Feb. 3, 2007
Fullerton, Calif. - Stanford (0-2) suffered a heartbreaking 6-5 loss to No. 14 Cal State Fullerton (2-0) despite jumping out to a 5-0 lead over the Titans after the first two and a half innings. Clark Hardman completed the Cal State Fullerton comeback with a one-out RBI single to snap a 5-5 tie in the bottom of the eighth and score Joe Scott with the game-winning run. Titan reliever Adam Jorgensen (1-0) earned the win by shutting out the Cardinal over the final 6.1 innings on just two hits.
Jorgensen struck out seven without walking a batter and allowed only two Stanford runners into scoring position after coming in with two outs in the top of the third to get the Titans out of a jam.
Scott (3-4, 2B) and Hardman (3-5, RBI) had three hits each for the Titans, while Chris Jones drove in a pair of runs with a clutch two-out, two-RBI single in the fifth.
Sean Ratliff (2-5) had a pair of hits for the Cardinal, while Michael Taylor drove in two runs with a first inning triple.
Stanford reliever Max Fearnow (0-1) gave up Hardman's game-winning hit and suffered the loss despite allowing just the one run on three hits and two walks with one strikeout in relief of starter Jeffrey Inman (4.2 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 3 BB, 5 SO). David Stringer got the final two outs of the bottom of the eighth to keep the Cardinal close for one final chance in the top of the ninth.
The Cardinal managed to get a runner into scoring position in its half of the ninth when Joey August reached on a two-out error by Titan first baseman Jake Vasquez and Jorgensen balked pinch-runner J.J. Jelmini to second before retiring Taylor on a groundout to third baseman Evan McArthur for the final out of the game.
Stanford started the game by scoring three runs by the time only four batters had come to the plate. Ratliff and August led off the contest with back-to-back singles before Taylor's big triple hit the chalk down the right field line and plated them both. Austin Yount followed with an RBI groundout to score Taylor.
The Cardinal went ahead 4-0 when Brian Juhl led off the second with a long home run that he pulled just inside the right field foul pole.Stanford knocked Titan starter Jeff Kaplan (2.2 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER) out of the contest with another run in the third. Kaplan hit Taylor to lead off the inning before wild pitching him to second. After recording a pair of outs, he plunked Juhl to keep the inning going and Cord Phelps made him pay with a two-out RBI double.
Stanford's only hits after the third came on a one-out Ratliff single in the fourth and a leadoff single by Grant Escue in the eighth.Inman rolled through three scoreless one-hit innings before running into trouble in the Titan fourth. Vasquez started the rally with a leadoff double before a pair of walks and a wild pitch loaded the bases with no outs. The Cardinal caught a break when Inman induced Jon Wilhite into a run-scoring double play before Inman escaped without any further damage by getting McArthur on a groundout to Phelps at third.
Stanford would not be so fortunate in the fifth when the Titans scored four times to erase the Cardinal lead. Scott started the uprising with a one-out single and Cal State Fullerton would end up scoring two runs on the next play that started when Hardman singled through the right side of the infield. Taylor failed to come up with the ball cleanly in right field, allowing Scott to score from first. Hardman also kept running and eventually came all the way around to score when Taylor, who was charged with two errors on the play, had a hard time picking up the ball before having the ball slip out of his hand when attempting to throw. Joel Weeks restarted the rally with a single and moved to second two batters later on a John Curtis single before Jones tied the game by capping the rally with his two-run double.
Fearnow got the final out of the fifth and kept the Titan bats quiet in the sixth and seventh before Scott doubled with one out in the deciding eighth frame to set up Hardman's game-winning hit.
The teams are scheduled to conclude the series on Sunday with Stanford LHP Jeremy Bleich slated to pitch against Cal State Fullerton RHP Sean Urena.