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Baseball

Seniors Lead Cardinal into Super Regional

June 5, 2011

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Reed Feature on CSN Bay Area:

FULLERTON, Calif.--Senior Ben Clowe homered twice and had his first career four-hit day, while classmate Danny Sandbrink (4-1) pitched seven strong innings as No. 21-ranked Stanford (35-20) won the Fullerton Regional following a 14-2 win over fourth-seeded Illinois (30-27).

The Cardinal will be paired with national No. 3 seed North Carolina, with times and dates to be announced for the best of three Super Regional in Chapel Hill.

Clowe went 4-for-4 with four RBIs, while Lonnie Kauppila added a three-hit day with three RBIs in support of Sandbrink, who gave up two runs on eight hits with six strikeouts. Austin Wilson also drove in three, with a two-run homer in the seventh as a part of a three-hit night and 20-hit Cardinal attack.

Yesterday's winner, Jordan Pries was named the Tournament MVP, while Clowe, Kauppila, Stephen Piscotty and Tyler Gaffney were named to the all-tournament team.

Kauppila chased starter Lee Zerrusen (0-3) from the game with two outs in the third, making it 4-0 en route to a four-run third and 5-0 lead. Clowe's first two-run homer, his first blast since March 29, ignited the four-run rally, making it 3-0, before Kauppila and Wilson followed with RBI singles.

Clowe hit another two-run homer in the sixth to make it 8-2, marking the first two-homer game for the Cardinal since Brett Milleville in 2009. In the seventh, Wilson also homered, .a two-run shot after a Kauppila RBI double, making it 11-2, part of a four-run inning.

Piscotty's RBI double in the first made it 1-0, as Zerrusen gave up the first five runs on seven hits.

All-Regional Team: C-Dan Klein, KSU; 1B-Nick Ramirez, CSF; 2B-Lonnie Kauppila, Stanford; SS-Josh Parr, Illinois; 3B-Stephen Piscotty, Stanford; OF-Tyler Gaffney, Stanford; OF-Davis Hendrickson, Illinois; OF-Carlos Lopez, CSF; DH-Ben Clowe, Stanford; Pitchers-Jordan Pries, Stanford; Noe Ramirez, CSF

NOTES: The Super Regional schedule will be set at proximately 8 p.m on NCAA.com on Monday. Four games will start on Friday and four will start on Saturday … Tyler Gaffney extended his hit streak to 20 games with a single in the third... in the ninth, Jack Mosbacher had his first career hit, a triple, run and RBI... Illinois eliminated top-seeded CS Fullerton 7-5 in the earlier game... North Carolina went 3-0 in its own regional in Chapel Hill, winning over Maine (4-0) and James Madison (14-0, 9-3) twice as the No. 3 national seed.... The Cardinal have played UNC just once, at the 1999 Stanford Regional, a 7-4 win... since the current format was installed, in 1999, Stanford had been to eight Super Regionals, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2011, reaching the CWS six times (all but 2006) previously... Stanford has been to 16 CWS, the last in 2008.