March 28, 2008
Stanford, Calif. - Ross Humes took a no-hitter into the bottom of the eighth inning to lead Washington State to a 10-4 victory over No. 17 Stanford (10-7, 0-1 Pac-10) in the Pac-10 opener for the Cardinal on a chilly Friday evening at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond. Humes allowed only one base runner until Sean Ratliff connected on a one-out homer in the bottom of the eighth to end his no-hit bid.
Humes, who has four saves for the Cougars, earned the victory in his only third start of the season by finishing with a line of two runs on three hits with a walk and three strikeouts in 8.0 innings of work.
Offensively, the Cougars used the long ball to power their success with three homers.
Greg Lagreid broke a scoreless tie with one out in the bottom of the fourth when he connected on a three-run homer off losing pitcher Max Fearnow (0.1 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 2 BB) after walks to Paul Gran and Jared Prince as well as a pair of wild pitches had put runners on second and third.
Washington State homered twice more in their four-run fifth. Gran's one-out solo blast was followed by a Jim Murphy single up the middle and a two-run shot from Prince off Alex Pracher (1.0 IP, 3 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 SO). The Cougars would get their fourth run in the inning against Danny Sandbrink (2.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO) after Lagreid greeted him with a triple and then scored on Michael Weber's sacrifice fly.
Humes continued to roll through the first seven frames, allowing only one base runner when he hit Ratliff with a pitch with two outs in the fifth.Washington State extended the advantage to 8-0 with another run in the top of the eighth off Tom Stilson (2.0 IP, 4 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 SO), who hit Simi Reynolds and walked Matt Fanelli after getting the first out of the inning to start the rally. Travis Coulter then singled up the middle to load the bases before Shea Vucinich's sacrifice fly plated Reynolds.
After Ratliff's fourth homer of the year with one out in the eighth finally ended Humes' no-hit bid, the Cardinal got a second run later in the frame when Humes walked Toby Gerhart before giving up back-to-back two-out singles to Randy Molina and Cord Phelps.
Both teams scored twice in the ninth inning to wrap up the scoring.Murphy doubled to start the Washington State ninth before Prince singled to put runners on first and third. Lagreid then drove in his fourth run of the game with a sacrifice fly to bring home Murphy. Stilson hit Garry Kuykendall with two outs a couple of batters later to keep the inning going before Fanelli singled to bring home Prince with the final Cougar run of the game.
Stanford wrapped up the evening with two runs in the bottom of the ninth off Cougar reliever Matt Argyropoulos (1.0 IP, 2 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO). Castro started the inning with his seventh homer of the season when he blasted a long solo shot to right field. Ben Clowe and Ratliff both walked later in the frame before an RBI single by Colin Walsh brought Clowe in to score.
Fanelli (2-3, RBI), Lagreid (2-4, HR, 4 RBI), Prince (2-4, HR, 2 RBI) and Murphy (2-4, 2B) had two hits each for a Cougar team that outhit Stanford, 10-5.
Stanford and Washington State continue their three-game Pac-10 series at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond on Saturday and Sunday. First pitch is scheduled both days at 1 pm, PT. Stanford is scheduled to send RHP Erik Davis (2-1, 6.20) to the mound on Saturday to face Washington State LHP Jayson Miller (3-0, 3.94).