March 24, 2013
STANFORD, Calif. - No. 17 Stanford made a late-game charge by scoring four runs in the eighth and had the tying run at the plate in the ninth before Utah escaped with a 7-5 win Sunday afternoon at Sunken Diamond. Utah clinched the Pac-12 Conference baseball series with the victory as Stanford lost its second straight game.
The Cardinal dropped to 11-7 overall and 1-2 in league play as Utah bumped ahead to 11-10 (2-4 Pac-12). Stanford ended its six-game homestand and now hits the road for its next four outings beginning with a non-conference bout Tuesday at UC Davis.
Following the four-run outburst in the eighth to cut into Utah's 7-1 lead, Justin Ringo smacked his third hit on the day and stole second in the ninth. Brian Ragira, who finished 2-for-5 with an RBI, could not get enough juice on a two-out lifter to right as Utah closer Josh Chapman preserved his save.
Ringo had a hit, RBI, stolen base and run scored in eighth. Wayne Taylor started the rally with his first hit in five at-bats, a leadoff double to center. Austin Slater drew a walk and got two bases on Ringo's RBI single up the gut. Ragria followed with an RBI single to score Slater. Danny Diekroeger added a sacrifice fly during the jaunt which concluded with Ragira's trot home on Dominic Jose's single to left.
The two teams combined for 24 hits, with Braden Anderson and Kody Davis each contributing four for Utah. Davis scored three times and Trey Nielsen drove in a game-high three runs with a homer in the fifth.
Utah started its scoring early with three hits on the first five pitches from Dean McArdle (1-1), including a leadoff single and two doubles in the first.
The Utes added two more in the third and took a 6-0 lead two innings later behind Nielsen's dinger.
Lonnie Kauppila took it upon himself to get Stanford on the board in the bottom half of the fifth. Kauppila singled up the middle, advanced to second on a wild pitch and went to third on Brant Whiting's groundout. Jose's one-out grounder to second base brought Kauppila home to make it 6-1 in favor of Utah.
Whiting caught two Utes stealing from behind the dish, though the visitors stayed busy on the paths with five stolen bags.
McArdle went 2.2 innings and scattered six hits which turned into three earned runs. Daniel Starwalt, David Schmidt, Sam Lindquist and John Hochstatter combined for 5.1 innings of eight-hit ball. Logan James struck out a pair for a scoreless ninth.
Utah did not walk a batter until the eighth inning.
Dalton Carroll (2-1) got the win after lasting 6.1 innings. Dalton had five strikeouts and give up on earned run on five hits.
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