March 24, 2005
Stanford, Calif. - Matt Leva pitched No. 12 Stanford (13-7) to a 6-1 win over Pacific (11-15) to earn his first victory of the season in a non-conference contest played at Sunken Diamond on Thursday. Leva struck out a career-high-tying six batters in a season-high 6.1 innings of work, allowing only one run on three hits and a walk. Leva (1-1) retired eight in a row twice during his outing, including the final eight batters he faced. John Hester hit his first homer of the season for the Cardinal with a solo shot that started a two-out three-run rally in the bottom of the sixth. Jim Rapoport (2-2), Michael Taylor (2-3, 2B) and Brendan Domaracki (2-4, RBI) each had two hits as Stanford outhit Pacific, 10-4.
"We got an excellent pitching performance from everyone today," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "Offensively, we had timely hitting and did a great job with two outs."
Stanford scored four of its six runs Thursday on a pair of rallies that started with two outs and no runners on base.
Greg Reynolds (1.2 IP, 1 BB, 1 SO) and Matt Manship (1.0 IP, 1 H) backed up Leva with scoreless relief outings.
Brett Manning (2-4, 2 2B) had a pair of doubles and half of Pacific's four hits, while Will Brindza drove in the Tigers' only run as Pacific lost for the eighth time in its last nine games overall.
Pacific starter Luke Massetti (4-3) took the loss, allowing six runs on nine hits and two walks with three strikeouts over the first 5.2 frames.
Stanford started the scoring with a single run in the bottom of the second. Taylor hustled to leg out a double on a line drive hit between Pacific outfielders Matt Berezay and John Joines to give the Cardinal a runner in scoring position before Domaracki lined the first pitch he saw from Massetti into left field to bring Taylor home.
Stanford added two more runs in the third to increase its advantage to 3-0. Rapoport and Adam Sorgi singled and walked to lead off the inning before moving to second and third on a sacrifice bunt by Minaker. Jed Lowrie brought Rapoport home with a sacrifice fly before Mayberry doubled in Sorgi to extend his hit streak to six games.
Pacific responded with its only run of the contest in the fourth when Manning hit the first of his two doubles with two outs and scored on Brindza's RBI single back up the box.
 John Hester is congratulated by teammates after his first homer of the season in a 6-1 win over Pacific on Thursday  | |
The Cardinal finished the game's scoring with its three-run sixth. A long two-out solo shot by Hester well over the left field wall gave the Cardinal a 4-0 lead. Three consecutive singles by Taylor, Domaracki and Chris Lewis plated Taylor with another Cardinal run before Domaracki skirted home from third on a Massetti wild pitch to complete the damage. Pacific reliever Gregg Reynolds came on in relief of Massetti to get the final out.
Pacific reliever Tyler McCready (2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB) kept the Cardinal scoreless over the final two frames.
The contest lasted just two hours and 25 minutes.
Stanford picked up its second straight win over the Tigers this season and has a 15-0-1 record against Pacific the last 16 times the teams have played at Sunken Diamond dating all the way back to February 8, 1977.
Stanford and Sacramento State (7-15-1) will play a home-and-home series this Friday-Saturday, March 25-26. The teams will meet at Sunken Diamond on Friday (6 pm, PT), before traveling to Sacramento on Saturday (2 pm, PT).
STANFORD NOTES
Stanford improved to 11-2 at Sunken Diamond this season and is now 51-8 in its last 59 home games overall
Matt Leva pitched a season-high 6.1 innings and struck out a career-high-tying six batters
John Mayberry, Jr. extended his hit streak to six games and had a season-high 13 putouts
Jim Rapoport extended his career-high hit streak to six games
Jed Lowrie had his six-game hit streak come to an end
Stanford posted its fifth double-digit hit game in its last six contests
Stanford played errorless baseball for the 11th time in 20 games this season
Stanford's pitching staff held opponents to fewer than 10 hits for the seventh time in the last nine games
Stanford head coach Mark Marquess (58) and shortstop Chris Minaker (21) celebrated birthdays on Thursday