March 1, 2008
Stanford, Calif. - Stanford (5-2) fought off a late Cal State Fullerton (3-3) rally and held on for an 11-7 victory over the Titans in the second game of a three-game series at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond on Saturday. The victory assured Stanford of its fifth straight regular season three-game series victory dating back to last season and was its ninth win in a row and 17th in the last 18 meetings at home over the national powerhouse Titans.
"Cal State Fullerton is a quality program that is very well coached, so whenever you can beat a program a quality program that's big," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess, who won his 1290th career game with the victory to move within 10 wins of both 1300 and a tie for 10th place on the all-time list for Division I head coaches. "It's good to win two [in this series], and hopefully we can get a third one tomorrow, but it's going to be tough."
Jason Castro (4-4, 2 2B, 2 RBI) had a career-high four hits, tied a career-high with three runs scored and had the first two-double game of his career to lead a Cardinal offense that outhit the Titans, 15-7. Randy Molina (2-2, 2B, 2 RBI), Sean Ratliff (2-5, HR, 2 RBI) and Cord Phelps (2-5, 2B) also had two hits each, while Joey August doubled and drove in a pair of runs and Zach Jones had a pair of RBI. Ratliff hit his first homer of the season in the bottom of the eighth inning just above his own image on the new scoreboard in rightcenter field, while Phelps also scored a new career-high three runs.
"I thought we did a good job offensively as a team," said Castro. "We came out and put lots of hits together, and that's really what we need to do to be successful."
"We really swung the bats well and put a lot of pressure on them," added Marquess. "That was as good of a game as we've played offensively this season. We had a couple of big two-out hits."
Stanford led 9-2 before Cal State Fullerton scored five times in the top of the seventh to cut the lead to 9-7 but Drew Storen (2.1 IP, 1 H, 1 SO) came on to get the Cardinal out of the jam and then held Cal State Fullerton scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings to record his first collegiate save. Storen got seven out in seven batters faced, allowing only one runner on Corey Jones' leadoff ninth inning single but erasing him by getting Joel Weeks to hit into a game-ending double play two batters later.
"I was excited to come in there in a tight spot and felt comfortable with the guys behind me," said Storen. "I went in there and challenged hitters and let the guys behind me do their job. I was just going to throw strikes. I didn't want to give anyone any free passes or fall behind in the counts. I just wanted to go in and challenge guys."
Stanford starter Erik Davis (1-1) was the winner, allowing only a pair of unearned runs on four hits and three walks with five strikeouts over the first 5.1 frames.
Cal State Fullerton was able to stay close primarily of the wildness of Stanford's pitching staff, who hit five batters and walked five others, as well as one key fifth inning error by Davis.
One day after getting out to a 9-1 lead after two innings, Stanford jumped on the Titans for three runs in the bottom of the first Saturday on three consecutive two-out RBI doubles by Castro, Molina and August. Phelps had started the inning with a leadoff double.
Stanford increased its lead to 4-0 with a single run in the fourth when Castro doubled with two outs and scored when Molina followed with an RBI single.
Cal State Fullerton sliced the lead in half to 4-2 when Davis' costly throwing error allowed a pair of unearned runs to come across in the top of the fifth. Back-to-back singles by Jeff Newman and Josh Fellhauer had put a pair of runners on with no outs and Fellhauer stole second to make it second and third. The next hitter Christian Colon then grounded a ball back to Davis on the mound, who looked Newman back to the bag at third before sailing his throw over the head of Molina at first base to allow both Newman and Fellhauer to score and Colon to truck all the way around to third base. But Davis was able to redeem himself by getting out of the inning without any further damage.
Stanford made the threat go away quickly with four runs in its half of the fifth. Cal State Fullerton starter and losing pitcher Cory Abriso (0-2), who was touched for six runs on nine hits over 4.0 innings, was removed after allowing back-to-back singles to start the rally. Jason Dovel came on to strike out Sean Ratliff before giving up an RBI single to Castro for the first run of the inning. Dovel struck out pinch-hitter Brent Milleville for the second out of the frame but the Cardinal was able to add three more runs after that point. Dovel was taken out after walking August to load the bases and Whitlow was credited with an RBI when Michael Morrison came on and plucked him with the second pitch he threw. Jones capped the rally with a two-run single up the middle.
Stanford added to its lead by scoring an unearned run in the sixth when Phelps reached on an error by Titan second baseman Gary Brown to start the inning and later scored on Austin Yount's RBI fielder's choice.
The Titans took advantage of the wildness of Cardinal reliever David Stringer (0.2 IP, 0 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 HBP) in their five-run seventh. Stringer hit the first two batters he faced to start the inning and then issued a walk to load the bases with no outs. Alex Pracher (0.2 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER) and managed to record a pair of outs but did allow runs to score on Jones' RBI fielder's choice, an RBI single by Weeks and an RBI groundout from pinch-hitter Khris Davis and a two-RBI single from Newman. Storen finally came on to get the Cardinal out of the inning when he retired Fellhauer for the last out of the frame.
"I was very pleased with the way Drew Storen pitched in a pressure situation today," commented Marquess. "It was a good positive outing for him."
Stanford added two insurance runs on Ratliff's two-out two-run bomb in the bottom of the eighth.
Newman (2-3, 2 RBI) and Weeks (2-5, RBI) had four of the Titans' seven hits, all of which were singles.
Stanford will go for its third straight home sweep of Cal State Fullerton on Sunday at 1 pm, PT. The Cardinal swept the Titans in three-game series during their two most recent trips to Klein Field at Sunken Diamond in 2004 and 2006. The last Cal State Fullerton win at Stanford came with a 6-3 victory to avoid a three-game sweep on February 3, 2002. The Titans will send RHP Adam Jorgenson (0-0, 6.23) to the mound in hopes of ending the skid, while the Cardinal is scheduled to pitch RHP Jeffrey Inman (1-0, 2.25).