May 4, 2008
San Jose, Calif. - No. 3 Stanford hit the road once again and made a spirited comeback to defeat San Jose Stats 17-6 on Sunday afternoon at Municipal Stadium in San Jose, Calif. Stanford was down 6-1 with two outs in the eighth inning, but used a five-run fifth and an 11-run ninth to turn the game into a blowout.
Junior Sean Ratliff (2-5, 2 HR's, 5 RBI's) stepped up in the eighth inning, which completed the five run comeback to tie the score at 6-6. In the eighth inning Stanford only recorded two hits, but was able to take advantage and turn a game that San Jose State had in command and turn it into a tie game.
The momentum carried into the ninth inning as the Cardinal pounded out 12 hits and scored 11 runs to turn the game into a blowout. In a span of 20 hitters in the eighth and ninth innings, the Cardinal was able to have 18 reach safely in the offensive outburst. Freshman Colin Walsh came in as a pinch runner in the eighth inning and finished the game 3-3 and two runs scored. In the ninth inning Stanford pounded out five extra base hits.
Cardinal starter Erik Davis gave the Cardinal a strong start, going five innings and allowing no earned runs in the no-decision.
The win improved Stanford to 27-15-2 on the season as they will finish the schedule with nine of their final 10 games against Pac-10 competition. The Cardinal is currently second in the Pac-10 with a 10-5 conference record.
The game started as a pitchers duel as neither team scored for the first four innings of play and neither team got a runner past second base. San Jose State starter Scott Sobczak (4-1) was perfect through three innings, while Cardinal starter Erik Davis only gave up two hits in the first four innings. Sobzcak had five strikeouts through the first four innings and finished with eight for the game.
Both teams were able to push runs across in the fifth inning as junior Sean Ratliff hit his 12th home run of the season and recorded his 38th RBI of the season. The shot was to dead-center at Municipal Stadium and easily cleared the tall fence with a distance of 390 feet to home plate. This gave Stanford a brief 1-0 lead, but the Spartans responded with two runs of their own in the bottom of the innings.
John Shaffer led off the bottom of the fifth with a single for the Spartans and advanced to second when Michael Drake walked right behind him. Leadoff man Craig Hertler followed with a ground ball to junior Brent Milleville, who tried to get the lead runner at second base but threw a low throw in the dirt that freshman shortstop Jake Schlander was unable to handle. Kyle Bellows followed with a walk for the Spartans and the game was tied at 1-1. Drake came around to score on a Danny Sienstra fielder's choice and the Spartans led 2-1 through five innings played.
The Spartans had a big fifth inning where they scored five runs and were able to take their aforementioned 6-1 lead. The key to the inning was a key throwing error by junior Brent Milleville, which prolonged an inning and led to two unearned runs. Senior David Springer took over and was unable to record an out and gave up three more runs.
Stanford now has a two-game winning streak after dropping three in a row, which was their longest losing streak of the season. The 17 run outburst comes just one week after Stanford's 26-5 victory over USC last Saturday afternoon.
The Cardinal will have a quick turnaround as they host the Santa Clara Broncos Monday, May 5 at Klein Field at 6:00 p.m. Both starting pitchers are TBA.