March 29, 2011
STANFORD, Calif.-- Jake Stewart went 3-for-4 with four RBIs and Stephen Piscotty added a 3-for-4 night with three RBIs as No. 11-ranked Stanford (11-6) survived a wild seventh and ninth inning, to defeat visiting Saint Mary's (9-12), 16-14 on Tuesday evening.
In a wild seventh inning, seven runs by the Gaels were countered by six by Stanford. When the dust settled, the Cardinal's once seven-run lead, was erased to one, and built back up to 16-9.
Four errors in the ninth gave SMC five more runs, as the Gaels batted around and sent the go-ahead run to the plate against Scott Snodgress. Snodgress got a strikeout of Tim David to secure his second save.
The leading Stanford rally was keyed by a Stewart three-run double followed by a two-run home run by Ben Clowe, making it 16-9. Lonnie Kauppila's fourth hit, started the rally and made it 11-9. SMC had closed to within 10-9 off of three Stanford pitchers.
Saint Mary's sent 12 men to the plate in the seventh, scoring seven times to cut the lead to 10-9 off of A.J. Talt, Elliott Byers and Sahil Bloom. Talt loaded the bases, before yielding to Byers, who let all three inherited runners score, and then gave up three of his own to make it 10-8.
Talt and Byers combined to give up five hits, a walk and two hit by pitches in the inning before Sahil Bloom gave up a grounder that was mishandled by Kenny Diekroeger at short to make it 10-9.
Stanford scored five runs over the first two innings, tallying three runs in the first off of starter Jordan Mills (0-3), paced by a two-run double by Piscotty to make it 3-0. An RBI double by Stewart and an error by shortstop Michael Gastelum made it 5-0 in the second.
Piscotty also made an off balance throw and putout to end the sixth, robbing Chris Murphy of a bunt base hit and potential RBI on a squeeze, instead keeping SMC scoreless in the inning. At that point, Stanford led 9-2.
Danny Sandbrink (1-0) went the first 3.0 predetermined no-hit and scoreless innings for the win, leaving with a 5-0 lead.
NOTES: Stanford begins Pac-10 play this weekend at Washington State for a three-game series... it was Sandbrink's first start of the season... Zach Jones drove in his first run of the season in the sixth with an RBI single... it was a season high for runs (16), errors (6) and hits (19) on the night... Saint Mary's pinch hit for every position except for Patrick Wisdom... Mother Nature decided to be kind to the boys and sunny skies lit up batting practice and the early innings.