May 2, 2006
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San Jose State Spartans (30-17, 9-6 WAC)
at
Stanford Cardinal (19-20, 5-10 Pac-10)
Tuesday, May 2 (6 pm, PT)
TBA vs. LHP Jeremy Bleich (2-4, 3.86)
LIVE GAME COVERAGE: Audio Broadcast (Lee-Ming Zen) | Gametracker |
Webcast
STANFORD-SAN JOSE STATE HISTORY
All-Time Series: Stanford 78-30
2006 Results: Series - Stanford 1-0 (at San Jose State, April 8) Stanford 13-3
2005 Results: Series - Stanford 1-0 (at Stanford, April 19) Stanford 8-2
Series Notes: Stanford has won six straight games overall against San Jose State since the last Spartan victory against the Cardinal, a 12-0 win at Municipal Stadium on May 1, 2002 The Cardinal has taken the last five games between the clubs at Sunken Diamond with the most recent San Jose State victory coming with a 4-1 win on February 29, 2000
THE MATCHUP
Today's game features a pair of teams that played well at times last week with the Cardinal taking two-of-three over No. 16 Arizona State at Sunken Diamond last Friday-Sunday, while the Spartans are coming off a three-game sweep at Nevada Stanford has begun to play better offensively of late with 45 hits and a .328 batting average in the team's last four games to raise its overall batting average to .269 and out of last place in the Pac-10 up to eight The Cardinal is sixth in the Pac-10 in pitching (4.55) and eighth in fielding (.964) San Jose State's success has been fueled by outstanding pitching (3.65 ERA) and fielding (.979) The Spartans are hitting .266 as a team
STANFORD SNAPSHOT
FIVE-SERIES LOSING STREAK SNAPPED - Stanford won two-of-three games against Arizona State in its most recent Pac-10 series this past Friday-Sunday to win its first series in over two months (at Fresno State, 2/24-26) and snap a five-series losing streak (at USC, Washington State, USC, at Oregon State, at Arizona) that was its longest since the Cardinal dropped seven in a row in its final six series of 1993 (at UCLA, Arizona, at Arizona State, at California, UNLV, UCLA), as well as its first series in 1994 (Cal State Fullerton)
CARDINAL DROPS FIRST GAME OF BUSY WEEK AT CALIFORNIA - Stanford dropped the first of its five games scheduled this week on Monday when California scored three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to rally for a 4-3 comeback win over the Cardinal at Evans Diamond on Monday Brennan Boesch drew a bases loaded walk from Stanford reliever Austin Yount to force home Rob Nesbitt with what proved to be the game-winning run California took advantage of two walks and a hit batsman by Cardinal relievers in the inning that started with Jordan Karnofsky's leadoff double and also included an RBI single from Chris Errecart All nine Stanford starters had one hit each
A QUICK LOOK AT THE PAC - Stanford is only 3.5 games out of second-place but still in an unfamiliar last-place spot in the Pac-10 race in last place with its 5-10 conference mark Oregon State (9-3) is in sole possession of first-place and has upped its lead over second-place USC (10-8) to 2.0 games and five games in the loss column, Arizona State, UCLA and Washington are in a three-way tie for third, and followed by Washington State (7-8), California (8-10), Arizona (6-9) and Stanford (5-10)
BUSY SECOND HALF - Rescheduled games caused by earlier weather-related postponed contests and a normally more compacted second half of the schedule have combined to contribute to Stanford having its final 28 games scheduled over the last 42 days of its regular season after playing its first 28 contests in the first 72 days Stanford played 17 games in April and has 17 more scheduled for May with one contest versus Santa Clara still a possibility to be rescheduled
MARQUESS REACHES 13TH ON ALL-TIME LIST - Mark Marquess moved into sole possession of 13th place on the all-time win list for NCAA Division I coaches with Stanford's most recent victory over Arizona State on April 30 He has an all-time record of 1243-610-5 (.670) and is in his 30th season as Stanford's head coach
TWO MORE TV GAMES ON TAP THIS WEEK - After making its 2006 television debut on CSTV last Friday, April 28, the Cardinal will have two more games televised live on Comcast Sports Net and FOX Sports Net Bay Area against California at Sunken Diamond this Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6 (6 pm, PT; 4 pm, PT)
SOGGY SEASON - Stanford has made 11 changes to its schedule this season due to soggy weather but is still on track to get 55 regular season contests in with a possible makeup date at Santa Clara to get to the maximum number of 56 games in a season
COMEBACK KIDS - Stanford has come from behind in 12 of its 18 wins, including six of its last seven victories
OUT OF THE POLLS - Stanford has not been ranked in any of the five major polls (Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA, Rosenblatt Report, USA Today) for the last seven weeks through the polls of May 1
HOT HITTERS - Chris Minaker has a current nine-game hit streak (.450, 18-40, 6 2B, 3B, 12 RBI) with six multiple-hit contests during the stretch The hit streak is two shy of his season-high of 11 and four of short of his career-high of 13 he set in 2005 Minaker (.352, 25-71, 10 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 19 RBI, SB) and Ryan Seawell (.347, 17-49, 3 2B, 5 RBI, 2 SB) put up the team's top offensive numbers in 17 April games
DEFENSIVE WOES - Stanford is fielding at a clip of just .964 after posting a .971 or better mark in each of the past six years to account for six of the top eight fielding percentages in school history The Cardinal has made at least one error in 11 straight games and 16 of the last 17
REYNOLDS WRAP - Stanford ace Greg Reynolds was named the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week on May 2 after throwing the first complete game of his career and the first by a Stanford pitcher this season with a three-hitter in a 7-1 win over Arizona State on April 28 Reynolds has won his last two decisions and three of his last four to lower his ERA from a season-high 4.09 to its current 3.66
STURDY SENIORS - Stanford's four seniors have started all but one game possible between them this season Position players Chris Lewis and Chris Minaker have each started all 39 games with Minaker playing every inning at shortstop, while John Hester has started 38 of 39 behind the plate Pitcher Matt Manship had made starts in the team's weekend rotation for the first 11 weeks before coming out of the bullpen to get a win in his most recent action versus Arizona State on April 30
ROOKIE CLASS - Cord Phelps (26), Joey August (24) and Jason Castro (21) have all started more than half of the team's games, while Brent Milleville (16), Austin Yount (9), J.J. Jelmini (2) and Sean Ratliff (1) have also made starts as position players Jeremy Bleich has a team-high seven saves and had been the team's closer for most of the season before being inserted into the starting rotation each of the last three weeks at Oregon State (4/14) and Arizona (4/21), and versus Arizona State (4/29) Max Fearnow, Ratliff and Yount have also seen action on the hill
IT'S SIMPLE ... HIT THE LONG BALL AND WIN - Stanford is 6-0 in games in which the Cardinal has two or more home runs
STANFORD BASEBALL HISTORY - Stanford has captured two College World Series titles (1987, 1988) and advanced to the CWS 15 times, including 13 appearances in Omaha in the past 24 seasons and a school record five in a row from 1999-2003 when the Cardinal finished as runners-up three times (2000, 2001, 2003) The Cardinal has also won five NCAA Super Regionals, 13 NCAA Regionals and 20 Pac-10 titles Stanford Baseball is in its 113th year of existence with an all-time record of 2476-1543-32 (.615) STANFORD BASEBALL IN THE BIGS - Stanford has sent 74 players on to play Major League Baseball, including six (Joe Borchard - Seattle Mariners Eric Bruntlett - Houston Astros Mike Gosling, Cincinnati Reds John Gall - St. Louis Cardinals Jeremy Guthrie - Cleveland Indians Rick Helling - Milwaukee Brewers Mike Mussina - New York Yankees) that have played in The Show in 2006
STANFORD IN THE MINOR LEAGUES - Stanford has 21 former players currently in Minor League Baseball (Jonny Ash - Corpus Christi Hooks, Houston Astros AA Chris Carter - Tucson Sidewinders, Arizona Diamondbacks AAA Jason Cooper - Buffalo Bisons, Cleveland Indians AAA Scott Dragicevich - Dunedin Blue Jays, Toronto Blue A Advanced Pete Duda - Unassigned, Arizona Diamondbacks Sam Fuld - Daytona Cubs, Chicago Cubs A Advanced Jody Gerut - Unassigned, Pittsburgh Pirates Jeff Gilmore - Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, Seattle Mariners A Mike Gosling - Cincinnati Bats, Cinncinnati Reds AAA Brian Hall - Unassigned, Toronto Blue Jays Jed Hansen - Fresno Grizzlies, San Francisco Giants AAA John Hudgins - Oklahoma RedHawks, Texas Rangers AAA Mark Jecmen - Lake County Captains, Cleveland Indians A Jed Lowrie - Wilmington Blue Rocks, Boston Red Sox A Advanced Donny Lucy - Winston-Salem Warthogs, Chicago White Sox A Advanced John Mayberry, Jr. - Clinton LumberKings, Texas Rangers A Chris O'Riordan - Mobile Bay Bears, San Diego Padres AA Danny Putnam - Midland RockHounds, Oakland A's AA Carlos Quentin - Tucson Sidewinders, Arizona Diamondbacks AAA Mark Romanczuk - Unassigned, Arizona Diamondbacks)
STARS AT SUNKEN - Mike Mussina took in Stanford's game against USC at Sunken Diamond on April 2 and brought teammate (and 2005 AL MVP) Alex Rodriguez with him
RECENT STANFORD RECAPS
Monday, May 1
at California 4, Stanford 3
Sunday, April 30
at Stanford 11, Arizona State 4
Saturday, April 29
Arizona State 11, at Stanford 7
Friday, April 28
at Stanford 7, Arizona State 1
Tuesday, April 25
Santa Clara 6, at Stanford 1 (10)
Sunday, April 23
at Arizona 12, Stanford 3
Saturday, April 22
at Arizona 14, Stanford 4
Friday, April 21
Stanford 10, at Arizona 6