March 4, 2007
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Postgame Inteviews
Marquess | Ratliff
Stanford, Calif. - Stanford (10-5) recorded the 2500th victory in school history with a 9-7 win over California (7-10) to complete a three-game sweep of the Golden Bears at Sunken Diamond on Sunday. Stanford becomes just the fifth school in the history of NCAA Division I Baseball to reach the illustrious number following Fordham, Texas, USC and Michigan. Stanford also extended its season-long win streak to eight games and improved to 9-0 at Sunken Diamond in 2007 to mark the team's best home start since 1993 when the club won its first 10 games at home.
"It speaks for the student-athletes and the coaches that have been here before me," said Marquess about the school's 2500th all-time baseball win. "We've had a lot of good players here and a rich tradition."
Sean Ratliff (3-4, 2B, 3B) scored a career-high four runs and equaled a career-best three hits to lead the Cardinal offense. Ryan Seawell (2-3, RBI) and Brendan Domaracki (2-5, 2 RBI) each added a pair of hits for a Stanford team that had all nine of its starters stroke at least one hit despite being outhit 14-13 overall by California. Cord Phelps added a triple and a pair of RBI for the Cardinal.
"I was very proud of our guys," said Marquess. "We did a good job with the bats today."
Stanford came up with a six-run bottom of the third that equaled its biggest inning of the season and erased an early 4-1 California lead. Adam Sorgi led off the inning with a single before a walk to Ratliff and a single by Domaracki brought Sorgi in with the first Cardinal run of the frame. Michael Taylor then hit into a fielder's choice that turned into another Cardinal run when Josh Satin's throw on the tail end of a potential double play ball skipped by Van Winden at first base to allow Ratliff to scamper around from second. California starter Alex Rollin (2.1 IP, 4 H, 5 R, 5 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO), who suffered his first loss of the season to fall to 3-1, walked cleanup hitter Joey August and was removed from the game in favor of Craig Bennigson (2.2 IP, 6 H, 3 R, 3 ER). Jason Castro greeted Bennigson with an RBI single to score Taylor and tie the contest at 4-4 before Seawell followed with an RBI single to plate August and give the Cardinal a 5-4 lead in a game in which Stanford would never trail in again. Stanford would score two more runs in the inning when Phelps came through with a clutch two-out, two-run triple a couple of batters later.
Austin Yount (2-0) was credited with the win for an effective relief outing, allowing one run on two hits and a walk with one strikeout in relief of starter Nolan Gallagher (3.2 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 2 BB, 4 SO). Stanford used six pitchers in the contest with Blake Hancock (1.0 IP, 1 SO), Max Fearnow (0.2 IP, 3 H), Tom Stilson (0.1 IP) and David Stringer (1.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 1 SO) also seeing action for the Cardinal.
"We've had a couple of lefties in Blake Hancock and Tom Stilson do a great job out of the pen for us this year," explained Marquess. "They did it again today, and I was really pleased."
Charlie Cutler (3-3, RBI) and Jeff Kobernus (3-5) had three hits each for the Golden Bears, while Brett Munster (2-3, 2B) added a pair of base knocks. David Cooper drove in three runs, including two on a ninth inning single that cut a four-run Stanford lead in half to 9-7. Van Winden drove in a pair of runs for California on a two-run double in the third, while Ryan Hanlon provided the game's only long ball when he blasted a solo shot off the scoreboard beyond the left field wall in the first.
The Golden Bears jumped out front 2-0 in the top of the first inning on Sunday with a pair of first inning runs. Stephen Carlson walked and stole second base, before moving third on a groundout by Van Winden and scoring on another one by Cooper. Hanlon's two-out solo shot accounted for the second run.
Stanford got one run back in the bottom of the first when Ratliff led off with a double and Domaracki singled him home.
California scored two more runs in the top of the third to take its early 4-1 lead when Cutler and Carlson led off with back-to-back singles before Van Winden doubled them both home.
The Cardinal added to its six-run third that put Stanford ahead 7-5 with single runs in both the fourth and eighth frames.
Ratliff started the Cardinal fourth with a leadoff single and scored on a two-out RBI single by August three batters later.
In the eighth, Ratliff was the catalyst again when he tripled to lead off the inning and scored on a passed ball charged to Golden Bear catcher Dylan Tonneson.
Sean Ratliff (3-4, 2B, 3B) had a career day for the Cardinal, scoring a career-high four runs and equaling a career-best three hits |
"We clicked today," said Ratliff. "Everybody was swinging the bats and seeing it well. It's big for us to come around with the bats, because we're going to need to drive the ball all year long to get to where we need to be."
California scored once in the seventh when Munster led off with a double and scored on an RBI single from Cutler.
The Golden Bears also mounted a rally against Stringer in the ninth that started when Michael Brady reached on an error by Stanford third baseman Ryan Seawell. Rich Gorman then came through with his first collegiate hit when he doubled to put runners on second and third with no outs. A hot shot two-RBI single by Cooper that one-hopped off the glove of a diving Phelps at second base score both runners. Stringer finally got the first out when he forced Hanlon to hit into a fielder's choice and then struck out Satin for out number two. Kobernus came through with a single to put the potential go-ahead run in the batters' box but Stringer was able to retire Michael Capbarat on a check swing grounder that catcher Brent Milleville picked up in front of the plate and tossed to Castro at first base to end the game.
"This was a big win for us today," finished Marquess. "To get a sweep and to be able to do it two weekends in a row is huge."
Stanford will put its eight-game win streak on the line in a non-conference game at Santa Clara (10-10) next Tuesday, March 6 (6 pm, PT) before returning to Sunken Diamond for a three-game non-conference series against USC (13-7) next Friday-Sunday, March 9-11 (5 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT).
Tickets the upcoming series against USC and all regular season Stanford Baseball home games are also 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 on game days. For group ticket information (groups of 10 or more), call 650-725-2876.