EUGENE, Ore. -- No. 8 Stanford baseball broke a 4-4 tie in the sixth inning to defeat the No. 25 Oregon Ducks 6-4 Sunday. Stanford now returns home for a Tuesday night matchup with Sacramento State at Sunken Diamond.
Junior Drew Dowd (4-2) picked up the victory out of the bullpen for Stanford (23-10, 11-4), retiring all 11 batters he faced while striking out six.
Offensively, the Cardinal was led by sophomore Braden Montgomery, who celebrated his birthday by going 2-for-3 with a home run, two walks and two RBI. Junior Alberto Rios put together a strong performance at the plate as well, going 2-for-4 with a double, a walk and two RBI. Junior Tommy Troy also chipped in for Stanford, putting together one hit in three trips to the plate while adding two walks.
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Cardinal trailed 4-0 in the third inning when they first put runs on the board. Rios' RBI double, Stanford's first hit of the day, was the key in Stanford's three-run inning.
The Cardinal kept the deficit at 4-3 before tying the game in the fifth on Montgomery's leadoff home run off of senior Matt Dallas, which evened the score at 4-4.
That 4-4 tie turned into a 6-4 Stanford lead in the seventh. Montgomery's run-scoring single highlighted a two-run frame for the Cardinal. Dowd kept the score at 6-4 to close out the win.
GAME NOTES
» Dowd struck out six Ducks hitters and junior Joey Dixon fanned five for the Cardinal.
» Stanford pitchers faced 33 Oregon hitters in the game, allowing seven ground balls and nine fly balls while striking out 11.
» The Cardinal drew 10 walks from Oregon pitching.