May 12, 2012
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STANFORD, Calif.-- All-everything utilityman Stephen Piscotty (3-2), in his first career start on the mound, pitched into the seventh, had three hits at the plate and led No. 12-ranked Stanford (31-14, 13-10 Pac-12) to an 8-3 win over visiting Washington State (24-22, 9-13 Pac-12) to clinch the series.
Piscotty pitched a career-best 6.1 innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on six hits with a career-tying three strikeouts. The projected first round pick also reached base safely five times with three singles and two walks. He added two walks.
Piscotty had a shutout until a two-out double by Derek Jones in the sixth made it 5-1. Two errors in the seventh led to WSU's second two runs.
Piscotty retired the first eight batters of the game in succession. He used just 39 pitches over the first four innings, bettering his career-high of 4.2 innings, thrown in relief last week at Oregon State.
Stanford steadily increased its lead by scoring in three of the first six innings, starting with a four-run third.
Following a two-out bloop RBI single by Brian Ragira, Austin Wilson followed with a three-run shot to straight-away center to make it 4-0.
A two-out triple by Alex Blandino added to the lead, at 5-0, in the fifth. An inning later an RBI single by Dominic Jose made it 6-1, giving every starter at least one hit. A sacrifice fly then made it 7-1.
J.D. Leckenby (4-6) lasted until the two-run sixth, giving up seven runs on 12 hits over 5.2 innings.
NOTES: Piscotty was making his first career start at pitcher after 10 relief appearances. He had 156 starts in the field, at third, first and left, and one at DH prior to today... It was Dominic Jose's first career start (in left) and Danny Diekroeger first career start in the field (at second) after nine starts at DH... Sunday's game is at 1 p.m. with the Cardinal hosting the University of San Francisco on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m., prior to a road trip to the University of Utah next Friday-Sunday.