March 21, 2010
STANFORD, Calif.-- No. 23-ranked Stanford (10-4) returned from an 11-day layoff for finals and swept visiting Pepperdine (6-12) following an 11-6 Sunday victory.
Chris Walsh went 3-for-5 with a double, while Kenny Diekroeger drove in four runs, paced by a solo homer, sacrifice fly and two-run double. Zach Jones added three hits. Stanford pounded out 15 hits in the series finale, hitting .375 on the weekend with 30 runs.
Stanford scored seven runs over the first three innings, paced by Diekroeger's double in a three-run first, Tyler Gaffney's two-run triple to make it 5-0 in the second and back-to-back RBI singles by Jake Stewart and Jones to make it 7-0.
Stanford's scoreless inning streak in the series came to the end in the fourth, a span of 13 innings in which the Cardinal scored 18 runs, when Pepperdine plated two to make it 7-2. Reliever Mark Appel (2-0) got bullpen's eighth win of the season, pitching 2.2 innings out of the pen after starter Scott Snodgress could not get out of the inning.
Snodgress at one point, struck out five in a row, including the side in the second, but also walked four, all coming in the third and fourth innings. Despite the up-and-down outing, Snodgress struck out a career-high seven over 3.2 innings.
Stanford travels to the University of the Pacific (12-7) on Tuesday for a contest at 6 p.m., before returning home on Friday for a three-game series with USC to open Pacific 10 Conference play next weekend.