May 17, 2005
Stanford, Calif. - Stanford (30-19) rolled to a 10-0 win over Saint Mary's (20-30) in a non-conference game at Sunken Diamond on Tuesday to assure its 12th straight winning season and 57th in the last 59 years. Four Stanford pitchers - Greg Reynolds, Erik Davis, Nolan Gallagher and Matt Manship - combined on the fifth shutout of the year for the Cardinal, striking out a season-high 14 batters without allowing a walk and giving up just four hits. Chris Minaker (3-5, 2B, 2 RBI) and Adam Sorgi (3-5, 2B) had three hits each to lead the Cardinal offense.
"We played well tonight in all aspects of the game," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We got excellent pitching performances, played good defense and had a solid night at the plate."
Reynolds (1-2) won his first game of the season and the third of his career in three outings versus the Gaels as the pitcher of record in a predetermined pitching rotation, allowing just two hits and striking out five in the first 4.0 innings. Davis allowed only one hit and struck out two in his 2.0 frames before Gallagher (2.0 IP, 1 H, 4 SO) and Manship (1.0 IP, 3 SO) finished out the game and also combined to strike out the final seven Gael hitters.
Michael Taylor (2-4, RBI) added a pair of hits for the Cardinal, while John Hester and John Mayberry, Jr. each drove in a pair of runs.Saint Mary's starter Joel Fountain (5-9) suffered the loss, allowing three runs on seven hits and three walks over the first 4.1 innings without striking out a batter.
Adam Bellows (2-3, 2B) was the only Saint Mary's player with more than one hit.
Stanford started its scoring with a run in the bottom of the third when Ryan Seawell walked, moved to second on an infield single by Sorgi and scored on Jed Lowrie's RBI single.
A one-out single by Mayberry plated a pair of runs in the bottom of the fifth to increase Stanford's advantage to 3-0. Seawell started the rally with a leadoff single before a Minaker single two batters later and a walk to Lowrie loaded the bases for Mayberry.
Stanford picked up another run in the seventh to make it 4-0 when Minaker doubled to lead off the inning and scored on Hester's RBI single with two outs.
The Cardinal broke the game open with six runs in the bottom of the eighth. Seawell was once again the rally starter after he was hit by a pitch with one out. Sorgi then doubled before Minaker drove them both in with a two-run single. Lowrie and Mayberry then drew back-to-back walks to load the bases. On the next play, Hester's sacrifice fly was dropped by Gael centerfielder Adam Thompson to allow Minaker and Lowrie to score while moving Mayberry to third and allowing Hester to end up at second. Taylor singled to bring home Mayberry before Jim Rapoport's RBI groundout scored Hester with the final run of the contest.
"It was nice to put a team away late in a game like we did tonight," said Minaker.
Stanford will conclude its 2005 regular season home schedule and current seven-game homestand with an important three-game Pac-10 set versus second-place and No. 8 ranked Arizona this Friday-Sunday, May 20-22 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT) with Friday's series-opener being telecast live by College Sports Television.
"Arizona's a solid ballclub," said Minaker. "But, when we come out and play well we're a good team as well."
Stanford will host promotional events on each day of the series versus the Wildcats, starting with the popular Town & Country Fireworks Show following Friday night's series-opener. The annual Team Appreciation BBQ will take place after Saturday's contest with Fan Appreciation/Senior Day slated for Sunday.
STANFORD NOTES
Stanford's victory was its 30th of the season, giving the Cardinal 12 consecutive campaigns with 30 or more wins as Stanford also assured itself of its 12th straight winning season and its 57th in the last 59 years
Stanford won its 20th consecutive game against Saint Mary's dating back to the last Gael victory over the Cardinal by a score of 1-0 at Sunken Diamond on February 1, 1994
Stanford has won nine of its last 11 home games and is 21-8 at Sunken Diamond this season
Stanford made one error 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
Stanford's pitching staff lowered its ERA to 3.67, marking the lowest it has been this season since it stood at 3.62 following a game against Santa Clara on April 5 ... The team's 3.67 ERA would be the third-lowest the team has recorded in the last 28 seasons (1978 - 2005)
Stanford's pitching staff tossed its fifth shutout of the season
Stanford's pitching staff has now allowed just 19 earned runs in its last 94.1 innings of work over 10 games for a 1.81 ERA during the run
Stanford's pitching staff struck out a season-high 14 batters without giving up a walk
Ryan Seawell scored a career-high three runs
Chris Minaker extended his hit streak to a new career-high seven games
Jed Lowrie extended his hit streak to a season-high-tying six games and has taken over the team's batting average lead with a .328 mark
Greg Reynolds equaled his career-high with five strikeouts
Greg Reynolds improved to 3-0 lifetime versus Saint Mary's
Matt Manship knocked his season ERA back under the 1.00 mark to 0.99 with his scoreless inning
Stanford has outscored its last two opponents by a combined score of 21-1 (UCLA 11-1, Saint Mary's 10-0)