Feb. 26, 2008
Stanford, Calif. - Strong pitching outings from Max Fearnow and David Stringer led Stanford (3-2) to a 4-3 win over Nevada on a beautiful Tuesday afternoon at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond. Fearnow (1-0) picked up the win by allowing just three runs on two hits over a career-high 5.0 innings, while Stringer earned his second save of the campaign and the 10th of his career by shutting the Wolf Pack out over the final 4.0 frames on four hits.
"I was very impressed with our pitchers today," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "It was a fantastic pitching performance by both guys, and we played good defense, too."
Cord Phelps (4-5) had the first four-hit game of his career to lead a Cardinal offense that outhit Nevada, 13-6. Brent Milleville (2-2, SB), Sean Ratliff (2-3, SB, RBI) and Jake Schlander (2-4, RBI) added two hits each.
"It was nice to kind of squeak some balls through some holes," said a humble Phelps.
Tyson Jaquez accounted for all three Nevada runs with a three-run homer off Fearnow in the Nevada fifth after the Cardinal starter had hit back-to-back batters with two outs in front of him. Jason Rodriguez (2-4) also had a multiple-hit game for the Wolf Pack.
Stanford hung the loss on Mario Rivera (0-1) by touching the Nevada starter for four runs and seven hits over the first 4.0 innings.
The Cardinal scored twice in the bottom of the second. Joey August and Zach Jones started the rally with a one-out single and double before Rivera uncorked a wild pitch to score August. Schlander followed two batters later with a clutch two-out RBI single.
After Jaquez' three-run homer in the top of the fifth briefly put Nevada in front, 3-2, the Cardinal answered right back with two tallies in the bottom of the inning. Rivera was removed from the game before he could record an out, allowing a leadoff single to Phelps, walking Brendan Domaracki and giving up an RBI single to Sean Ratliff that tied the score at 3-3. Nevada reliever Jacob Kaup came into the contest with runners on first and third and no outs and allowed a sacrifice fly to Jason Castro that proved to be the game-winner as neither team would score again.Nevada would threaten twice late in the game but Stringer shut the door both times.
In the seventh, David Ciarlo tripled just out of the reach of a diving Ratliff in leftcenter field but Stringer stuck out Jaquez to end the threat.
Back-to-back ninth inning singles from pinch-hitter Mike Hale and Kevin Rodland put Wolf Pack runners on first and second with just one out but Stringer was once again up to the task, getting Ciarlo to pop up to Phelps at second base and Jaquez to ground out to Jones at third base to end the game.
"I wanted to make sure I didn't get beat with anything but my best," said Stringer, who claimed to have thrown breaking balls on each of his last nine pitches. "I just put the pitch selection in the hands of [catcher] Jason Castro and [pitching coach] Jeff Austin, because they are both very capable of calling games. My curveball and slider were my best pitches today. If I was going to get beat, it was going to be by one of those."
Stanford returns to Klein Field at Sunken Diamond to host a three-game series versus Cal State Fullerton this Friday-Sunday, February 29 - March 2 (5 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT).