May 3, 2009
PULLMAN, Wash. - Jeffrey Inman pitched effectively into the seventh inning, while he was backed by home runs from Ben Clowe and Brent Milleville as Stanford (22-19, 10-11) defeated host Washington State (22-20, 11-7) in the rubber game of a Pac-10 weekend series at Bailey-Brayton Field. The Cardinal won for the fourth time in its last five games, and won a road series against a Cougars team that entered the weekend in second place in the Pac-10.
Clowe's solo home run - his first of the year - snapped a scoreless tie with one out in the fifth, as the Cardinal designated hitter crushed a 2-2 offering well over the left field wall. Stanford maintained that 1-0 lead against Washington State left-hander David Stilley (2-1) until the seventh, when Kellen Kiilsgaard drilled a one-out double in front of Milleville. Stanford's senior first baseman then belted the first pitch he saw over the 375-foot sign in right-center field for a two-run homer, his team-leading 10th roundtripper of the season.
Inman (2-6) turned in one of his best starts of the season, blanking Washington State on four hits through the first 6.0 innings before allowing a pair of runs in the seventh. The junior right-hander departed after the first two batters of the seventh, but yielded just two runs on six hits with a pair of strikeouts. Most importantly, Inman did not walk a batter en route to his second win.
Stanford's bullpen trio of Scott Snodgress, Danny Sandbrink and Drew Storen combined to get the final nine outs, with some help from Cardinal catcher Zach Jones. Snodgress finished out the seventh and got the first out of the eighth, before hitting a batter and giving way to Sandbrink. With cleanup hitter Greg Lagried - who had earlier homered off Inman - at the plate in a 3-2 game in the eighth, Jones picked Washington State's Derek Jones off first base for the second out of the inning. Sandbrink then retired Lagried on a grounder to short, preserving the one-run Cardinal lead. Storen struck out the first two batters he faced in a perfect ninth, nailing down the Stanford victory with his seventh save of the year.
Stanford returns home this Tuesday, May 6, when it hosts Bay Area rival San Jose State in the clubs' first meeting of the season. First pitch from Klein Field at Sunken Diamond is set for 5:00 p.m. PT.