Feb. 18, 2007
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Round Rock, Texas - A series of late inning heroics lifted Stanford (3-5) to a crazy 10-8 victory over No. 14 Texas (6-5) in the finale of a three-game series played before a large crowd of 6633 at The Dell Diamond. Brendan Domaracki's two-RBI single with one out and the bases loaded in the top of the ninth inning snapped a 6-6 tie before the Cardinal picked up two more runs in the frame that the club would end up needing on RBI singles by Ryan Seawell and Brent Milleville.
The victory allowed Stanford to snap a six-game regular season road losing streak to the Longhorns that dated back to 2003.Stanford's ninth inning rally started when Boone walked Jason Castro with one out, allowed a double to Cord Phelps and intentionally walked pinch hitter Randy Molina to set the stage for Domaracki's sharp game-winning liner to left field. Seawell greeted Juston Street (0.2 IP, 2 H) with his RBI single to plate pinch runner Austin Yount and Milleville capped the rally three batters later with a two-out RBI single to bring home Domaracki.
"When I saw them walking Randy [Moilna], I knew it was going to come down to me, so I thought I might as well get a hit," laughed Domaracki. "When I was up there all I was thinking about was getting the guy in, because if I didn't I might not get another shot."
"This was the biggest win of the year," Domaracki continued. "Everybody really rallied behind each other. Hopefully, it will help turn the tide for us."
Milleville also came up with the defensive play of the game to thwart a furious Texas rally in the bottom of the ninth. With two runs already in to cut the Cardinal lead to 10-8 and runners on first and third base with no outs, Jordan Danks (3-5, 2 2B, HR, 2 RBI, 4 runs scored) lined a shot down the first base line that Milleville reached out to snag and then stepped on first base to double up Nick Peoples.
"I always want the big play to come to me," said Milleville, who was also 2-for-4 with a career-high four RBI at the plate.
"That was obviously the play of the game," added Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "They've really had something going right there and if we don't make that play it could be big trouble."
Brett Lewis started the Texas ninth with a leadoff double before Chance Wheeless homered to cut the Cardinal lead to 10-8. The rally started again when Seawell booted Jeff Boes' grounder to the Cardinal third baseman and Peoples singled to right field before Milleville's dramatic defensive play. Max Fearnow (1.0 IP, 1 H, 1 SO) then struck out Preston Clark to end the contest and earn his first collegiate save.
Stanford's ninth inning heroics came one inning after Sean Ratliff (3-5, HR, 2 RBI) had given the Cardinal a 6-5 lead by hitting his first career homer with a long towering two-out solo shot to straight away center field that came on a 3-2 pitch from eventual losing pitcher Randy Boone (0-3). Boone also gave up Domaracki's big ninth inning hit while pitching for the third consecutive day against the Cardinal, allowing five runs on four hits and two walks with one strikeout in his relief appearance of 2.0 innings.
"It felt really good," said Ratliff about his eighth inning homer. "I was hoping he was going to leave something up."
"We needed to get a win like this one badly to get headed back in the right direction," Ratliff continued. "It's always fun to have a game go back-and-forth like this one did."
Texas had tied the game in the eighth at 6-6 on back-to-back one-out doubles by Danks and Clark that spelled the end of the day for Stanford's first reliever David Stringer (1.2 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO). Blake Hancock (1-0) got the Cardinal out of the jam by keeping the score tied after coming into the game with runners on second and third and no outs. Hancock (1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER) did allow both ninth inning Texas runs before giving way to Fearnow.
Texas struck first on Sunday with a run in the bottom of the first inning when Danks walked, moved to third on a single by Clark and scored two batters later on a clutch two-out RBI single from Travis Tucker.
Stanford took its first lead of the series since the fourth inning of Friday's opener with a pair of third inning runs thanks to four consecutive singles to start the frame. Seawell, Ratliff and Michael Taylor loaded the bases for Milleville's two-RBI single up the middle. Texas starter Austin Wood (3.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 3 SO) then hit Brian Juhl to reload the bases before getting out of the jam by retiring Castro on a fly out to right field, Cord Phelps on a foul out behind the plate and striking out Adam Gaylord.
The Cardinal scored three more runs in the third to go ahead 5-1, taking advantage of two hit batsmen by reliever Hunter Harris (0.1 IP, 2 H, 3 R, 2 ER) and a throwing error by Clark in the rally. After coming into the game and hitting Jeff Whitlow and Seawell, Harris allowed Ratliff to single home Whitlow and move Seawell to third. Clark then tried to pick Seawell off third and threw the ball into the dirt, allowing Ratliff to move up to second on his throwing error. Taylor followed with an RBI single up the middle to plate Seawell and Milleville brought home Ratliff with a sacrifice fly.
Texas tied the game at 5-5 by hitting two-run homers in back-to-back innings in the fifth and sixth frames.
Danks doubled to lead off the fifth before Clark followed with a long two-run shot over the left field wall.
Danks then took his turn at the long ball in the sixth when he followed Peoples' one-out single with a line drive homer over the right field wall and just out of the reach of a leaping Taylor at the fence.
Stanford had a golden opportunity to go back in front in the top of the seventh but Boone came into the game with the bases loaded and one out and got pinch hitter Joey August to ground into a hard-hit 1-2-3 double play.
Texas also loaded the bases in its half of the seventh after Stringer walked a pair of batters and allowed an infield single to pinch hitter Clay Van Hook before Peoples grounded out to Milleville at first base to end the inning.
Taylor (3-5, 2B, RBI), Seawell (2-5, RBI) and Phelps (2-4, 2B) joined Ratliff and Millville with multiple-hit games for the Cardinal.Lewis (3-5, 2B), Clark (3-6, 2B, HR, 3 RBI), Wheeless (2-3, HR, 2 RBI), Tucker (2-4, RBI) and Peoples (2-5) joined Danks with multiple-hit contests for the Longhorns, who outhit the Cardinal 17-15.
The Stanford-Texas series was played at The Dell Diamond in Round Rock, Texas, due to construction at Disch-Falk Field. The Dell Diamond is the Houston Astros AAA facility and located approximately 19 miles from Austin.
Stanford will return home to Sunken Diamond for 11 of its next 12 contests beginning with a single game versus San Francisco on Tuesday, February 20 (5 pm, PT). The Cardinal will then host Kansas in a three-game series Friday-Sunday, February 23-25 (5 pm, 1 pm, 11 am, PT). Tickets for all regular season Stanford Baseball home games are available online at gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD. For group ticket information (groups of 10 or more), call 650-725-2876.