March 3, 2013
STANFORD, Calif. - Lonnie Kauppila doubled off the right-center wall in the bottom of the ninth to score Alex Blandino from first for a 2-1 walk-off win as No. 14 Stanford swept its three-game series with No. 22 Texas. Kauppila's hit was the 10th on the day for Stanford (9-2) Sunday at Sunken Diamond as the home squad won its eighth straight and swept the Longhorns (6-5) for the second straight season.
In his first career start, Cardinal hurler Bobby Zarubin limited the Longhorns to a pair of hits on 99 pitches in 8.0 innings. Zarubin even showed off his athleticism by diving off the bump to catch a Jeremy Montalbano popup bunt in the second while doubling off C.J. Hinojosa at first.
Garrett Hughes (2-0) was handed the ball and delivered a scoreless ninth, facing four batters while earning the win.
The Cardinal is off to another hot start this season after going 14-1 to begin the 2012 campaign. Stanford limited the Longhorns to 13 hits and three earned runs during the weekend's three-game slate.
Wayne Taylor went 3-for-7 in the series, including a triple Sunday against the Longhorns. Kauppila was 4-for-10 against Texas with Brian Ragira improving his hitting streak to eight games.
Ragira has reached base safely in each of Stanford's 11 games this season.
Taylor, Blandino and Kauppila each had two hits today. Blandino's one-out single in the ninth set up the game-winning heroics for Kauppila, who got the knock off of Texas reliever Corey Knebel (0-1).
It was one of three hits allowed by Knebel in 2.1 innings after stepping in for Nathan Thornhill. Thornhill surrendered seven hits and one earned run in the first 6.0 frames of the contest.
Thornhill received one run from the Longhorns in the third to tie the game at 1-1.
Austin Slater singled and Ragira doubled in the first, with Slater scoring on Justin Ringo's infield groundout.
Texas got the run back on an Erich Weiss infield grounder two innings later.
Stanford puts its winning streak on the line at 6 p.m. (PT) on Tuesday at Santa Clara.
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