April 24, 2007
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Stanford, Calif. - San Jose State (25-17) ended an eight-game losing skid against Stanford (16-21) dating back to 2002 with an 11-8 victory over the Cardinal to spoil the opener of a six-game homestand in a non-conference game at Sunken Diamond on Tuesday evening. The Spartans trailed 5-1 after two innings before scoring the next 10 runs of the game, including six in the top of the fifth inning. Marcus McKimmy (4-6) was one of six Spartans with multiple-hit contests as all nine San Jose State starters had at least one of the team's 18 hits. Sean Ratliff (4-5, 2B, 3B, RBI) had a career-high four hits for the Cardinal and also scored three runs.
Other Spartan players with more than one hit included Justin Santich-Hughes (3-4, 2 RBI), John Shaffer (2-3, 2B, 2 RBI), Donato Giovanatto (2-4, 3B, 2 RBI), Ryan Angel (2-5, HR, 2 RBI) and Brian Yocke (2-5).Adam Sorgi (2-4, 2 RBI) and Cord Phelps (2-5, 2 2B) added two hits each for the Cardinal, while Toby Gerhart scored a pair of runs for the first multiple-run contest of his career.
San Jose State reliever Brandon Hennessey (5.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO) picked up the victory to improve to 4-0 on the season, while Steven Vidal (1.0 IP, 1 H, 2 SO) pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his first save of the campaign.
Stanford reliever David Stringer (0-2) took the loss, allowing five runs on five hits while recording just two outs. Brandt Walker (2.2 IP, 1 H, 3 SO) had a solid relief outing as the fourth and final Stanford pitcher, including a career-high three strikeouts all in the eighth inning.
"I haven't been throwing well lately, but I've just been working hard and waiting for my opportunity," said Walker.
Brandt Walker had a nice relief outing on Tuesday night, striking out a career-high three in 2.2 innings |
The game started nicely for the Cardinal as the home team jumped out to a 5-1 lead after the first two innings.
Stanford got on the scoreboard with a pair of runs in the bottom of the first on RBI singles from Joey August and Brian Juhl that plated Ratliff and Gerhart, who had singled back-to-back to start the inning.
San Jose State got one run back in the top of the second when Chris Balatico doubled with two outs and then scored two batters later on an RBI single from Santich-Hughes.
Stanford answered right back with three runs in the bottom of the second to take its 5-1 lead. Adam Gaylord started the rally with a one-out single before Ratliff sent Yocke back to the wall with deep drive to straight away center field. Yocke caught up with the ball and appeared to make a spectacular grab but lost the handle when he crashed into the wall to give Ratliff a double and move Gaylord over to third. The Cardinal scored on the next play when Gerhart's ground ball to Shaffer turned into an RBI fielder's choice when the Spartan third baseman's throw home was just off line enough to allow Gaylord to slide around Santich-Hughes at the plate. Ratliff then scored on a passed ball by Santich-Hughes and Gerhart hustled from first to third on the play, which allowed him to score on the next play when Michael Taylor grounded out to Spartan shortstop Kyle Bellows.
San Jose State would cut the lead to 5-2 on Angel's fourth inning leadoff homer before taking an 8-5 lead with a six-run fifth.
The Spartans knocked Stringer around in a fifth inning that began with Yocke beating out an infield single. McKimmy followed with a single up the middle before both runners scored on a Giovanatto's two-RBI triple off the glove of Gerhart as the Cardinal leftfielder crashed into the wall in the leftcenter field gap. Bellows then singled up the middle to plate Giovanatto before Stringer finally got the first out of the inning when Angel flew out to Ratliff in center field. But Stringer would only last one more batter and was removed after a single by Karson Klauer in favor of Max Fearnow (0.2 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 SO). Fearnow struck out Balatico for the second out of the inning to start his outing before giving up a two-RBI double to Shaffer to allow both of the runners he inherited to score. Santich-Hughes followed with an RBI single to score Shaffer before Fearnow finally got the Cardinal out of the inning by getting Yocke to ground out to Phelps at third base.
"We couldn't stop them, especially in that inning where they scored six runs," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "It's not like we made errors, or we walked them, they just got a bunch of hits in the inning. You've got to get them credit, because they swung the bats."
The Spartans picked up three more runs in the sixth off Cardinal reliever Nolan Gallagher (1.1 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO). Back-to-back singles by McKimmy and Giovanatto and a walk to Bellows loaded the bases with no outs. Gallagher then uncorked a wild pitch to allow McKimmy to score before Angel followed with an RBI single and Klauer came up with an RBI groundout to cap the rally.
Stanford got two runs back in the bottom of the sixth on a clutch two-out RBI single through the right side of the infield. Ratliff had started the inning with a leadoff single before Gerhart hit into an apparent double play that was negated when catcher's interference was called to put Cardinal runners on first and second with no outs. Taylor then fouled out to McKimmy over near the seating area behind first base. Ratliff broke for third after the catch and when McKimmy threw wild in attempt to get Ratliff at third base, Gerhart advanced to second on his throwing error to set the stage for Sorgi two batters later.
The Cardinal inched closer in the seventh with a single run to cut the San Jose State lead to 11-8 when Ratliff tripled with two outs to score Matt Cano, who was making his collegiate debut as a pinch-runner. Pinch-hitter Grant Escue had walked with two outs to bring Ratliff to the plate.
Phelps doubled with one out in the Cardinal ninth but Vidal struck out pinch-hitters Brendan Domaracki and Randy Molina in back-to-back fashion to leave Ratliff in the on-deck circle as the potential tying run.Stanford continues its current six-game homestand by hosting Fresno State in a non-conference contest on Wednesday, April 25 (3 pm, PT).
"It's good after a tough loss to be able to come back and play right away again tomorrow," said Marquess.
Defending College World Series champion Oregon State visits Sunken Diamond for a three-game Pac-10 series this Friday-Sunday, April 27-29 (7 pm, 1 pm, 12:30 pm, PT) before the Cardinal concludes the six-game homestand with a non-conference game against Santa Clara on Tuesday, May 1 (6 pm, PT). The first two games of the Oregon State series will be televised live by Fox Sports Net and CSTV, respectively.
Tickets for the current homestand 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.