April 8, 2006
Stanford, Calif. - Stanford (14-11) beats San Jose State (22-14) by the score 13-3 in a non-conference match-up at Blethen Field. The game was a make-up of the March 7 contest that was rained out. The Cardinal had a season-high 18 hits in the win and were led by John Hester, with two doubles and a career-high four hits, and Chris Minaker, with two doubles and a home run. Brendan Domaracki, in his first official start of the season, had a key three-run homer in the sixth inning to break open the game and finished with a career-high three RBI.
Greg Reynolds (2-2) notched the victory, limiting the Spartans to two runs (one earned) and only three hits in 6.0 innings of work. Branden Dewing (5-3) took the loss for San Jose State.
"Greg Reynolds pitched well and did a good job," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "It was big for us to get a win."
Hitters all throughout the Stanford lineup were able to contribute to the Cardinal's offensive outburst. Six difference Stanford players had multi-hit games, including Hester (4-5), Minaker (3-6), Domaracki (2-4), Ryan Seawell (2-4), Chris Lewis (2-5) and Jason Castro (2-2). Seven of Stanford's 18 hits were doubles, which set a new season-high.
"It was nice that we hit," commented Marquess. "We really needed that."
Ryan Angel was the only San Jose State hitter to collect more than one hit, going 2 for 4.
Stanford's big inning came in the sixth when ten hitters came to the plate. Chris Lewis and Jason Castro got the Cardinal started with a triple and a walk off of San Jose State reliever Josh Amberson. Domaracki brought them home with his first-pitch home run down the right field line. Cord Phelps continued the rally with a single and, after being sacrificed to second, scored on Hester's double to left center. Hester later came around to score on Michael Taylor's double down the left field line. Randy Molina followed with a walk before Loren Moneypenney relieved Amberson to get a groundout and finally end the inning.
"Domaracki has really worked hard," said Marquess. "His home run was a huge hit for us and really gave us a good lead."
San Jose State got on the board first in the game with a run in the bottom of the first. Ryan Angel led off the game for the Spartans with a double to deep right field and was moved to third be a sacrifice bunt. He scored on next pitch on an RBI sac fly to left field off the bat of Sam Hall.
The Spartans added another run in the second inning by taking advantage of two errors by the Stanford Cardinal. The first batter in the inning, Raul Campos, reached base on a throwing error by the Stanford shortshop Minaker. Campos advanced to second base on a wild pitch before Reynolds retired the next two San Jose State batters. It looked like Stanford would get out of the inning unscathed as Reynolds then induced a routine groundball to short that Minaker fielded cleanly, but first baseman Brent Milleville failed to field the throw for the second error of the inning, which allowed the runner to score from second.
Stanford evened the score at 2-2 with two runs in the top of the third on a 2-RB I double to right center by Minaker to score Seawell and Hester who had reached earlier in the inning on a walk and a single.
Stanford broke the tie game with a single run in the top of the fifth inning off of the Spartan starter Dewing. Seawell led off the inning with a double, advanced to second on a sacrifice bunt and then scored easily on a double to deep center field by Minaker. A walk to Taylor then brought Molina to the plate. During Molina's at-bat, San Jose State head coach Sam Piraro was ejected from the game after arguing a check swing called a ball by home plate umpire Jason Venzon. Molina finished the at-bat by grounding into a double-play that ended Stanford's rally.
Stanford added two runs in the seventh and two in the eighth to lengthen the lead to 12-2. The Cardinal scored their final run of the contest with a solo home run by Minaker in the top of the 9th, which was his fifth of the season.
San Jose State put together a small rally in the bottom of the ninth to score a run off of Stanford's Jeremy Bleich. Ryan Angel worked a walk before consecutive singles by pinch hitter Chris Williammee and Donato Giavanatto loaded the bases. Nick Epidendio then drove in Angel with a sacrifice fly to left. Ben Agatep hit another single through the hole in the left side to reload the bases before Bleich retired Aaron Loewenthal on a groundout to end the game.
Stanford is next at Santa Clara on Monday, April 10 (6pm, PT) before returning to Sunken Diamond on Tuesdasy, April 11 to face San Francisco (6pm, PT). The Cardinal returns to Pac-10 action at defending conference champion and 2005 College World Series participant Oregon State (Thursday-Saturday, April 13-15, 5 pm, 5 pm, 1 pm, PT).