Feb. 16, 2013
HOUSTON - Justin Ringo has saved some of the best performances of his Stanford baseball career for matchups against Rice.
During his sophomore campaign, Ringo's first career home run - a two-run shot - was the deciding swing in a Cardinal win.
In 2012, Ringo delivered another two-run homer in the bottom of the 10th to secure a Stanford victory.
Ringo came through yet again Saturday at Reckling Park by poking a one-out double in the top of the eighth to plate the go-ahead run in No. 7 Stanford's 3-2 win over the 17th-ranked Owls.
The knock was one of his two hits on the day as Stanford improved to 1-1 and will now face Rice at 11 a.m. (PT) Sunday in the series rubber match.
Stanford and Rice (1-1) each had seven hits, with Brian Ragira and Alex Blandino added a double apiece and Brett Michael Doran scored twice.
John Hochstatter started for Stanford and went 5.0 innings, striking out three and allowing three earned runs before giving way for Daniel Starwalt. Starwalt (1-0) earned the win in his first career appearance with 3.1 innings of shutout ball and gave up three hits.
Closing the door for the save was Garrett Hughes, who struck out one of two batters faced in the ninth.
Jordan Stephens (0-1) went 7.1 innings for Rice and was tagged for three earned runs on five hits. Evan Rutter gave up Ringo's RBI double in the eighth.
The Cardinal gloves helped strand eight Rice runners behind a pair of double plays.
Stanford loaded the bases in the third for Ragira to smack a two-RBI double to put the visitors ahead, 2-1.
Rice took the first lead of the game in the bottom of the second on Michael Aquino's first-pitch solo home run to left.
Aquino homered again in the fourth to tie the game at 2-2, taking another first-pitch strike to left, which nearly landed on top of the second-inning dinger.
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