April 17, 2006
Stanford, Calif. - San Francisco (24-15) handed Stanford (15-15) its season-high-tying fourth straight loss with a 9-4 victory over the Cardinal in a non-conference contest at Sunken Diamond on Monday. The Dons trailed 3-1 after five innings before scoring eight of the game's last nine runs. Scott Cousins (3-3, 2B, 2 RBI, 2 SB) led an 11-hit San Francisco offensive attack, while relievers Cole Stipovich (3.0 IP, 4 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO) and John Quine (1.2 IP, 1 H, 2 BB, 1 SO) held the Cardinal to one run and five hits over the final 4.2 innings. Stipovich (1-1) earned his first career win for the Dons, while Quine recorded his third save.
Ryan Seawell (2-3, RBI, SB), Chris Lewis (2-4, 2B, RBI) and Jason Castro (2-4) had two hits each for the Cardinal.
Mitchell Bialosky (2-5, 2 RBI), Stefan Gartrelll (2-5, RBI), Joey Railey (2-6, HR, RBI) added two hits apiece for San Francisco.
Railey set the tone when he homered to lead off the contest against Stanford starter Max Fearnow (4.1 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 3 SO) but Fearnow would not allow another run for the remainder of his first collegiate start and longest outing of his career.
Stanford evened the game at 1-1 with an unearned run in the bottom of the second. Michael Taylor reached on an error by Dons' shortstop Andrew Smith to start the inning and Castro drew a walk from San Francisco starter Brian Anderson (4.1 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO) to put Cardinal runners on first and second with no outs. Randy Molina moved the runners to second and third with a successful sacrifice bunt before Lewis smacked a single through the left to score Taylor but Castro was put out on the play when he overran third.
The Cardinal showed some offensive fire in the fifth to take a short-lived 3-1 lead. Lewis got things going with a well-hit double to leftcenter field and Brent Milleville drew a walk before Cord Phelps sacrificed the runners to second and third. Seawell and pinch-hitter John Hester then followed with back-to-back RBI singles to end Anderson's outing and greet Stipovich, respectively. But, Stipovich recovered to force Chris Minaker into a rally-ending double play.
The Dons came right back with three runs in the top of the sixth to take a lead they would never relinquish. Losing pitcher Nolan Gallagher (2-3) walked Cousins to spark the San Francisco uprising before giving up a single to Gartrell, and hitting a pair of batters to bring in the first Dons' run of the frame. Gallagher (0.2 IP, 1 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB) was then relieved by Erik Davis (1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO), who got pinch-hitter Luke Sommer to foul out before allowing two of the three runners he inherited to score on an RBI single by Bialosky and an RBI fielders' choice from George Lujan.
Both of USF's insurance runs in the seventh were charged to Davis, who walked Smith to start the inning and gave up an RBI double to Cousins before being relieved by Sean Ratliff (3.0 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 4 SO). Gartrell greeted Ratliff with an RBI single for the second run of the frame.
The Dons took advantage of a pair of Stanford errors to add an unearned run in the eighth. The Cardinal nearly got out of the inning without any damage when Ratliff struck out Railey and Smith after there were bases loaded with no outs, but Cousins came up with an RBI infield single to get the Dons a run.
Stanford managed to pick up one run in the eighth on three singles from Castro, pinch-hitter Brian Juhl and Milleville.
The Cardinal also put two runners on in the ninth but couldn't score before Quine retired Castro on a grounder to Lujan at second base to end the contest.
Stanford returns to action at Sunken Diamond with a non-conference game versus Sacramento State (17-22) on Tuesday at 5 pm, PT. The Cardinal gets back to Pac-10 play with a three-game series at Arizona (15-18, 3-6 Pac-10) this Friday-Sunday, April 21-23 (7 pm, 6 pm, 12 pm, MT).