Feb. 17, 2012
STANFORD, Calif.-- Stephen Piscotty, Christian Griffiths and Eric Smith all homered, Smith with an inside the park shot in the fifth, as No. 2-ranked Stanford (1-0) won its season opener over No.10-ranked Vanderbilt (0-1) 8-3 on Friday evening.
Staff ace Mark Appel (1-0) went 7.0 innings, giving up just a single run on two hits with five strikeouts and two walks. Appel pitched four no-hit innings and retired seven in a row before a lead off double in the fifth led to the Commodores first run, making it 5-1.
Brian Ragira went 3-for-4 with two RBIs, while four other players had mulit-hit games as a part of the 14-hit attack.
Stanford built a five-run lead after three innings, more than enough for the preseason All-American, Appel.
After solo home runs by Piscotty and Griffiths in the first and second innings, Stanford added three runs in the third to lead 5-0.
Two errors by Vandy in the third, did not help matters as a failed pickoff moved Tyler Gaffney from first to third, as he scored on an RBI single from Ragira, before a mishandled single by right fielder MikeYastrzemski made it 4-0. A Smith fielder's choice completed matters early.
Kevin Ziomek (0-1) could not get out of the fourth, giving up the first five runs on six hits over 3.1 innings. He also walked four and had a wild pitch and hit two batters.
Smith's homer that dribbled to the right centerfield wall made it 6-1 in the fifth, while an RBI single by
Lonnie Kauppila made it 7-1 in the sixth. Ragira's second RBI, a sac fly made it 8-1 in the eighth.
In his last at-bat Gaffney laced a double down the left field line to extend his carried-over hit streak to 23 games.
NOTES: Smith made his first career start at catcher after being a reserve infielder the last two years, it was the only change from last year's everyday lineup.... Griffiths hit his second career homer in the second and first since 2010... Smith's inside the park home run was the first of its kind for Stanford since March, 2008 when Indian major leaguer Cord Phelps had one against Texas.