May 18, 2007
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Stanford, Calif. - Pacific (14-40) scored seven runs in the first three innings and cruised to a 13-7 victory over Stanford (22-28) in the opener of a three-game non-conference series at Sunken Diamond on Friday night. The home season-high crowd of 2262 was treated to the ninth annual Town & Country Village Fireworks Show following the game.
The loss assured Stanford will not finish the 2007 campaign with a winning season to end a string of 13 consecutive winning campaigns. Stanford can still finish with an even .500 record with victories in each of its six final regular season contests.
John Joines (3-4, 4 RBI) led nine Pacific starters that all had at least one of the Tigers' 17 hits. Six other Pacific players - Zach Chamberlin (2-4, 2B, RBI), Greg Murray (2-4, 2B, RBI, SB), Josh Powers (2-4, RBI), Justin Baum (2-5, 2B, RBI), Joe Oliveira (2-6, RBI) and Matt Fuson (2-6) - had a pair of hits each. Murray scored four times, while Baum had three runs scored.
Toby Gerhart (3-5, 2B) had his first career three-hit game for Stanford, while also tying a career-high with two runs scored. Michael Taylor (2-4, 2B) scored a career-high-tying three of Stanford's seven runs, while Adam Sorgi (2-3, 2 RBI) added a pair of hits and was on base in four of his five at bats. Brent Milleville drove in a pair of runs.
Pacific starter Curtis Pasma (2-6) got the victory, spreading out six Stanford runs on 10 hits and three walks with seven strikeouts over 7.0 innings. Curtis Neimeyer (2.0 IP, 2 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 SO) got the final six outs for the Tigers.
Stanford starter Jeffrey Inman (4-4) suffered his second consecutive loss in his second shortest start of the year, allowing seven runs on nine hits with one strikeout in just 2.0 innings. Inman faced four batters in the third without getting an out before he was removed in favor of Tom Stilson (1.0 IP, 1 H), who was the first of four Stanford relievers.
Stanford's problems started early as the Tigers manufactured a run in the top of the first. Oliveira led off the game with a single, advanced to second on an Inman wild pitch, trotted over to third on Fuson's groundout to Sorgi at second and scored on RBI single by Chamberlin.
Pacific got two more runs in the top of the second on back-to-back two-out RBI singles from Powers and Oliveira after Murray and Joines had singled earlier in the inning to put runners on first and third. All but Oliveira's hit were infield singles.
Stanford got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the second when Taylor singled, Sorgi drew his first of two walks and Ryan Seawell came through with an RBI single two batters later.
Pacific opened the game up with four runs in the top of the third. Chamberlin and Baum opened the inning with back-to-back doubles for the first Tiger run. Jason Haar then singled up the middle to plate Baum and Inman hit Murray to put runners on first and second with two runs already across and no outs. Inman threw a strike to Mike Walker before being removed in favor of Tom Stilson (1.0 IP, 1 H), who gave up a two-run single to Joines after Walker had moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt.
Stanford managed a pair of runs in its half of the third to cut the Pacific lead to 7-3. Back-to-back doubles from Gerhart and Sean Ratliff got the Cardinal a run. Ratliff scored the other run of the inning when he came all the way around to the plate from second when Fuson missed his cutoff man throwing the ball back into the infield on a deep fly ball to center field hit by Taylor.
Pacific came back with a run in the top of the fifth to extend its lead to 8-3 when Murray doubled with one out and scored on Joines' two-out RBI single.
Stanford's best chance to get back into the game came in the bottom of the fifth when Jeff Whitlow and Gerhart started the inning with back-to-back singles, but Pasma struck out Ratliff and Taylor back-to-back and then retired Sorgi on a foul out to get out of the jam unscathed.
Pacific added to its lead with four more runs in the sixth to extend its lead to 12-3, taking advantage of a key Cardinal error that led to three unearned runs. Reliever Austin Yount (3.0 IP, 5 H, 5 R, 2 ER, 3 BB, 1 SO) didn't help his own cause either with a pair of critical walks in the frame. Fuson started the rally with a leadoff single and the Tigers had runners on first and second with one out after a Baum single two batters later. Yount then walked Haar to load the bases and Murray to force in a run before a potential home-to-first double play turned into a pair of Tiger runs when Milleville threw wildly to the plate. Joines brought in the final run of the inning with an RBI groundout.
Stanford put together a three-run seventh inning rally to close the gap to 12-6 with a two-out, two-RBI single by Milleville capping the rally, but it was far too little and too late. Sorgi drew a bases loaded walk for the first run of the inning after singles by Brian Juhl and Gerhart, as well as a walk to Taylor had loaded the bases.
The teams traded ninth inning runs to close out the scoring as fans waited patiently for the post-game fireworks show.
Pacific scored an unearned run without the benefit of a hit. Kyle Thompson (1.0 IP, 1 R, 2 BB) hit Chamberlin, and walked Baum and Hair to load the bases before a throw from catcher Jason Castro hit Murray in the back on his way to first on the back end of an potential inning-ending 1-2-3 double play to allow Baum to score from second on the play.
A two-out Taylor double and subsequent RBI single from Sorgi gave the Cardinal a ninth inning score before Neimeyer struck out pinch-hitter Randy Molina to end the contest.
Stanford and Pacific will continue the series in Stockton on Saturday (3 pm, PT) before returning to Sunken Diamond for Sunday's series finale on Fan Appreciation/Senior Day (1 pm, PT).Stanford will close out its 2007 regular season home schedule against UC Davis next Tuesday, May 22 (6 pm, PT) before ending its 2007 regular season campaign with a three-game Pac-10 series at USC next Friday-Sunday, May 25-27 (7 pm, 1:30 pm, 1 pm, PT).
Tickets for both remaining Stanford Baseball home games are available at the Sunken Diamond Ticket Office beginning one hour before first pitch or online at gostanford.com. Tickets for Tuesday's contest against UC Davis are available at the Sunken Diamond Ticket Office, as well as online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD. For group ticket information (groups of 10 or more), call 650-725-2876.