May 20, 2007
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Stanford, Calif. - Stanford (24-28) won for the fifth time in its last six games with a 10-5 victory over Pacific (14-42) in the rubber game of a three-game non-conference series on Fan Appreciation Day on a gorgeous Sunday afternoon at Sunken Diamond. Erik Davis (4-2) won his second straight outing, allowing just one unearned run and striking out a career-high seven batters in a 7.0 inning outing that equaled the longest of his career.
"This was a really good game," said Davis. "We just wanted to give our fans a good game. I threw strikes and our defense played really well behind me."
"I thought Erik Davis pitched a great game," added Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "That was really the highlight of the game. Plus, we're hitting better now. We've really swung the bats better recently."
Jason Castro (2-3, HR, 3 RBI) and Michael Taylor both homered and drove in three runs as Stanford secured its second straight series victory by taking the last two games of the series from the Tigers after dropping Friday's opener.
Stanford's victory kept the team's hope alive of avoiding its first losing season since 1993. Stanford now needs victories in each of its final four contests to finish the campaign with a 28-28 regular season mark.
"It's a goal," said Davis about trying to finish .500 for the season. "But, we just want to look at it one game at a time."
Jason Castro (2-3, HR, 3 RBI) launched his first homer of the season and drove in a career-high-tying three runs in a 10-5 win over Pacific on Sunday |
Stanford stayed red hot with the bats by collecting 12 hits to record its seventh straight double-digit hit game and 16th in its last 18 contests. Joey August (2-4, 2 RBI, SB), Brent Milleville (2-4) and Toby Gerhart (2-5, RBI) joined Castro with multiple-hit games, while eight of Stanford's nine starters had at least one hit.
Matt Fuson (4-5), Joe Oliveira (3-5) and Justin Baum (2-4, RBI) combined for nine of Pacific's 11 hits.
Stanford led just 2-1 until breaking the game open with an eight-run bottom of the sixth as eight consecutive Stanford hitters reached base and came around to score after the first two hitters in the inning were retired. Cord Phelps got the rally going with a double down the left field line before scoring when Castro followed with an RBI single. Milleville singled to keep the inning going before the runners moved to second and third on a wild pitch from losing pitcher Jason Haar (5.2 IP, 9 H, 7 R, 7 ER, 2 BB, 2 SO). Harr then hit Ryan Seawell to load the bases for August, who came through with a two-run single. Gerhart and Sean Ratliff continued the rally by coming up with back-to-back RBI singles before Taylor capped it with a mammoth three-run homer over the left field wall to give him 10 long balls on the season.
"I didn't see it land," smiled Taylor when asked about the length of the homer after the game. "But, it felt good."
Pacific had an opportunity to strike first in the contest when Zach Chamberlin tripled to lead off the top of the fourth to extend his hit streak to 23 games but was stranded there when Davis struck out the next three hitters.
"My first thought was that I just wanted to limit it to one run," said Davis about the situation. "But, once I got the first guy 0-2, I told myself that I needed to strike him out, and once I did that I wanted to get the other guys. I thought if I could get a zero up on the board right there we could win the game."
"That was huge," added Marquess. "It was a big spot to win."
Stanford responded with two runs in the bottom of the fourth when Castro connected on his first homer of the year with a line drive that left the yard over the right field wall after Phelps had drawn a two-out walk on a 3-2 pitch.
Pacific was able to cut the Cardinal lead in half with an unearned run in the top of the sixth when Castro made an error on Haar's two-out groundball to the Stanford first baseman after Fuson had singled with one out and Baum drew a two-out walk a couple of batters later to extend the inning.
Pacific scored four runs in the eighth off relievers Andrew Clauson (0.1 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 ER, 1 BB) and David Stringer (1.2 IP, 3 H, 1 BB) to make the final score 10-5. Oliveira and Fuson started the inning with back-to-back singles before moving to second and third on Chamberlin's groundout. Baum then drove in the first run of the inning with an RBI single before Haar drew a walk to load the bases. Stringer relieved Clauson and allowed all three runners he inherited to score by walking Greg Murray to force in a run, before giving up an RBI fielder's choice to Mike Walker and an RBI single to John Joines.
Stringer also allowed back-to-back singles to start the top of the ninth to Oliveira and Fuson before inducing Chamberlin into a 6-4-3 double play and retiring Baum on a fly out to center field to end the game.
Stanford will close out its 2007 regular season home schedule with Senior Night against UC Davis next Tuesday, May 22 (6 pm, PT) when the team's lone senior Ryan Seawell will be honored in a pre-game ceremony. Stanford finishes up 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 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.