 of its 41 contests this season and has a .979 fielding percentage that leads the nation and is .002 percentage points higher than the school record pace of .977 set by the 2001 club Stanford has also played outstanding defense in the five seasons prior to 2005 with five of its top seven team fielding percentages recorded during the period
Offense Coming Around
Stanford's offense continues to come around from its early season woes as the Cardinal has its team batting average back up to .295, just one point shy of the highest its been since it stood at .324 after the team's third game of the season versus Fresno State but dropped all the way to .275 after getting just three hits the next game at Cal State Fullerton Stanford has 10 or more hits in six of its last eight contests The Cardinal is trying to extend a string of consecutive seasons with a batting average of .300 or better to 10 in a row with Stanford actually hitting .307 or better in each of its last nine campaigns Stanford's current 6.8 run per game average is down 1.5 runs from last season's final average, when the Cardinal scored 8.3 runs per contest
Tight Battle For Team Lead In Hits
Stanford has a tight battle going on for the team lead in hits with seven players having collected between 43 and 52 hits this season John Mayberry, Jr. has taken a slim lead in the race with 52 knocks, followed by Adam Sorgi (51), Jim Rapoport (50), Jed Lowrie and Chris Minaker (49), John Hester (48) and Michael Taylor (43)
Comeback Kids
Stanford has come from behind in 11 of its 26 victories this season The team came from behind in two of its three wins during its most recent series versus Washington (April 22, April 23) The club's biggest comeback win (turning a 6-0 deficit into a 7-6 victory) came against Santa Clara on April 5 Stanford has also trailed at one point in victories over Fresno State (January 29, January 30
Game 2), Kansas (February 12), USC (February 26), California (March 5), Pacific (March 20), Washington State (April 3) and Oregon State (April 10)
Soggy Season
Stanford has had seven games postponed due to wet weather conditions this season The Cardinal had its season-opener versus Fresno State (January 28) delayed, as well as series-openers against Kansas (February 11), California (February 25), Pacific (March 19) and Oregon State (April 8), and a single game against San Jose State (March 22) Stanford even had a contest versus Washington on April 23 pushed back five hours due to wet weather conditions The Cardinal made up the first four games as part of doubleheaders and played the Pacific contest on March 24 The San Jose State rainout has not been rescheduled yet
Four In A Row
Stanford has put together three win streaks of four games this season but has yet to put together five straight victories The Cardinal won four in a row from February 6-13, April 1-5 and April 19-24
Home Sweet Home
Despite losing more games at home this season (18-7) than the Cardinal did all of last year (29-5 home record in 2004), the Cardinal is back on a roll at Sunken Diamond Stanford had won six straight games at Sunken Diamond before having the string snapped with an upset loss to Santa Clara in its most recent outing on The Farm (April 26) Stanford is 58-13 overall in its last 71 games on The Farm The Cardinal will close its 2005 regular season home schedule with a seven-game homestand May 13-22 versus UCLA (May 13-15), Saint Mary's (May 17) and Arizona (May 20-22)
Tough Times In Close Ones
Stanford has lost 12 of its 15 games this season by two runs or less The Cardinal is 6-7 in one-run games and 1-5 in two-run contests for a record of just 7-12 in games decided by two runs or fewer
Day And Night
Stanford has fared much better in day games than night contests this season, going 19-8 in day games and 7-7 at night
Same Starters
Stanford has had six players - John Hester (C), Jed Lowrie (2B), Chris Lewis (LF/RF), John Mayberry, Jr. (1B), Chris Minaker (SS), Adam Sorgi (3B) -- start all 41 games this season Michael Taylor (RF) has started 40 contests, while Jim Rapoport (CF) has been in the starting lineup on 39 occasions All of the players except for Lewis (40 LF, 1 RF) have made every one of their starts at the same position Hester, Mayberry and Minaker have all played every inning at their respective spots
Winners
Stanford has won 40 or more games in a school record 10 consecutive campaigns and has posted 11 consecutive winning seasons, as well as 39 in the last 40 years and 56 in the past 58 The Cardinal needs four more victories to guarantee a winning season in 2005
Omaha
Stanford has captured two national titles (1987, 1988) and advanced to the College World Series 15 times, including 13 appearances in the last 23 years and for a school record five consecutive seasons from 1999-2003
Bay Area Boys
Stanford has an unusually high number of local products on its 2005 team this season with eight players from the Bay Area donning a Cardinal uniform (Erik Davis, Mountain View/Mountain View HS Darren Gemoll, San Jose/Leland HS Zach Gianos, Menlo Park/Menlo-Atherton HS Cameron Matthews, Mountain View/Los Altos HS Rex Petrill, Los Altos/St. Francis HS Greg Reynolds, Pacifica/Terra Nova HS Ryan Seawell, Menlo Park/Menlo School David Stringer, Palo Alto/Palo Alto HS)