April 26, 2011
STANFORD, Calif.-- Stanford escaped an eighth inning rally, only to watch Saint Mary's (18-18) plate the winning run in the ninth and defeat No. 21-ranked Stanford (20-14) 3-2 on Tuesday afternoon.
Ricky Boas, who led off the ninth with a single, came home ahead of the throw from third baseman Stephen Piscotty on a grounder off the bat of Markus Melgosa to give the Gaels its third and final lead of the game.
Boas reached third following a bunt single by Riley Heinzler and throwing error by closer Chris Reed (2-2). Reed had come on in the eighth with no outs and the bases loaded and sent the game into the ninth tied at 2-2 with a fielder's choice, strikeout and fly out against the heart of the Gael order.
Cleanup hitter Troy Channing grounded to third, to erase the run at home, before Brenden Kalfus, who had already homered twice, struck out. Greg Ditmer then flew out to end the threat.
Scott Snodgress had originally loaded the bases with no outs in the eighth after Piscotty tied the game in the top of the inning with an RBI single off of eventual winner Dorsey Ek (1-0).
Kalfus homered twice off of reliever Dean McArdle, giving the Gaels a 1-0 lead in the fourth and a 2-1 lead in the sixth.
Gael leftie Jordan Mills retired the first 11 batters of the game and scattered one run on three hits over a career-best six innings. He left with a 2-1 lead in the seventh.
A Zach Jones RBI double tied the game in the sixth at 1-1.
NOTES The Cardinal travel to Arizona State this weekend, playing on Friday and Saturday at 6:30 p.m and Sunday at 12:30 p.m... Stanford won the first meeting at Sunken Diamond, 16-14 with the Gaels... the first five innings took 63 minutes... Jordan Pries pitched the first two scoreless innings on a normal bullpen day, scattering three hits.