May 20, 2005
Stanford, Calif. - No. 8 Arizona (35-16, 15-4 Pac-10) scored six runs in the top of the third inning and never trailed in a 9-4 victory over Stanford (30-20, 10-9 Pac-10) before a season-high crowd of 3223 on Town & Country Village Fireworks Night at Sunken Diamond on Friday. The Wildcats handed Stanford starter Jeff Gilmore (9-2) just his second loss of the season in a game televised live by College Sports Television, touching the Cardinal ace for career-highs of nine runs, eight earned runs and 13 hits. Arizona starter John Meloan (9-2) earned the victory, scattering four runs on nine hits and two walks with six strikeouts over the first 7.1 innings before Mark Melancon got the final five outs of the game without allowing a hit.
Five Arizona players -- Trevor Crowe (2-4, 2B, 2 RBI, SB), Derek Decater (2-4, 2B, RBI), Jason Donald (2-4), Bryan Kervin (2-4) and Brad Boyer (2-5, 2 RBI) - had two hits each while all nine Wildcats starters had at least one hit.
Michael Taylor (2-4, HR, 2 RBI) homered for the Cardinal, while John Hester (2-4, 2B, SB) and John Mayberry, Jr. (2-4, SB) added two-hit games. Chris Minaker had a pair of RBI.
The game was scoreless until Arizona tallied six runs with eight hits against Gilmore in the top of the third to take charge of the contest. Decater singled to lead off the inning and Kervin beat out an infield hit before a two-run double by Crowe plated both runners. Boyer then singled home Crowe to make it 3-0 in favor of the Wildcats. Gilmore finally retired Jeff Van Houten on a lineout to Taylor in right field for the first out of the inning but Arizona responded with four consecutive singles and also took advantage of a Cardinal error to score its final three runs of the frame. Jordan Brown had the first of Arizona's four straight singles to move Boyer to third. Nick Hundley and Chris Frey then had back-to-back singles through the infield to score Boyer and Brown. Donald followed with a single off Gilmore's glove on a hard shot back up the middle and Hundley came all the way around from second to score when the ball scooted by Cardinal second baseman Jed Lowrie. Stanford finally got out of the inning when Decater lined into a double play.
Stanford responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third on a two-out, two-RBI single by Minaker. Jim Rapoport drew a leadoff walk but remained at first base until a two-out single by Adam Sorgi advanced him to second and a wild pitch moved the runners up to second and third to set up Minaker.
The score stayed 6-2 in the Wildcats favor as Meloan and Gilmore both posted zeros in the fourth and fifth frames but Arizona would expand its lead with three more runs in the six. Donald started the Wildcats' second big rally of the contest with a leadoff single and Decater followed with an RBI double to give the Wildcats a quick tally. After Gilmore struck out Kervin, Crowe was intentionally walked and Boyer made the Cardinal pay with an RBI single to plate Decater. Gilmore then picked Decater off first base but Crowe raced home from third before the Cardinal was able to tag him out in a rundown between first and second base.
Taylor's two-out solo homer in the sixth got the Cardinal one run back and he drove in another in the eighth with an RBI single to score Mayberry, who had singled with one out and moved to third Hester's routine fly ball to Frey fell safely after the Wildcat centerfielder had a hard time picking the ball up. Melancon (1.2 IP, 1 SO) came into the game after Taylor's RBI single and got the Wildcats out of a mini-jam by forcing Rapoport into a fielders choice and getting Chris Lewis to fly out to left field before retiring the side in order in the ninth.
The loss kept Stanford in fifth-place in the Pac-10. Oregon State (18-4 Pac-10) continues to lead the conference with just two Pac-10 games remaining on its schedule, followed by Arizona (15-4), USC (12-7), Arizona State (11-8), Stanford (10-9), California (11-10), Washington (8-11), UCLA (3-16) and Washington State (0-19).
Stanford will conclude its 2005 regular season home schedule and current seven-game homestand with the final two contests of its current series versus the Wildcats on Saturday and Sunday with starts scheduled each day for 1:00 pm, PT. Saturday's scheduled pitching matchup pits Arizona RHP Kevin Guyette (9-4, 3.75) versus Stanford LHP Mark Romanczuk (5-5, 4.11). Arizona has named RHP Sean Rierson (3-2, 5.70) as its probable starting pitcher for Sunday's series finale, while Stanford has not announced a probable starter. The annual Team Appreciation BBQ will take place after Saturday's contest with Fan Appreciation/Senior Day slated for Sunday.
STANFORD NOTES
Stanford made one error in Friday's contest but still maintained a .978 fielding percentage that ranks second in the nation and is one percentage point better than the school record of .977 set by the 2001 club
Despite allowing eight earned runs, Stanford's pitching staff still has a 3.75 season ERA as the Cardinal is looking to record an ERA under 4.00 for the fourth time in the last six campaigns
Jeff Gilmore allowed career-highs of eight earned runs, nine runs and 13 hits in his outing
Chris Minaker extended his hit streak to eight games, while John Mayberry, Jr. now has a seven-game hit streak that is one shy of his season-high
Jed Lowrie had his season-high-tying six-game hit streak snapped
Stanford needs to sweep the final two games of the series to avoid dropping its third consecutive series to Arizona