Feb. 23, 2007
Post-Game Interviews: Whitlow |Stringer | Marquess
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Stanford, Calif. - Stanford (5-5) scored five runs in the bottom of the first inning and then held on for a 6-5 victory over Kansas (7-2) to open a three-game non-conference series on a cold night at Sunken Diamond. Jeff Whitlow's first career home run over the scoreboard in left field accounted for the final three runs of the rally. Ryan Seawell (2-4, HR, RBI) started the uprising with a leadoff homer before the Cardinal scored a second run on back-to-back singles by Sean Ratliff and Michael Taylor, a walk to Brent Milleville and a Brian Juhl sacrifice fly.
"It felt pretty good," said Whitlow of his homer. "I just put the best swing I could on it."
David Stringer (2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 4 SO) earned his third save of the season by holding the Jayhawks scoreless over the final 2.0 innings after Preston Land had cut the lead to 6-5 on a two-run homer off Cardinal reliever Max Fearnow (1.2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 SO) with no outs in the eighth.
Jeff Whitlow is congratulated by his teammates after his first career homer in a five-run Cardinal first inning |
"We got two big homers in the first inning that obviously put us up early, but give them credit because they got back into it," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We got a run in the sixth that ended up being the winning run and then [David] Stringer came in and gave us a great pitching performance."
"I tried to approach it the same way I would any other game," added Stringer. "But, obviously coming into the game in that situation after that big hit they had is pretty tough. I tried to approach it with the same mind frame and attitude by going in there and attacking with what I have and giving my team the best chance to win ... If they just keep throwing me out there, I'll just keep giving it everything I can."
Stanford starter Nolan Gallagher (1-2) picked up his first victory of the season by limiting Kansas to three runs on four hits and two walks with three strikeouts over the first 5.1 frames.
Kansas starter Zach Ashwood (5.0 IP, 6 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 1 BB, 4 SO) took the loss to fall to 1-1 despite shutting the Cardinal out on just two hits over his final 4.0 innings of work after the five-run first.
Kansas responded to Stanford's first inning by chipping away at the big early Cardinal lead with single runs in the second, third and sixth frames to reduce the margin to 5-3.
Land scored on an RBI single from Buck Afenir after walking with two outs to start a second inning rally and moving to second on another Gallagher walk to Casey Larson.
In the third, the Jayhawks scored again with two outs this time on three consecutive singles by John Allman, Ryne Price and Erik Morrison.
Gallagher's wildness plagued him in the sixth when he hit Morrison and Land to start the inning. He then got Larson to hit into a fielder's choice but dropped a late throw covering first base on a double play attempt, allowing Morrison to score. Fearnow got the Cardinal out of the inning without any more damage by coming on to record the final two outs.
Stanford scored what proved to be the deciding run in the bottom of the sixth. Milleville and Juhl led off the inning with back-to-back singles and were bunted to second and third by pinch-hitter Joey August to set the table for Cord Phelps. Kansas reliever Andres Esquibel got Phelps to pop-up for what seemed to be the second out of the inning but Afenir dropped the ball in foul territory behind the plate to keep Phelps' at bat alive. Phelps then came through with an RBI groundout on the 10th pitch of the at bat to drive in Milleville before the Jayhawks could get out of the inning.
Morrison set up Land's two-run homer in the eighth by leading off the frame with a single and Kansas got a runner into scoring position in the ninth before Stringer retired Land on a fielder's choice to end the contest.
Morrison (3-4, RBI) finished with a game-high three hits for the Jayhawks, who left 10 runners stranded compared to just four by the Cardinal.
Stanford and Kansas continue the series Saturday (1 pm, PT) and Sunday (11 am, PT) with Stanford RHP Jeff Inman (1-1, 6.14) slated to pitch against Kansas LHP Nick Czyz (1-0, 1.93) on Saturday and Cardinal LHP Jeremy Bleich (0-1, 6.89) slated to go against fellow southpaw Andy Marks (2-0, 0.73) on Sunday.
Stanford Baseball will host its first postgame poster autograph session of the 2007 season after Saturday's contest versus Kansas. Tickets for all regular season Stanford Baseball home games are available online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD. Tickets may also be purchased at the Sunken Diamond Ticket Office window one hour before first pitch. For group ticket information (groups of 10 or more), call 650-725-2876.