May 23, 2010
TUCSON, Ariz.-- Stanford (30-21, 13-11 Pac-10) equaled its win total from last year and won its last regular season road series, defeating host No. 26-ranked Arizona (32-20, 11-13 Pac-10) 8-4 on Sunday afternoon.
The Cardinal, which missed the postseason in 2009 after its 16th College World Series appearance in 2008, went 30-25 last year.
Stanford led 8-0 by the fourth inning, as Dean McArdle (5-0) pitched into the sixth to remain undefeated.
The Cardinal started early on Sunday, leading 3-0 on a two-run triple by Schlander and a Jake Stewart sacrifice fly in the second. An RBI triple by Eric Smith, aided by a stiff wind to left, gave the Cardinal a 4-0 lead in the third.
Stanford then doubled its lead to 8-0 with four runs in the fourth.
Catcher Ben Clowe, in his second-straight start and after a homer yesterday, came through with an RBI single to chase starter Daniel Workman (2-3) from the game. Colin Walsh followed with an RBI single, before Kenny Diekroeger's two-run single made it 8-0. Diekroeger finished with three hits.
McArdle gave up three runs on six hits, exiting after giving up a solo homer to Steve Selsky to lead off the sixth. McArdle had retired the first seven batters of the game, and scattered just two hits over the first four scoreless innings.
Workman gave up the first seven runs on five hits over the first 3.2 innings.
The final week of the regular season will be this week with Stanford hosting UC Davis on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m and first place Arizona State, in an earlier than normal, Thursday through Saturday series. NCAA Regional announcements will occur on Memorial Day at 9:30 a.m. Pacific on ESPN.
NOTES: McArdle pitched at least 5.0 innings for the third straight start... wind advisories were issued in the Tucson area with wind gusts up to 38 mph... due to the wind, Dave Giuliani had two fielder's choice putouts from right field on popups which forced the UA runners to hold up initially... Stanford won its first series with Arizona since 2003... the Cardinal were staying in the same hotel as Hofstra Softball, which was in the championship game of the NCAA Regionals on Sunday, also at UA and members of the USA Track and Field javelin team.