April 13, 2013
STANFORD, Calif. - No. 23 Stanford baseball will have to capture Sunday's rubber game if it hopes to keep its streak of series wins alive after Saturday's 11-3 loss allowed Washington to even up this weekend's three-game set at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond.
First pitch for tomorrow's rubber game between the Cardinal (18-11, 6-5 Pac-12) and Huskies (9-23, 3-8 Pac-12) is set for 1 p.m.
Washington came out swinging from the start Saturday, banging out 16 hits against four Cardinal pitchers. Designated hitter Michael Camporeale, who went 2-for-6 with four RBI for the Huskies, opened up the scoring with a two-out, two-run double in the top of the first that plated Jayce Ray and Ryan Wiggins. Ray would prove himself a thorn in the side of the Cardinal pitching staff, going 3-for-3 with three runs scored and reaching base in all six of his plate appearances.
Stanford answered with a two-out hit of its own in the bottom half of the first, as Brian Ragira drove an Austin Voth offering deep to left-center field for his third home run of the season, a two-run job that tied it up at 2-2. Justin Ringo had opened the inning with a single.
The Cardinal offense would go silent after Ragira's big fly, however, as Voth allowed just four more base runners on three hits and a walk over the next seven innings to pick up his fourth win of the season, evening his record at 4-4.
The Husky offense battered Cardinal starter Logan James, getting two-out singles from Andrew Ely and Robert Pehl to go up 4-3 in the second. Braden Bishop singled to lead off the fourth as part of a three-hit, four-run day, and after advancing to second on a sacrifice came around to score on a pair of wild pitches from James. The Cardinal freshman would exit the game with a 3-0 count to Ray, who would go on to score an unearned run later in the inning on a Stanford fielding error. James would be charged with the loss, falling to 1-3 on the year, after giving up six runs, five of which were earned, on six hits, three walks and a pair of wild pitches.
Stanford pitchers would end up with six wild pitches on the day.
Marcus Brakeman, who came on in relief of James, would hold the Huskies scoreless over the next two innings, getting himself out of a two-on, none-out jam in the fifth, but surrendered a run in the seventh after Bishop doubled with two outs and came in on Ty Afenir's RBI single.
Daniel Starwalt took the hill for the Cardinal to start the eighth and was greeted with a single from Pehl, a walk to Wiggins and another two-run double from Camporeale, ballooning the Husky lead to 9-2. Ray would add two more to the Husky lead in the top of the ninth with a two-run single off of David Schmidt.
Stanford added its final run in the bottom half of the ninth as Austin Wilson hit his first home run of the season.