April 20, 2008
Los Angeles, Calif. - No. 10 Stanford (21-12-2, 8-4 Pac-10) had a season-high six-game win streak snapped with an 8-2 loss to UCLA (19-16, 4-5) in the finale of a three-game Pac-10 series at Jackie Robinson Stadium on Sunday. Stanford remained in first place in the Pac-10 despite the loss but Arizona State and California both moved to within one game of the Cardinal in the conference standings after their respective wins over Oregon State and Washington on Sunday.
Winning pitcher Gavin Brooks (6.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 6 SO) and reliever Matt Drummond (3.0 IP, 4 H, 4 SO) scattered eight hits and struck out 10 with Drummond's performance earning him his first save of the season.
All of the game's scoring besides two UCLA insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth was done in the first three frames.
Stanford got out to an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first. Toby Gerhart started the rally with a one-out ground rule double before moving to third on a Jason Castro single and scoring on a double by Brent Milleville. Sean Ratliff brought home Castro with the second run of the frame on a sacrifice fly.
UCLA answered right back with two runs in its half of the first. Alden Carrithers singled to open the frame before getting to third on a throwing error during a failed pickoff attempt by Stanford starter Jeffrey Inman, who suffered his first loss of the season after opening the campaign with a 5-0 record. Inman allowed six runs on four hits and two walks in a 2.1 inning outing that was his shortest of the season. Jermaine Curtis brought Carrithers home with a sacrifice fly before a two-out solo shot by Casey Haerther tied the score at 2-2.
The Bruins took the lead for good with one more run in the second when Carrithers came through with a clutch two-out single to plate Brady Dolan, who was hit by a pitch to start the inning and advanced to second on Mickey Weisser's sacrifice bunt.
UCLA broke the game open and ended Inman's outing in the third with a three-run rally. Inman got himself in trouble by walking two of the first three hitters he faced and allowed a double to Haerther in between to load the bases with no outs. Inman was able to get the first out on Tim Murphy's squibbler between the mound and home plate but Brandon Crawford scored on the play to put UCLA ahead, 4-1. Danny Sandbrink (5.0 IP, 6 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 1 BB, 2 SO) came in to replace Inman but allowed both of the runners he inherited to score on an RBI groundout from Dolan and a two-out Weisser RBI single.
Stanford missed out on an opportunity to score in the fourth inning when Zach Jones was thrown out at third base for the third out on a Jake Schlander single and the umpires ruled that Jeff Whitlow did not cross the plate before Jones' out was recorded. Whitlow had advanced to second base after reaching on a two-out error by Crawford at shortstop and a walk to Jones.
Stanford would pick up just one hit over the next three innings on a bunt single by Jones in the seventh before creating a chance to get back into the ballgame in the eighth inning. The Cardinal loaded the bases on three singles by Gerhart, Castro and Ratliff to get the tying run to the plate but Drummond got Ben Clowe to hit into an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play.
UCLA added its two insurance runs in the bottom of the eighth when Ryan Babineau's two-RBI double off Alex Pracher (0.2 IP, 1 H, 1 BB) followed three consecutive singles by Murphy, Dolan and Blair Dunlap had ended the longest outing of Sandbrink's career.
Eight of the nine Bruin starters had at least one of UCLA's 11 hits with Haerther (2-4, 2B, HR, RBI), Carrithers (2-4, RBI) and Curtis (2-4, RBI) picking up two each, while Babineau drove in a pair.
Castro (2-4, RBI) and Gerhart (2-4, 2B) both had a pair of hits and combined for half of Stanford's eight base knocks.
Stanford will return to action Monday with a non-conference contest at Santa Clara to be televised live nationally by CBS College Sports. First pitch is scheduled for 5 pm, PT. The Cardinal will continue its busy schedule with a four-game homestand at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond to close out the week, hosting Saint Mary's (Wednesday, April 23, 6 pm, PT) in a non-conference game before resuming Pac-10 action with a three-game set against USC (Friday-Sunday, April 25-27, 6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm, PT).