May 22, 2005
Stanford, Calif. - No. 8 Arizona (36-17, 16-5 Pac-10) jumped out to an early seven-run lead and held off a Stanford (31-21, 11-10 Pac-10) comeback in the rubber game of a Pac-10 series Sunday before a crowd of 3161 on Fan Appreciation/Senior Day. The Wildcats took control of the final regular season home game of 2005 at Sunken Diamond with a six-run fourth inning after the contest had been tied 2-2 at the end of three frames. Brad Boyer (3-5, 2B, 4 RBI) drove in four runs and was one of four Arizona players with three hits each off a Cardinal pitching staff that allowed a season-high 18 to the Pac-10's top offensive club.
Stanford had 14 hits of its own as Jed Lowrie (3-4, 2B, 3 RBI) and Adam Sorgi (3-5, HR, RBI) led the way with three each.
Bryan Kervin (3-3, 2B), Trevor Crowe (3-6, 3B, RBI) and Nick Hundley (3-6) also had three hits for the Wildcats, while Jeff Van Houten (2-5, 2B, HR, RBI) had the team's lone homer and Derek Decater drove in three runs. All nine Arizona starters had at least one hit.
John Mayberry, Jr. (2-3, 2B, RBI, SB), Chris Minaker (2-5, 2B) and Jim Rapoport (2-5, SB) joined Lowrie and Sorgi with multiple-hit games for the Cardinal, while John Hester knocked in a pair of runs. Minaker extended his career-best hit streak to 10 in a row.
Arizona reliever David Coulon (3.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 SO) was credited with the victory to improve to 3-2, while Cardinal reliever Blake Holler (1.2 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO) took the loss to fall to 6-3. Mark Melancon (1.2 IP, 1 BB) picked up his ninth save of the campaign by getting the final five outs.
Arizona struck first on Van Houten's two-out solo homer in the top of the first inning but Stanford got a run of its own in the bottom half of the first when Lowrie doubled home Mayberry, who had walked with two outs and no one on base.
Arizona came right back in the top of the second with another run to take a 2-1 lead. Chris Frey and Jason Donald led off the inning with back-to-back singles with Frey moving up to third when Cardinal rightfielder Michael Taylor made an error trying to field Donald's roller to right. Frey would score on the next play when Decater narrowly beat out a potential inning-ending double play for an RBI fielders choice.
Stanford tied the score at 2-2 in the bottom of the third when Lowrie and Mayberry came through again with two-out heroics. Mayberry walked with two outs and no one on for the second consecutive at bat, stole second and scored when Lowrie lined a clutch RBI single into right field.
The deadlock did not last long when the Wildcats erupted with their six-run fourth to take an 8-2 advantage. After Holler retired Decater to lead off the inning, he hit Kervin with a pitch and the floodgates opened. Crowe followed with a single and then made a nice read on a wild pitch in the dirt to give the Wildcats runners on second and third base with one out. Boyer then came through with a clutch two-run double down the right field line to break the tie and chase Holler. Greg Reynolds came on to strikeout Van Houten for the second out and got Brown to hit a grounder to Lowrie. But with the Cardinal playing Brown to pull with a shift, Lowrie's long throw from his backhand side ended up pulling Mayberry off the bag at first base for a throwing error and Boyer came all the way around from second to score. Hundley and Frey then singled and walked to load the bases before Brown scored on a passed ball by Hester and Decater capped the inning with a two-run single.
Arizona added another run in the top of the fifth that the Wildcats would eventually need to maintain the lead when Kervin doubled to lead off the inning, moved to third on a groundout by Crowe and scored on Boyer's sacrifice fly.
Stanford started its comeback with a four-run fifth inning that Sorgi started with a one-out solo homer. Minaker got the Cardinal going again when he followed with a single that chased Arizona starter Sean Rierson (4.1 IP, 7 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO) and Mayberry doubled to give the Cardinal runners on second and third with one out and a run already in on Sorgi's blast. Lowrie came through with his third run-scoring hit in as many at bats when he singled home Minaker and Taylor drew a walk to the load bases. Hester came up with a clutch two-RBI single to end a short relief appearance for Brad Mills, who allowed two runs on three hits and a walk without getting an out. Coulon came on to retire the final two batters to finally end the inning.
Stanford would pull within a run by scoring two more times in the bottom of the sixth to cut the Arizona lead to 9-8. Chris Lewis and Sorgi started the inning with back-to-back singles and the Cardinal ended up with runners on second and third base after the next batter when Lewis stayed alive in a rundown long enough to allow Sorgi to move to third and Minaker to advance to second after his fielders choice grounder to Kervin at third. Mayberry followed with an RBI single but was thrown out trying to advance to second when Hundley came up firing to second after Frey threw all the way home in an attempt to throw Minaker out at the plate. Lowrie then hit a grounder that went through Kervin's legs to allow Minaker to score the final Cardinal run.
Arizona added two insurance runs in the seventh. Decater drew a leadoff walk and was sacrificed to second by Kervin before Crowe came up with a clutch RBI triple and Boyer followed with a run-scoring single.
Sorgi singled with one out in the eighth in hopes of starting a Cardinal rally but Melancon entered the game and retired both Minaker and Mayberry.
Lowrie also drew a leadoff walk in the ninth but Melancon steadied and retired the last three batters he faced to close out the contest.Stanford's loss dropped the Cardinal into a tie for fifth-place in the Pac-10 standings with California (11-10 Pac-10). Second-place Arizona's victory coupled with USC's win over league-leader Oregon State (19-5 Pac-10) on Sunday kept the Wildcats' hopes of a co-Pac-10 title alive. USC (13-8 Pac-10) moved remained in sole possession of third-place with its win over the Beavers and is followed by Arizona State (12-9 Pac-10), Stanford and California, Washington (9-12 Pac-10), UCLA (4-17 Pac-10) and Washington State (1-20 Pac-10).
Stanford will next visit third-place and No. 21 USC (34-18, 13-8 Pac-10) in a three-game Pac-10 series in Los Angeles that will conclude the 2005 regular season for both clubs next Friday-Sunday, May 27-29 (7 pm, 2 pm, 1 pm, PT).
The brackets for the 2005 NCAA Division I Baseball Championship will be announced live on ESPN2 during the tournament's selection show on Monday, May 30 (8:30 am, PT). The 16 NCAA Regional host sites will be revealed on Sunday, May 29 (12 pm, PT).
"If we get into the postseason, we're going to approach it like a new season," said Sorgi.
"We just have to really get hot at the right time and put together a consistent stretch of good baseball," added Lowrie about the team's final regular season series and its postseason hopes.
"We're capable of playing well in the postseason and beating anyone on a given day, but we're also capable of getting beat by anyone," concluded Marquess. "We know what it takes to play against good teams, because we have done that this year."
STANFORD NOTES
Despite making two errors, Stanford 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 19 earned runs in the series, Stanford's pitching staff still has a 3.82 season ERA as the Cardinal is looking to record an ERA under 4.00 for the fourth time in the last six campaigns
Chris Minaker extended his career-best hit streak to 10 games
John Mayberry, Jr.'s three runs scored were a season-high
Jed Lowrie equaled his season-high with three hits
Stanford has now lost three consecutive series to Arizona (two-of-three in each) after taking the previous 13 series in a row against the Wildcats
Stanford finished with a 22-10 regular season record at Sunken Diamond in 2005