May 11, 2007
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Stanford, Calif. - Washington (26-21, 9-7 Pac-10) came back from three-run first inning deficit for a 7-5 victory over Stanford (19-27, 4-15 Pac-10) in the opener of a three-game Pac-10 conference series at Sunken Diamond on Friday. The Huskies capitalized on several key Cardinal mistakes in the contest that contributed to four Washington runs. A second inning error allowed the Huskies a pair of unearned runs, while a fifth inning balk tied the contest for the first time and a sixth inning passed ball retied the game at 5-5.
Stanford got off to a good start by scoring three runs in the bottom of the first inning to take an early 3-0 lead and Washington would not go ahead in the contest until Bradley Boyer trotted home on Matt Stevens' sacrifice fly to give the Huskies a 5-4 lead in the top of the sixth.
Nick Hagadone earned his 10th save of the season and was impressive in helping the Huskies maintain a late two-run advantage. Hagadone struck out four batters in his 2.0 scoreless innings, while allowing just one hit and one walk. Washington starter Jason Erickson (4-1) picked up the victory despite allowing four runs on nine hits and two walks with two strikeouts over the first 5.2 innings.
Boyer (3-4, RBI) and Danny Cox (3-5, RBI, SB) had three hits each for the Huskies, who outhit the Cardinal by a 13-12 count. Trevor Petersen (2-5, RBI) and Michael Burgher (2-5, RBI) added a pair of hits apiece for Washington.
Stanford starter Jeffrey Inman (4-3) suffered the loss to end his personal two-game win streak. Inman gave up six runs but only three were earned as he was victimized by a critical second inning error committed by Cardinal shortstop Adam Gaylord, as well as his own balk in the fifth and Brian Juhl's sixth inning passed ball.
Michael Taylor (3-5, 2B, 3 RBI) and Cord Phelps (3-5, 2B, RBI) combined for half of Stanford's 12 hits with Juhl (2-5) and Adam Sorgi (2-5) adding two apiece. Phelps tied a career-best with the fourth three-hit game of his career and hit his team-high 14th double of the season but his first in his last nine games.
The first three Stanford batters to come to the plate in the bottom of the first inning scored. Joey August drew a leadoff walk and moved to third on Toby Gerhart's single before Taylor doubled them both home to put Stanford ahead, 2-0. Taylor then moved to third on a Sorgi grounder and scored on a sacrifice fly from Brendan Domaracki.
A pair of unearned Washington runs in the top of the second squashed the early Stanford momentum. The Husky second started when Ty Rasmussen reached on Gaylord's error. Inman then walked Boyer before a single from Petersen plated Rasmussen with the first Washington run. Inman got the next two outs before Burgher's push bunt single got by Inman and brought Boyer home.
The Huskies tied added a run in the top of the fifth to the game at 3-3. Inman retired the first two batters before giving up a single to Cox and a double to Matt Hague. With runners on second and third and two outs, Inman began his windup but stepped off the mound after starting to result in a balk that brought Cox home from third.
Stanford was able to retake a 4-3 lead with a run in the bottom of the fifth when August doubled to lead off the inning, moved to third on Gerhart's sacrifice bunt and scored on an RBI single up the middle from Taylor.Washington came right back to go ahead for good with two runs in the top of the sixth despite getting just one hit in the inning. A series of Cardinal miscues began when Inman hit Rasmussen to start the inning. Boyer then singled Rasmussen to third before a wild pitch from Inman moved the runners to second and third with no outs. Inman retired Peterson on a pop-up to Phelps at third base but then Juhl's passed ball allowed Rasmussen to score and Boyer to advance to third, putting him into position to score on Stevens' go-ahead sacrifice fly.
The teams traded runs in the seventh inning as the Huskies retained a one-run lead.
In the top of the seventh, Inman hit Hague with one out before he was removed in favor of David Stringer (1.0 IP, 3 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO) with a 1-0 count to Rindal. Stringer threw the final three balls to complete the walk to Rindal before giving up a two-out RBI single to Boyer two batters later to plate Hague.
Taylor scored in the Stanford seventh to cut the gap to 6-5 when he singled to lead off the inning, moved to second on a Domaracki walk and went to third on a fly ball by Juhl before scoring on an RBI single from Phelps.The Huskies added an insurance run in the eighth when Stevens singled off Stringer to lead off the inning, moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Joey Dunn and third on Burgher's infield single before Stanford brought in left-handed Blake Hancock (0.0 IP, 1 H) to face the left-handed hitting Cox, who responded with a clutch RBI single to bring in Stevens.
Hagadone protected the lead from there with his 2.0 scoreless innings. Stanford was able to bring the tying run to the plate four times over the last two frames when Hagadone walked Ryan Seawell to start the eighth and gave up a two-out single to Juhl in the ninth.
Stanford and Washington will continue their current series on Saturday and Sunday with start times scheduled both days for 1 pm, PT. Washington is scheduled to pitch RHP Elliott Cribby (1-1, 5.59) on Saturday versus Stanford LHP Jeremy Bleich (1-8, 6.07). The Huskies have named RHP Jorden Merry (6-6, 4.61) as their probable starter for Sunday's series finale scheduled to be televised live by CSTV, while the Cardinal has yet to announce a probable starter.
Tickets for the final two games of the Washington series and each of the five remaining regular season 2007 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.