April 28, 2006
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Stanford, Calif. - Stanford (18-18, 4-9 Pac-10) clicked on all cylinders in a 7-1 victory over No. 16 Arizona State (28-15, 7-6 Pac-10) in the opener of a three-game Pac-10 series that was televised live nationally by College Sports Television on a warm night at Sunken Diamond. Greg Reynolds (4-3) tossed the first complete game of the season for the Cardinal and also went the distance for the first time in his collegiate career. Chris Lewis (4-5, 2B, 3B) had a career-high four hits and Chris Minaker (3-5, 2B, 3B, 3 RBI) added three hits and in addition to driving in three runs to lead the offense, while Michael Taylor (2-4, 3B, 2 RBI) and Cord Phelps also drove in a pair of runs.
Preston Paramore provided Arizona State's only scoring with a solo homer with one out in the fifth inning.
Arizona State starter Josh Satow (3-1) suffered his first loss of the season and was lifted after facing four batters in the bottom of the first inning without recording an out.
Stanford jumped out to a 6-0 lead after four innings before Paramore's long ball and added the final run of the night for either team in the sixth.
The Cardinal scored a pair of runs in the bottom of the first on back-to-back RBI singles by Minaker and Taylor after Ryan Seawell had started the frame with a single and moved to third on a Lewis double. Pat Bresnehan (3.1 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 3 SO) relieved Satow and got the Sun Devils out of the jam without any further damage.
Stanford added another run in the second when Lewis singled with one out and scored on Minaker's triple.
Cord Phelps put the Cardinal ahead, 5-0, with his clutch two-out, two-RBI single to score Randy Molina and Jim Rapoport, who had walked and singled after two were out before moving up on a wild pitch by Bresnehan.
The Cardinal chased Bresnehan and took a 6-0 lead in the fourth when Lewis tripled but was thrown out at the plate on the next play before Taylor tripled home Minaker.
While the Cardinal was putting its runs on the board, Reynolds was shutting out the Sun Devils before Arizona State got its only run on Paramore's third homer of the season, the last hit Reynolds would allow as he retired 13 of the final 15 batters he faced. Andrew Romine would be the only Arizona State player to get on base after Paramore's blast, reaching base on a Reynolds' error in the sixth and drawing a ninth inning walk.
"This is what we're used to with Stanford Baseball," said Reynolds about the team's performance on Friday. "We just got the momentum going tonight and the results were much different than they have been recently."
"We were all up for this game," Reynolds added. "This is the perfect game you envision for Stanford Baseball. The weather was nice, we were on national television, and we throw six runs on the board in the first four innings. That's what you think we would be doing all season. It's nice to see that we're starting to turn it around now."
"This win was crucial for us because we have to get some momentum going in the second half (of Pac-10 action)," said Lewis. "We had a poor first half (of Pac-10 action)."
"What's been so frustrating has been that we know we're not a last place time," added Minaker. "We're not a team that can't hit or can't play defense. We are a talented baseball club and tonight it was great to finally play at level of expectation we have for ourselves."
The teams continue the series on Saturday and Sunday with start times scheduled each day for 1:00 pm, PT. A battle of lefthanded pitchers is scheduled for Saturday between Stanford's Jeremy Bleich (2-3, 3.23) and Arizona State's Jeff Urlabu. Neither team has announced a probable starting pitcher for Sunday's series finale.