April 1, 2007
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Stanford, Calif. - UCLA (13-14, 3-0 Pac-10) completed a three-game sweep of Stanford (13-12, 0-3 Pac-10) with a 10-4 victory over the Cardinal on Sunday in the finale of a Pac-10 series at Sunken Diamond. The sweep marked the first time Stanford had been swept in a regular season home series since Arizona State took three in row against the Cardinal from April 11-13, 1997.
Cody Decker (3-4, 2B, HR, 4 RBI) had another big day for the Bruins to lead the offense. Gabe Cohen (2-5, 2 2B, 2 RBI), Ryan Babineau and Brady Dolan each drove in two to account for the other six Bruin runs with Babineau's two-run homer in the fourth his first of the season. Brandon Crawford scored three times.
Adam Sorgi (3-5, 2B, RBI) posted his first three-hit game of the campaign for the Cardinal, while Joey August hit his first homer of the season with a two-run shot in the bottom of the first that extended his career-high hit streak to 11 games and gave the Cardinal an early 2-0 lead.
"I was happy the way we came out today in the first inning, but unfortunately we couldn't carry it over to the rest of the game," said August.
Gavin Brooks (3-3) earned the victory with 8.0 solid innings of work, striking out eight and limiting the Cardinal to three runs on seven hits and three walks. Brooks gave up all three of his runs in the first 3.0 innings, before allowing just one hit and two walks to the Cardinal over his final 5.0 frames.
Stanford starter Nolan Gallagher (2-3) took the loss, giving up eight runs (six earned) on seven hits and a walk with three strikeouts. Erik Davis, the second of three Cardinal relievers, allowed just one hit and one walk while striking out a career-high-tying five in an impressive 3.0 scoreless inning outing.
"I've been working really hard lately, and I'm feeling like it's really finally starting to pay off for me personally, said Davis. "We're also working really hard as a team right now to try to get better, but we need to step it. Hopefully, once we get it going it's really going to click. We were all little flat this weekend against UCLA, but I'm hoping we're going to go down to Arizona State and really show people how we can play."
The 2-0 lead that August gave the Cardinal in the bottom of the first when he followed a Sorgi double with his two-run blast was quickly erased when the Bruins scored twice in the top of the second on Dolan's two-run bases loaded single. Decker started the rally with a leadoff single but was forced out at second when Gallagher cut him down as the lead runner on Cohen's fielder's choice. Will Penniall followed with a single to move Cohen to second and Gallagher hit Mickey Weisser to load the bases for Dolan.
UCLA went ahead to stay with two more runs in the third on back-to-back two-out RBI doubles by Decker and Cohen after the inning had been kept alive when Crawford struck out swinging for what would have been the third out but reached first base on a wild pitch.
Stanford got one run back in its half of the third when Sorgi led off with a single, moved to second when August walked two batters later and eventually scored on Cord Phelps' clutch two-out RBI single.
The Bruins broke a close game open with a five-run fourth to go ahead, 9-3. Decker, who had three homers and 10 RBI in the series, capped the inning with a three-run homer over the left field wall off Cardinal reliever David Stringer (1.1 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER). Stringer had replaced Gallagher three batters after Stanford's starter had allowed the first two runs of the inning to score on Babineau's homer. The Bruins also took advantage of a two-out error by Stanford shortstop Adam Gaylord to keep the inning alive, as well as a Gallagher walk and an infield hit from Alden Carrithers earlier in the frame.
The score would remain 9-3 until the ninth when the teams traded single runs.
UCLA got one in the top of the ninth off Cardinal reliever Andrew Clauson (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO) when Crawford drew a one-out walk, moved to second on a wild pitch and scored on a two-out RBI double from Cohen.
Stanford scored in its final trip to the plate when reliever Brant Rustich (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO) hit Sean Ratliff and walked pinch-hitter Jason Castro to start the inning before allowing Ratliff to eventually score two batters later on an RBI single from Sorgi.
"Hats off to UCLA," said August. "They played better than we did in every facet of the game this weekend."
Stanford will hit the road for a three-game series at Arizona State (23-10, 4-2 Pac-10) this Thursday-Saturday, April 5-7 (7 pm, 7 pm, 1 pm, MT/PT). The third game of the series at Arizona State will be televised live by Fox Sports Net Arizona. Stanford will also be at Nevada (Tuesday, April 10, 2 pm, PT) for a non-conference game before returning home to Sunken Diamond to host Arizona in a three-game Pac-10 series Friday-Sunday, April 13-15 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT).
"There is a lot of parity in the Pac-10, as was shown by both us and Oregon State being swept this weekend," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We just need to try to hang in there and go to Arizona State and play some good baseball."
"We've been working really hard, and we're excited to go to Tempe," added August. "I feel like it's really going to start paying off. We can really only go up from where we are right now. We just have to focus on playing relaxed and playing the ball we know we can play, and hopefully prove ourselves to some other people around the Pac-10 and around the country."
Tickets for the upcoming Arizona series and all regular season Stanford Baseball home contests are available online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD. On game days, tickets may be purchased at the Sunken Diamond Ticket Office window beginning one hour before first pitch. For group ticket information (groups of 10 or more), call 650-725-2876.