March 26, 2006
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Stanford, Calif. - No. 17 Stanford (11-9, 0-2 Pac-10) dropped its second straight game to Washington State (20-6, 2-0 Pac-10) to open Pac-10 play and its fourth in a row overall, falling 8-5 on Sunday at Sunken Diamond. The Cardinal took an early 4-1 lead with four runs in the bottom of the first but could manage only one more score the rest of the way off five Washington State relievers.
"They've really played much better than we have in first two games of this series in every phase of the game," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess.
Stanford made things exciting in the bottom of the ninth, when J.J. Jelmini led off with a walk and Jim Rapoport singled two batters later to bring the tying run to the plate, before Ryan Webb retired Minaker on a pop-out and struck out Michael Taylor to end the threat and earn his second save of the season.
The Cardinal also had a shot in the eighth. Trailing just 6-5, Taylor started the rally with a leadoff double and Randy Molina followed by reaching on a walk to put Stanford runners on first and second with no outs before pinch-hitter Brent Milleville, John Hester and Chris Lewis went down in order to end the rally.
Jay Miller (3-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI), Jeff Miller (3-5, RBI) and Ryan Krauser (3-5, 2B) had three hits each to pace a Cougar offense that outhit the Cardinal, 17-6. Paul Gran (2-3, 2B, 2 RBI), Travis Coulter (2-4) and Jim Murphy (2-4) added two hits apiece with Gran also scoring three of the Cougars eight runs.
Taylor (2-5, 2B, RBI) was the only Stanford player with more than one hit, while Lewis drove in a pair of runs and Molina scored twice.
Jayson Miller (2-0) earned the victory as the first Cougar in relief of starter Nick Ison (1.0 IP, 2 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 3 BB), limiting the Cardinal to one run and a pair of hits with three strikeouts in 4.0 frames of work. Josh Williamson (2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 SO), Steve Kost (0.1 IP, 1 BB, 1 SO), Nick Cebula (0.2 IP) and Webb (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 SO) kept the Cardinal scoreless over the final four frames.
Nolan Gallagher (2-1) suffered his first loss of the season, despite allowing just two runs and spreading out eight hits with one walk and five strikeouts over 4.2 frames as the first Cardinal pitcher in relief of starter David Stringer (1.1 IP, 5 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB).
Washington State scored once in the first inning to take a 1-0 lead when Jay Miller started a rally with a two-out double, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI single from Zach McAngus.
Stanford came back with four runs of its own on only two hits in the bottom of the first to go ahead, 4-1, taking advantage of three walks and a hit batsmen in the frame. Rapoport drew a one-out walk to start the rally before back-to-back singles by Chris Minaker and Taylor brought him around to score and tie the contest at 1-1. Ison then hit Molina to load the bases and Jason Castro brought home Minaker with an RBI groundout. Another Ison walk to Hester reloaded the bases. The Cougars had a chance to escape the inning without any further damage when Ison forced Lewis to hit a routine grounder to Gran at shortstop but Coulter was late covering the bag from his second base position, allowing Taylor to score from third and leaving the bags loaded for Jelmini, who drew a bases loaded walk to bring home the fourth Cardinal run before Ison got Joey August to groundout without causing any further damage.
Washington State answered right back to tie the game at 4-4 with a three-run third. Murphy and Krauser singled and doubled to lead off the inning, putting Cougars at second and third with no outs. Stringer then balked Murphy home and walked Greg Lagreid before Gran plated Krauser with a sacrifice fly to cut the Cardinal advantage to 4-3. Coulter then ended a short start for Stringer with a bunt single. Gallagher came on and got Jay Miller to hit into an infield fly before giving up a two-out RBI single to Jared Prince to tie the contest.
Stanford took its last lead of the contest and scored its final run in the third when Molina led off with a single, moved to third two batters later on a double from Hester and scored on a sacrifice fly by Lewis.
Once again, Washington State immediately answered by tying the game at 5-5 with a single run in the fourth. Gran singled to leadoff the inning, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a one-out RBI single from Jay Miller.
Washington State went ahead in the sixth inning when Gran drew a leadoff walk, moved to second on a single from Coulter and scored on Jay Miller's RBI double.
While the Cougars rallied offensively, the team's relievers set down 14 straight Cardinal hitters from Lewis' sacrifice fly with one out in the fourth until Taylor broke the drought with his leadoff double to start the eighth.
Washington State added a single insurance runs in both the eighth and ninth innings for the final 8-5 score. Jeff Miller came through with a clutch two-out RBI single to plate Gran, who had drawn a leadoff walk before moving all the way to third on two sacrifice bunts. In the ninth, Krauser started the inning with a single, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Mike Gilbert and scored on a double by Gran.
"We need to improve in all facets of the game," said Minaker. "We have improve in all areas of the game if we want to get to where we want to go."
The teams will conclude the three-game set on Monday (11 am, PT) with Stanford scheduled to start RHP Matt Manship (0-2, 5.92) on the hill versus Washington State RHP Wayne Daman, Jr. (5-0, 2.38).
"It's obviously an important game," explained Marquess. "You don't want to open league and get swept. Our backs are to the wall, but we try to need to salvage a win tomorrow."
"Tomorrow's game is our focus now," added Minaker. "A good win tomorrow gives us momentum for a good week of practice that will get us ready for USC (next Friday-Sunday). We need to come out intense and ready to play tomorrow."