Feb. 10, 2006
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Stanford, Calif. - Kansas (5-1) pulled off an 8-2 upset of No. 19 Stanford (3-1) in the opener of a three-game non-conference series on Friday night at Sunken Diamond. The contest was tied 2-2 when John Allman came through with a clutch two-out RBI single in the top of the eighth inning to score Jared Schweitzer with what proved to be the game-winning run. The Jayhawks scored five more times in the ninth for the final margin. The victory was the first for Kansas in seven tries against the Cardinal.
Gus Milner (2-5, 2B, HR, 4 RBI) led the way offensively for Kansas, while five teammates also had a pair of hits as the Jayhawks outhit the Cardinal, 14-4. Schweitzer (2-5, 2 RBI), Allman (2-4, RBI) and Ritch Price (2-5, RBI) accounted for the team's other four runs driven in, while Erik Morrison (2-4, 2B) and Matt Baty (2-5, 2B) each had a double as part of their two-hit games.
Kansas starter Sean Land (2-0) earned the victory, limiting the Cardinal to just two runs and three hits with four strikeouts and a walk over a career-best 7.0 innings. Don Czyz, who entered the game with the Jayhawks ahead just 3-2 going into the bottom of the eighth, struck out four over 2.0 scoreless frames to earn his second save of the campaign.
Chris Minaker provided Stanford's lone offensive highlight of the night with a two-run homer in the third that gave the Cardinal an early 2-0 advantage. Brian Juhl, who had singled to lead off the inning two batters earlier, also scored on the blast.
Stanford starter Greg Reynolds (6.0 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 9 SO) had a solid outing, holding the Jayhawks scoreless and hanging on to a 2-0 lead until Milner came through with a clutch two-RBI double in the sixth plating Baty and Price to tie the score.
"The last inning got away from a little bit, but I felt I gave my team a chance to win tonight," said Reynolds, who was one shy of his career-high for strikeouts. "Sometimes, it's just not going to work out."
Losing pitcher David Stringer (1.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 SO) tossed a scoreless seventh inning before being charged with the game-winning Kansas run in the eighth. Making his first collegiate appearance, the local Palo Alto High School product retired Baty to begin the ninth but was removed after back-to-back hits from Price and Schweitzer put Jayhawks on first and second with one out. Jeremy Bleich (0.2 IP, 1 H) entered the game and got Milner to ground a ball to Cardinal third baseman Cord Phelps, who stepped on the bag for the second out of the inning before throwing wildly to first base to miss out on a possible inning-ending double play. Allman made the Cardinal pay when he grounded a ball up the middle, just by the outstretched arms of Minaker at shortstop to bring Schweitzer home and give the Jayhawks their first lead of the night.
Stanford had a chance to tie the contest in the bottom of the eighth but a bad bounce got in the way. Pinch-hitter Joey August walked to lead off the inning and looked to be headed to the plate on a two-out double by Jim Rapoport down the third base line. However, instead of rolling into the leftfield corner, Rapoport's double caromed off the bullpen fence down the left field line and back into shallow left field, forcing August to stop at third. Czyz then got Minaker to hit an inning-ending grounder to Price at shortstop to get out of the jam.
Stanford also hit into a couple of crucial double plays after the leadoff hitter had reached in both the second and fifth frames.
Kansas sealed the comeback with its five-run ninth, scoring the first four runs off Jeff Stimpson (0.2 IP, 4 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 SO) and the final one against Max Fearnow (0.1 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER) in his first collegiate appearance. Morrison started the Jayhawk rally with a leadoff single and Kansas loaded the bases with one-out back-to-back singles from Buck Afenir and Baty. Stimpson got Price to groundout weakly to Chris Lewis at second for the second out but Morrison trotted home to extend the Kansas lead to 4-2, before Schweitzer made it 6-2 with a two-RBI single and Milner turned the contest into a blowout with a two-run homer off Fearnow.
The teams continue the three-game set Saturday (1 pm, PT) with RHP Ricky Fairchild (1-0, 1.80) scheduled to start for Kansas against Stanford RHP Matt Manship (0-0, 10.80). The series concludes Sunday with a special start time of 11 am, PT.
"It will be interesting to see how we bounce back, because we haven't had to do this yet this season," said Reynolds, referring to the three-game Cardinal sweep of then No. 5 Cal State Fullerton last Friday-Sunday. "We need to come back tomorrow and Sunday and get a couple of wins."