April 1, 2013
STANFORD, Calif. - No. 25 Stanford was limited to two hits Monday against rival Cal, one of which happened to be a three-run homer by Austin Slater to propel the Cardinal to a 4-3 win.
Trailing 1-0, Slater stroked his second career home run in the third to help Stanford hold off the Cal (16-13) attack. Cal added one run in both the fifth and seventh innings to close the gap before Cardinal (14-9) closer A.J. Vanegas shut the door on the visitors with his second save.
Wayne Taylor accounted for Stanford's other hit with a second-inning single in front of 2,121 fans at Sunken Diamond.
Stanford committed three errors while managing to strand 12 Cal runners.
Chris Paul sent a 2-0 offering from John Hochstatter (1-1) for a solo dinger in the second. Hochstatter also loaded the bases in the third but left the Cal trio stranded.
Hochstatter earned his first win with 4.0 innings of four-hit ball. The lefty gave up two earned runs and fanned three.
Vanegas allowed one hit and worked around a leadoff double in the ninth to clinch the victory.
Drew Jackson and Danny Diekroeger occupied first and second to set the stage for Slater's two-out, three-run homer to left in the third. The second career home run for Slater gave Stanford a 3-1 lead.
Stanford managed its next run without tallying a hit in the fourth. Alex Blandino drew a walk from Cal relief tosser Ryan Wertenberger and got to second on a Taylor sacrifice bunt. Dominic Jose got the RBI with a sacrifice fly to left.
David Schdmit let a Cal run score in the fifth on one of his two wild pitches in the frame. With runners on the corners, Schmidt got out of trouble with a double-play ball to first.
Sam Lindquist contributed 1.2 innings of two-hit ball, which included one unearned run in the seventh.
Chris Muse-Fisher (1-2) was on the mound for Slater's three-run homer and gave up both Cardinal hits.
Wertenberger did not allow a hit in 2.0 innings but surrendered one earned run.
Seven different players accounted for Cal's eight hits, three of which were doubles.
Stanford has the rest of the week off until it travels to USC (April 5-7) for a three-game Pac-12 Conference series.
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