May 17, 2013
Box Score
BERKELEY, Calif. - Mark Appel tied Stanford's career strikeout record and fellow Texan Wayne Taylor slammed a pair of home runs while the Cardinal outlasted rival Cal for a 9-8 win. Appel sent back 11 Golden Bears on strikes Friday during the first-ever matchup between the two programs under the lights of Evans Diamond.
Knotted with Kyle Peterson and Justin Wayne with 363 career punchouts, Appel (9-4) can break the coveted record during his final regular-season start at Sunken Diamond against UCLA on May 24.
Appel went 7.0 innings against the Golden Bears (22-29 overall, 10-18 Pac-12), scattering nine hits and four earned runs. Cal's seventh-inning score was the first earned run allowed by Appel after the fifth inning this season.
Appel, who also tied Bruce Fiala (1976-79) for eighth with his 27th career victory, has totaled double-digit strikeouts in seven of his 13 starts.
Stanford (27-21, 12-13) snapped its six-game skid by out-hitting Cal, 15-12, as three Cardinal totaled as many hits. Brian Ragira had three singles, Brant Whiting drove in two runs on three hits and two of Taylor's knocks were good for four bases. Taylor scored three times.
Chris Paul led Cal with two hits and Jacob Wark drove in three. Logan Scott (4-4) allowed four hits and two earned runs in the loss.
Cal overcame a 9-5 deficit with three runs in the ninth. Garrett Hughes induced a popup for the final out with the tying run on base.
The Cardinal was unable to cash in on its first four hits and waited until the fourth to manufacture a 3-0 lead. Austin Wilson singled, Whiting laid down a sacrifice bunt and Alex Blandino was good for a sacrifice fly before Taylor poked a two-run jack.
Wilson drew three walks.
Cal answered in the bottom half when Andrew Knapp found the gap for a leadoff double and scored on Devon Rodriguez's single to right. Taylor dropped what would have been the second out and Jacob Wark tied it at 3-3 with his two-run single. Cal left the bases loaded.
Stanford had a chance to regain the lead one frame later, but Justin Ringo was gunned down at the plate by left fielder Brian Celsi on Danny Danny Diekroeger's fly out.
Cal took that momentum into the home half as Andrew Knapp sent an 0-2 offering to right for a leadoff homer.
Lonnie Kauppila put Stanford back in front, 5-4, with a two-run double.
Three strikeouts in the sixth gave Appel 10 on the evening.
Diekroeger moved Wilson to third on a hit-and-run single, and Wilson made it 6-4 in the seventh by scoring on Whiting's sacrifice fly.
Sitting on a 7-5 lead after Taylor's solo home run in the eighth, Garrett Hughes left two Cal runners in scoring position in the bottom half before allowing a three-spot in the ninth.
The series resumes at 6 p.m. (PT) Saturday evening.
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