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No. 10 Stanford To Visit UCLA Saturday In Second Game Of Series

No. 14 Stanford Travels To Tucson For Three-Game Set

May 14, 2008

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STANFORD BASEBALL GAME NOTES (May 17-19, 2008)

NO. 14 STANFORD CARDINAL (30-18-2, 11-7 Pac-10)


vs.

ARIZONA WILDCATS (34-15, 8-10 Pac-10)

THIS WEEKEND'S PROBABLE STARTING PITCHERS

Fri. - RHP Austin Yount (3-2, 2.11 ERA) vs. RHP Preston Guilmet (6-3, 3.25 ERA)
Sat. - RHP Erik Davis (7-2, 3.72 ERA) vs. LHP David Coulon (7-3, 3.26 ERA)
Sun. - RHP Jeffrey Inman (7-2, 3.51 ERA) vs. LHP Eric Berger(6-3, 4.42 ERA)


LIVE GAME COVERAGE:
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STANFORD-ARIZONA SERIES HISTORY

All-Time Series: Stanford leads 95-60

2008 Results: None

2007 Results: (at Stanford, April 13-15) Arizona 8-1, Arizona 15-1, Stanford 6-3; Arizona took two of three fromt he Cardinal in mid-April last season at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond.

Current Game Win Streak: Stanford - 1 (April 15, 2007)

Current Series Win Streak: Arizona - 5 (April 25-27, 2003- April 13-15, 2007)

Current Season Series Win Streak: Arizona - 5 (2007)

Series Notes: Stanford will face off against the Wildcats for the first time this season. They will face Arizona in Tucson, where the Wildcats are 21-3 on the season.

PAC-10 UPDATE


Stanford 1.0 Games Back Pac-10 With Six Contests Remaining - After dropping two out of three to California over the weekend, the Cardinal find themselves one game back of Pac-10 leader Arizona State with six games left to play. Stanford remains a game ahead of Washington and 1.5 games ahead of California and Oregon State, who are both tied for fourth place in conference.

NOTES


Cardinal Drops Two of Three vs California, Beats Santa Clara - Last week the Cardinal dropped two of three games to California to lose their first weekend series of the season. They came back on Monday to defeat the Santa Clara Broncos by the score of 15-4. This leaves Stanford with a 30-18-2 record and a 11-7 conference mark.


Stanford Drops To 14- Stanford fell eight spots to No. 14 in the latest Baseball America poll and four to No. 15 in the Rivals.com poll released on Monday, May 12. In the other most recent polls released Monday, Stanford stayed at No. 14 in the Collegiate Baseball rankings and No. 16 on the USA Today/ESPN list, as well as at No. 18 in the NCBWA poll.


Big Week for Milleville - Junior Brent Milleville had a huge week for the Cardinal after hitting .471 and slugging a ridiculous 1.059 the past five games. The Stanford first baseman hit three home runs and was 8-17 and got on base at a .545 clip. Mileville has not raised his average to .353 on the season and is second on the team with a .630 slugging percentage.


Farewell Seniors - This weekend marks the final home regular-season weekend for five Stanford seniors: OF Brendan Domaracki, RHP Erik Davis, 1B/DH Randy Molina, RHP Rex Petrill, and RHP David Stringer. Together, this quintet boasts 123 wins under its collective belt, as well as two NCAA Tournament appearances, an NCAA Regional title (2006), and a Super Regional appearance. The five seniors were honored in a pregame ceremony prior to last Sunday's series finale.


Molina the Machine - The Cardinal now have a new batting leader and it's junior designated hitter Randy Molina. Molina hit .412 over the past five games and has raised his average all the way up to .370 on the season. Molina also has a team-leading .446 on-base percentage as he has drawn 20 walks on the year.


Home Field Advantage - Stanford has had a nice home field advantage at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond throughout the years. The facility has served as a host site for 13 NCAA Regionals, as well as NCAA Super Regionals on five occasions. Stanford has clinched 10 of its 15 trips to the CWS at Sunken Diamond. Stanford has now had 44 consecutive winning seasons at home and recorded at least 17 home wins in each of its last 13 campaigns with an amazing 329-108 (.753) home mark over the last 12-plus seasons. Stanford has never had a losing season at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond in the school's recorded history. The Cardinal was 20-8 at home in the 2008 regular season.


"Jones"-in' For A Good Time - The Cardinal has received a good amount of production from the freshmen on its roster, and 3B Zach Jones is one of those producers. Having started 45 of the 49 games in which he's appeared, Jones is batting .274 and leads all Stanford freshmen with three home runs, 45 hits, 12 doubles, and 28 RBI.


Series Win Streak Snapped At 12 In A Row - Stanford's string of regular season three-game series victories to 12 dating back to the final three series of 2007 came to an end after dropping two of three games to California (April 9-11). The streak was Stanford's longest regular season three-game series win streak since the Cardinal won 15 straight regular season three-game series from May 3, 2003 - May 4, 2004. Stanford had won seven straight Pac-10 series to tie its longest conference series win streak, when it took seven league series in a row during the same run of 15 straight overall.


Starting Rotation Pitching Well - Stanford's three primary starters have pitched well in 2008. Erik Davis (7-2, 3.72, 75.0 IP, 76 SO) struggled early but has been unbelievable of late with four consecutive complete games from March 29-April 19, and victories in six of his last eight starts. Jeffrey Inman (7-2, 3.51, 51.1 IP, 31 SO) had won five straight starts and given up just two earned runs over 24.2 frames during the period before suffering losses in his past two starts against UCLA and USC. Inman responded by defeating California in the series finale last weekend to get back in the win column. Jeremy Bleich (2-2, 1.38, 26.0 IP, 18 SO) equaled his win total in all of 2007 with victories in each of his first two outings of 2008. Although Bleich has suffered two losses and a no decision in his last three starts, his ERA has actually gone down 81 points in those three starts as only one of the 12 runs scored against him was earned.


Busy Schedule - Stanford's May 6 contest at San Francisco finished a stretch of 33 contests over a 43-day period from March 21 - May 6.


Fifth All-Time Winningest Program - Stanford is the fifth all-time winningest program in college baseball history with a record of 2547-1596-34 (.614) in 4177 games over 115-plus seasons. Stanford has won two College World Series titles in its 15 trips to Omaha and finished second on three other occasions, while winning at least one game in every CWS appearance. The Cardinal has added five NCAA Super Regional titles, 14 NCAA Regional crowns and 20 conference championships.


Stringer Nearing All-Time Save List - David Stringer has 10 career saves and is now just one shy of tying Aaron Dorlarque (1989-92) for 10th place.


Significantly Better Pitching And Fielding In 2008 - Stanford has had much better pitching and fielding numbers in 2008. Stanford has recorded a 4.29 ERA that is 1.72 points better than the 6.01 the team recorded as the highest mark in school history in 2007. The Cardinal's .972 fielding percentage is nine points ahead of last year's .963 and only .005 points shy of the school record .977.


Day And Night - Stanford has been significantly better this season during the day (19-7-2) than at night (11-11).


Better Against The Best - Stanford is 9-4-1 against ranked squads (according to Baseball America at the time of the game) and 21-13-1 versus teams not in the Baseball America poll at the time of the game.


Five Two-Way Players On The Roster - Stanford has five two-way players listed on the roster in Brendan Domaracki (OF/RHP), Michael Marshall (1B/RHP), Sean Ratliff (OF/LHP), Drew Storen (RHP/3B) and Austin Yount (3B/RHP). Ratliff and Yount have both already contributed on the mound and at the plate. Domaracki has played but yet to pitch, while Storen and Marshall have both pitched but are yet to play a position or hit.


Huge Roster And Pitching Staff - Stanford has 45 players on its 2008 roster with 23 of those listed as either a pitcher or a two-way player. Stanford may need a lot of depth, especially on the mound, in the first year of college baseball's condensed season as the Cardinal is still scheduled to play 56 regular season games in approximately three weeks less time than the club has in the past.


2008 Honors - Stanford's Jason Castro, Erik Davis, Cord Phelps and Sean Ratliff have already received 2008 honors. Ratliff is on the 2008 Wallace Award Watch List and was also named the Pac-10 Player of the Week on April 7. Castro was selected as the Stanford Muscle Milk Student-Athlete of the Week on April 29, and Phelps earned the same honor April 15. Davis, meanwhile, was named Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week on April 22.


Honors Candidates - Stanford has many players worthy of honors consideration in 2008. Jason Castro, Erik Davis, Jeffrey Inman Randy Molina, Cord Phelps and Sean Ratliff have all been nominated for NCBWA All-American recognition.


Rookies Making Case For Freshmen All-American Honors - Stanford has had a total of 14 freshmen play over the first 50 games with three making legitimate noise for Freshman All-American consideration. Reliever Drew Storen (1-3, 3.29, 5 SV, 38.1 IP, 38 SO) arguably has the best case to be considered among the nation's top freshmen. Storen paces the team in both saves and appearances (22). Zach Jones (.274, 3 HR, 28 RBI, 9 SB) and Jake Schlander (.227, 21 RBI, 2 SB) have made the biggest impact among position players and are not far behind Storen in worthiness of a spot on Freshmen All-American squads. The duo has spent nearly the entire season as the team's left side of the infield with Schlander starting all 50 of the team's games at shortstop and Jones making 45 starts (404 at third base). Although Schlander has struggled offensively, he has made just seven errors in the field in 209 defensive chances for a .967 fielding percentage as the team's shortstop. Ben Clowe (.311, 2 HR, 6 RBI) has also started to make an impact offensively and had a recent career-high five-game hit streak that included a double, two homers, five RBI and a .400 (6-15) batting average from April 12-18.


Two Unfinished Games Officially Ruled Ties - Non-conference games against Saint Mary's on March 5 in Moraga and California on April 7 in Berkeley have both officially been ruled as ties. Neither game was able to be completed due to darkness. The Stanford-Saint Mary's contest was tied 7-7 after nine innings, while the Stanford-California game was knotted up at 5-5 after 13 frames.


Next Up - Following this weekend's trip to Tucson, the Cardinal will head to Seattle for a three-game series against the Washington Huskies. These three games will take place Memorial Day weekend (April 23-25). ="">="">