May 2, 2010
SEATTLE-A wild pitch by Alex Pracher (6-3) in his eighth inning of work gave Washington (24-19, 8-7 Pac-10) a sweep of visiting No. 18-ranked Stanford (21-17, 10-8 Pac-10) following a 4-3, 15-inning win on Sunday afternoon.
Adam Cimber (5-2), who pitched the final five scoreless innings for the Huskies, got the win, after Jacob Lamb's fifth hit of the day, a leadoff single in the 15th came around to score following a sacrifice, groundout and wild pitch.
In a wild situation in the 13th, center fielder Jake Stewart threw out a runner at the plate following a double and potential game-winning single, before Pracher loaded the bases and got an inning ending flyout to send it further.
Pracher, whose previous high was five innings in 2008, gave up one run on three hits with five strikeouts over 7.2 innings. Pracher had come on in, in the eighth, in a 3-3 game, producing a strikeout followed by a double play ball to strand a Huskie at second following a leadoff double.
The game had remained scoreless from the fifth inning until the final inning.
The Cardinal thought it had won it in the ninth, following two-out singles by Jake Stewart and Tyler Gaffney. Colin Walsh's blast to right though got caught up in the wind and was caught on the warning track for the final out. Walsh also doubled in the 12th, but was unable to be driven in.
Jacob Clem pitched 5.2 shutout innings out of the bullpen for UW, retiring the first nine batters he faced after a bases loaded walk in the fifth, briefly giving Stanford a 3-2 lead in the fifth.
Stanford twice took leads early, only to see the Huskies tie the contest in the third and fifth innings.
After Stanford's 3-2 lead in the fifth, the Huskies tied it again in the bottom of the inning with back-to-back doubles at 3-3. UW tied it at 2-2 on a single by Chase Anselment and an RBI double by Caleb Brown after Stanford score twice in the first.
Two errors with two outs by the Huskies in the first led to two runs, as a Kenny Diekroeger RBI single extended his hit streak to 12 games and made it 2-0. Diekroeger finished with three hits.
The Cardinal return home for a mini two-game home stand on Monday and Tuesday, hosting Santa Clara on Monday and San Jose State on Tuesday. Both games start at 5:30 p.m.
NOTES: Stanford will play five times next week with home games on Monday and Tuesday and a road series at Long Beach State next weekend... Stanford played in its fourth extra inning game of the season (2-2) and its longest game... the longest games this decade were 15 innings against Santa Clara in 2006 and 18 innings at Arizona in 2002. Records in extra inning games prior to the mid-1990s are incomplete... It was the first time in recorded history (since 1965) that the Huskies had swept Stanford.