May 15, 2005
Stanford, Calif. - No. 21 Stanford (29-19, 10-8 Pac-10) cruised to an 11-1 victory over UCLA (13-35, 2-16 Pac-10) in the deciding game of a three-game Pac-10 series Sunday on Youth Baseball Day at Sunken Diamond. Jed Lowrie (3-5, 2B, 3 RBI, SB) led the Cardinal offense with three hits and three RBI, while Ryan Seawell hit his first collegiate homer as a pinch-hitter in the bottom of the eighth inning. Stanford starter Matt Leva (4-2) earned the victory, giving up just one run on two hits and a pair of walks with five strikeouts over a season-high-tying 6.1 innings.
"It was definitely good to go out and get a win today after they snuck one away from us yesterday," said Lowrie. "We've got to keep building momentum going into next weekend's series versus Arizona. We just need to continue to play good baseball, and we can be where we want to be."
"We got some runs early and a great pitching performance today," offered Stanford head coach Mark Marquess.
Adam Sorgi (2-5, 2B, 2 RBI) and Chris Minaker (2-6, 2B, SB) both added two-hit days for the Cardinal.
Blake Holler pitched 2.2 scoreless innings for Stanford to finish the contest, allowing just one hit and equaling his career-high with five strikeouts.
Stanford continues its current seven-game homestand that will conclude the team's 2005 regular season home schedule with a non-conference contest versus Saint Mary's on Tuesday, May 17 (6 pm, PT). Second-place Arizona comes to The Farm for an important three-game Pac-10 set next Friday-Sunday, May 20-22 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT) with Friday's series-opener being telecast live by College Sports Television.
Stanford will host promotional events on each day of the Arizona series, starting with the popular Town & Country Fireworks Show after the opener on Friday, May 20. The annual Team Appreciation BBQ will take place after Saturday's contest with Fan Appreciation/Senior Day slated for Sunday.
The Cardinal jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning on Sunday when Minaker, Lowrie and John Mayberry, Jr. had three consecutive doubles off UCLA starter and losing pitcher Brant Rustich (2-5), who allowed Stanford's first four runs on five hits and four walks with one strikeout in 3.0 innings.
Stanford increased its lead to 4-0 in the third. Mayberry was hit for the first of two times before John Hester moved him to second with a sacrifice bunt. Michael Taylor then singled to give the Cardinal runners on first and third before a double by Jim Rapoport brought home Mayberry. Chris Lewis scored Taylor two batters later with a sacrifice fly.
UCLA's only run of the contest came when Matt Sharp connected on his first career homer, a solo shot with one out in the fifth that broke up both a no-hitter and a shutout for Leva, who had retired 13 in a row after issuing a walk to Josh Roenicke to start the game.
Matt Leva allowed just one run and two hits in a season-high-tying 6.1 innings of work on Sunday versus UCLA |
"I thought I had really good location today, especially with my fastball," explained Leva.
Stanford picked up three more runs in the seventh to go ahead, 7-1, with a two-RBI bases loaded single from Lowrie capping the rally. Rapoport led off the inning with a walk before Summerhays was hit by a pitch to put Cardinal runners on first and second with no outs. Lewis struck out when he bunted a third strike foul trying to move the runners up but Sorgi came through with an RBI single to score Rapoport and Minaker singled to left to load the bases for Lowrie.
The Cardinal tacked on its final four runs in the bottom of the eighth with the first three coming on Seawell's three-run shot over the left wall. Lewis and Sorgi gave the Cardinal its final run with back-to-back doubles.
"It felt really good," said Seawell of his first collegiate homer.UCLA used six pitchers in the contest with the Cardinal scoring at least one run off all of them.
No Bruin player had more than one hit and Chris Jensen (0-4) had his career-high 18-game hit streak snapped.
Stanford's victory kept the Cardinal in fifth-place in the Pac-10 standings. Third-ranked Oregon State leads the conference with a 17-4 Pac-10 record after completing a three-game sweep at Washington with a 3-1 victory in 10 innings over the Huskies on Sunday. Arizona (13-4, 2.0 GB) is currently in second-place after evening its series at Arizona State with a 16-7 victory over the Sun Devils on Sunday. USC (12-6, 3.5 GB) completed a three-game sweep of Washington State with a 7-2 victory over the Cougars on Sunday and is third in the standings, followed by Arizona State (11-6, 4.0 GB), Stanford (10-8, 5.5 GB), California (11-10, 6.0 GB), Washington (7-11, 8.5 GB), UCLA (2-16, 13.5 GB) and Washington State (0-18, 15.5 GB).
STANFORD NOTES
Stanford extended its series victory streak over UCLA to nine in a row by winning two-of-three contests in the series
Stanford has now also won eight straight season series against UCLA
Stanford has won eight of its last 10 games and two consecutive series at Sunken Diamond
Stanford played errorless baseball for the 22nd time in 48 contests this season to maintain 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
Stanford's pitching staff lowered its ERA to 3.74, the lowest its been since it stood at 3.70 after the first game of a doubleheader April 9 versus Oregon State as the Cardinal is attempting to record a team ERA under 4.00 for the fourth time in the last six seasons
Ryan Seawell's eighth inning pinch-hit homer was the first longball of his career and he also tied a career-best with three RBI
Stanford had at least one hit from each of the nine spots in its batting order
Blake Holler equaled his career-high with five strikeouts
Jed Lowrie finished the UCLA series with a .545 batting average (6-11), five RBI and a stolen base
Chris Minaker hit safely in his sixth consecutive contest to tie the longest hit streak of his career
John Mayberry, Jr. was hit by a pair of pitches to equal the most times in a game a Stanford player has been hit this season
Stanford was hit by three pitches as a team to tie a season-high
The three hits allowed by the Stanford pitching staff tied a season-low
Stanford's pitching staff allowed just four earned runs in 27.0 innings of work in the UCLA series for a team ERA of 1.33 and also held UCLA to a team .186 batting average
Stanford was mathematically eliminated from winning its third straight Pac-10 title after Oregon State picked up its 17th conference win on Sunday