June 3, 2011
Fullerton Photo Gallery
FULLERTON, Calif.-- Mark Appel (6-6) pitched a seven-hitter with eight strikeouts as No. 21-ranked Stanford (33-20) won its opening round game at the Fullerton Regional, 10-3, over third-seeded Kansas State (36-24)
Stephen Piscotty, Brian Ragira, Lonnie Kauppila and Kenny Diekroeger all drove in two runs and all had multi-hit games. Kauppila had four of the 16 hits, leading the second-seeded Cardinal with one of its six multi-hit games.
Appel started his day with three perfect innings and allowed just four hits and one run until the eighth, where he tired and gave up two runs. He finished the day with his second complete game of the season.
Appel struck out the side in the fifth, leaving the tying run at the plate in a 3-1 game, before the Cardinal broke open the game with three runs in the bottom of the inning to lead 6-1.
Tyler Gaffney ignited the rally with a single, extending his hit streak to 18 games. Gaffney then scored on Stephen Piscotty's RBI single in the fifth, to make it 4-1, and chase starter Kyle Hunter (5-5) from the game after 4.1 innings. Hunter gave up five runs on eight hits, surrendering runs in three of his five innings.
Kauppila's third hit of the day and second RBI, a double, then made it 5-1 off of reliever Justin Lindsey, closing the book on Hunter. Diekroeger's second RBI then made it 6-1.
Stanford went up 3-0 after three, as a Diekroeger RBI single made it 1-0 in the second, before a Brian Ragira RBI single followed by a Kauppila single made it 3-0 in the third.
NOTES: Brian Ragira's RBI in the third was just his second RBI in the last eight games... Kenny Diekroeger made a nice play on a ball headed up the middle in the third, ranging to his left and throwing to first for the second out. He made a nice long throw in the ninth as well... the entire regional will be on ESPNU and espn3.com... top-seeded CS Fullerton and fourth-seeded Illinois play in the second game. Games throughout the weekend are 4 and 8 p.m.
POSTGAME QUOTES:
Stanford Coach Mark Marquess
(Opening statement): “I think it was a good game for us. I thought Mark Appel pitched magnificently. He didn’t walk anybody and was low in the zone. Offensively we were able to get timely hits. It was a well played college baseball game.”
(On the keys to the game) “They (Kansas State) made a couple of errors which helped us and then we backed those up with hits. They gave us some free base runners and that helped us.”
(On keeping Appel in the game) “His pitch count was pretty well up there when we broke out and got a significant lead. It’s important when you’re pitching in a four-team regional and you can preserve the depth of your staff. It’s huge. It will help us.”
(On Lonnie Kauppila’s effort) “Lonnie has played great all year. He’s played phenomenally defensively and hit over .300. He’s really come on and matured as a player. You can’t expect a freshman to come in and play as well as he has.”
Pitcher Mark Appel
(On his performance) “I feel like all my pitches were working today. The key was keeping them down in the zone, and being able to throw two off-speed pitches for strikes and keeping the hitters guessing.”
(On his strategy) “Going into the game we knew Kansas State is a fast team and steals a lot of bases. Keeping those runners off the bases is huge. The first runner that scored for them was off a hit batter, so it just goes to show it’s important not to give them free baserunners.”
Second baseman Lonnie Kauppila
(On Stanford’s offensive breakout) “We’ve been seeing and hitting the ball really well. Capitalizing on their errors was really huge too. “
(On his performance at the plate) “I’ve been struggling lately, trying to figure out my swing. I’m trying to stay more compact and hoping I can keep it going this weekend.”
Kansas State Coach Brad Hill
(Opening Statement) "Appel just dominated us on a pitching standpoint. His velocity was too much. Once he became a two-pitch pitcher, mixing in that changeup, he became a three-pitch guy. We were really concerned about his velocity. Our swings were long, we tried to cheat through it. The breaking ball and changeup came into effect. The five errors, which we made, we haven’t done in a long time. That was really disappointing. It really opened up the door for them in some situations."
(On Goodwin Field compared to their home stadium) “The stadium is a little similar. A little bigger in left, a little shorter in right, besides that it’s similar.”
(On playing tomorrow) “We’ll just come out and play better tomorrow. We were embarrassed today, no question. We’re a much better ball club than that. We’re going to go out and do the best we can. We did some things today, and we’re going to prove we’re a better ball club than we were today.”
(On starting pitcher Kyle Hunter) “Got behind the count, and left balls up. You’re going to get in trouble when that happens. I thought they fouled off two pitches he made. He just didn’t throw enough pitches down in the zone.”
Kansas State 3B Jason King
(On Stanford starter Mark Appel) “Our conference prepared us well to face a guy like that. We faced three guys who are very similar. I think we were ready, but when you face a guy like that who’s on, it’s going to be hard to beat him, especially when you throw two pitches for strikes, it’s going to be tough.”
(On not getting multiple hits in a row) "Appel was throwing multiple pitches for strikes, to righties and lefties, and that makes it hard to do that."
Kansas State LF Kent Urban
(On feeling if they were ever out of the ball game) “With aluminium bats, even if they’re toned down a little bit, you never think you’re out of the game. Those five errors killed us. We don’t make those five errors, the game’s a lot closer. We’ve come down from big deficits before. We’ll come back tomorrow, play our style and play better baseball.”
####