Feb. 13, 2007
Stanford, Calif. - Stanford scored three times in the bottom of the first inning and five Cardinal pitchers allowed just one run and five hits in a 5-1 exhibition victory over Rikkio University of Japan on Tuesday at Sunken Diamond. Jason Castro (3-4, 2 2B, RBI) had three hits for the Cardinal, while Sean Ratliff (2-4, 2B), Michael Taylor (2-4, RBI) and Toby Gerhart (2-4) added two each. Ryan Seawell also doubled and had a pair of RBI.
Starter Austin Yount was the winning pitcher in a predetermined pitching rotation, allowing just one hit and striking out one in his 2.0 innings of work. Brandt Walker (2.0 IP, 3 H, 1, 2 BB, 2 SO), Tom Stilson (2.0 IP, 1 BB, 4 SO), Erik Davis (2.0 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 2 SO) and Max Fearnow (1.0 IP, 2 SO) pitched in relief for the Cardinal.
Takafumi Goto (2-4) had two of Rikkio's five hits. Rikkio starter Yasuhiro Kuwazuru (4.0 IP, 7 H, 5 R, 4 ER, 7 SO) took the loss. Yasunori Ozawa shut the Cardinal out over 4.0 innings of relief, spreading out five hits and striking out three.
Ratliff, Gerhart and Taylor started Stanford's three-run first with three consecutive singles to put the Cardinal on the board. Gerhart and Taylor moved to second and third on a double steal before Seawell brought home Gerhart on an RBI groundout and Castro capped the early rally with a clutch two-out RBI double to plate Taylor.
Stanford scored its other two runs of the game in the third. Taylor was given a second chance to hit when Rikkio third baseman Daiki Hayase dropped his foul pop-up and made the Japanese squad pay with a one-out triple. Kuwazuru then hit Brent Milleville before balking to allow Taylor to score. Seawell finished Stanford's scoring for the day with an RBI double.
Rikkio scored its only run of the contest in the fourth when Goto led off with a single, Takahisa Miyoshi came up with a two-out single to keep the inning going and Goto scored when Castro made an error on Walker's pickoff attempt of Miyoshi at first base.
Rikkio would move only one more runner into scoring position for the remainder of the game and pick up only one hit over the final five innings.Stanford (2-3) travels to No. 14 Texas (4-4) for a three-game series this Friday-Sunday, February 16-18 (2:30 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, CT). The series versus Texas will be played at The Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas, due to construction at Disch-Falk Field. The Dell Diamond is the Houston Astros AAA facility and located approximately 19 miles from Austin.
The Cardinal will then return home for 11 of its 12 next contests beginning with a single game versus San Francisco on Tuesday, February 20 (5 pm, PT) before hosting Kansas in a three-game series Friday-Sunday, February 23-25 (5 pm, 1 pm, 11 am, PT).
Tickets for all regular season Stanford Baseball home games are available online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD. For group ticket information (groups of 10 or more), call 650-725-2876.