April 13, 2000
THIS WEEK'S STANFORD GAMES
Friday, April 14 - Washington at #5 Stanford (6 pm)*
Saturday, April 15 - Washington at #5 Stanford (1 pm)*
Sunday, April 16 - Washington at #5 Stanford (1 pm)*
*Pac-10 game, All games broadcast live on KZSU 90.1 FM and www.gostanford.com
#5 Stanford (26-9, 6-3 Pac-10) will host Washington (14-17, 3-6 Pac-10) for a three-game series at Sunken Diamond this Friday-Sunday (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm). The Cardinal enters the series with a season-high-tying five-game win streak after a three-game sweep at Washington State last weekend, sandwiched between non-league wins over Sacramento State and San Jose State the past two Tuesdays. The Cardinal has won at least four games in a row on five different occasions this year. Stanford's offense came alive last week, scoring double digit runs in all four victories. The Cardinal then scratched out a 5-2 victory over San Jose State this past Tuesday as five pitchers combined to four-hit the Spartans. Stanford holds a 22-9 advantage in the all-time series versus Washington. The Cardinal won two-of-three games against the Huskies in Seattle last season (April 9-11). Washington eeked out a 3-2 victory in the series opener as Jason Young suffered one of his three losses on the year despite tossing a complete-game six-hitter. Stanford came back with an 11-inning, 7-4 victory Saturday. Billy Jacobson (4-6, 2B, RBI) had a career-high four hits, including a game-winning RBI double in the top of the 11th inning. Stanford erased an 8-3 deficit for a comeback 13-10 win in the series finale on Sunday. The Cardinal scored 10 runs in the final two innings as Jeff Rizzo hit a grand slam in the top of the ninth and picked up a career-high seven RBI. Jacobson again drove in the winning run when he was hit by a pitch with the score tied at 8-8 in the ninth. Washington defeated the Cardinal two-of-three games in a playoff between the Pac-10's North and South Division winners in 1997 and 1998. Stanford won two-of-three games the last time the teams played at Sunken Diamond (March 21-24, 1998).
UP NEXT FOR THE CARDINAL
Stanford will travel to #19 USC (23-13, 6-3 Pac-10) for a crucial Pac-10 series between a pair of teams currently tied for second place in the conference standings. The Cardinal and the Trojans have had a storied rivalry that continued with a three-game non-conference series earlier this season. Stanford won two of those three games (4-3, 7-11, 11-4) but USC leads the all-time series, 193-132-3. Stanford won the realigned Pac-10 title in 1999 with the Trojans finishing second. The Cardinal also outdueled the Trojans in one of the NCAA's inaugural Super Regionals to advance to last year's College World Series. Either Stanford or USC has won a Pac-10 title in each of the last six years. All told, the teams played eight times last year with Stanford winning five. Stanford captured two-of-three (10-7, 5-2, 7-9) the last time the teams played in Los Angeles from February 26-28, 1999. In the series earlier this season, Justin Wayne outdueled Mark Prior in the series opener with the Cardinal winning, 4-3. For Wayne, it was his second complete game of the season. Craig Thompson had four hits in Stanford 11-7 loss on Saturday, while Joe Borchard (2-5, HR, 5 RBI) and Edmund Muth (2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI) led Stanford's offensive attack in Sunday's 11-4 win.
STANFORD ADDS GAME ON MAY 1, CHANGES TIME OF APRIL 29 CAL GAME
The Cardinal has added a home game to its 2000 schedule versus USF on Monday, May 1 (6:00 p.m.). Stanford has also moved back the time of its April 29 contest versus California to 2:00 p.m., allowing for fans to attend both the Stanford Football spring game (12:15-1:15 p.m.) and the baseball game versus California.
RECENT CARDINAL ACTION
Stanford is on a season-high-tying five-game win streak after defeating San Jose State, 5-2, last Tuesday evening. Joe Borchard's two-RBI single with two outs in the top of the sixth broke a 2-2 tie. Five Stanford pitchers combined to four-hit the Spartans as the Cardinal avenged a 4-1 loss to San Jose State earlier in the season. Stanford's offense exploded last week as the Cardinal won all four of its games and scored double digit runs in each victory. Stanford began the week with an 18-2 win over Sacramento State. John Gall led the offensive ambush by going 4-for-4 with a double, two homers and five RBI. Craig Thompson was also 4-for-4 as the Cardinal pounded out a season-high 19 hits. Stanford opened last weekend's Pac-10 series at Washington State with a 14-3 win over the Cougars. Justin Wayne picked up the win to improve to 8-1 overall, Stanford picked up a season-high-tying 19 hits in an 11-3 win over the Cougars on Saturday. Jason Young struck out a season-high 15 batters in 8.0 innings to improve to 4-0 on the season. Stanford closed out the weekend sweep with a 16-0 victory on Sunday. The Cardinal jumped out to a 13-0 lead after three innings. Gall (3-4, HR, 3 RBI) again paced the offensive attack, while Tim Cunningham (2-1) recorded the victory in his third start of the season. Cunningham gave up just a pair of hits in 7.0 innings as he combined with Mike Gosling and Jeff Bruksch to record Stanford's second shutout of the season.
HITTING REPORT
Stanford's batting average has risen to .288, thanks to four double digit hit efforts in both runs and hits in last week. Stanford's batting average rose .016 last week and was the highest it had been since it stood at .296 following the third game of the season when it reached .289 prior to Tuesday's San Jose State game. The Cardinal lingered in the .260's for most of the early part of the season, falling as low as .258 following a game on March 3 versus Santa Clara. For the season, Stanford has scored double digit runs on seven occasions and recorded double digit hits 17 times. Stanford currently has five regular starters -- John Gall (.358), Craig Thompson (.349), Chris O'Riordan (.345), Eric Bruntlett (.323) and Edmund Muth (.312) -- hitting better than .310. Muth paces the team in homers (10), stolen bases (6), triples (3) and slugging percentage (.645), while Gall leads the squad with 44 RBI. Bruntlett (41 runs scored, 14 doubles, 30 bases on balls, .458 on base percentage) leads the team in four key offensive categories, while Thompson has a club-high 51 hits.
PITCHING REPORT
The Cardinal pitching staff has been excellent for most of the season. Stanford leads the Pac-10 in pitching with a 3.38 ERA. Cardinal pitchers have given up just 236 hits and 117 earned runs in 312.0 innings. Stanford pitchers have recorded 326 strikeouts and allowed only 126 walks (2.59-1 ratio). The team's top starter has been Justin Wayne (8-1, 1.95), while 1999 All-American Jason Young (4-0, 4.34) is beginning to return to his form of last season with a season-high 15 strikeouts in his last start. Tim Cunningham (2-1, 2.39, 1 SV) moved into the role of third starter last Sunday and responded by combining with Mike Gosling (2-2, 2.25, 2 SV) and Jeff Bruksch (2-2, 2.57, 6 SV) to shut out Washington State. Gosling and Brian Sager (3-1, 4.78) have also been in the role of the third starter this season, while Bruksch just entered Stanford's Top 10 list for single season saves with his sixth of the year at San Jose State last Tuesday.
DEFENSIVE REPORT
Stanford's defense has improved recently with just three errors during the five-game win streak after having previously gone through a bit of a rare slump. Stanford started off the season playing excellent defense, committing just seven errors in its first 17 games and lifting its fielding percentage as high as .988. The team's current .976 fielding percentage leads the Pac-10 and is second in the nation.
RED HOT JOHN GALL EARNS PAC-10 PLAYER OF THE WEEK HONORS
John Gall earned Pac-10 Player of the Week honors for the first time this season and the third time in his career after going 12-for-18 (.667) with three doubles, three homers and 11 RBI last week. During his current nine-game hitting streak, Gall is an amazing 20-37 (.541) with four doubles, six homers and 23 RBI. He has also scored 12 runs and accumulated 42 total bases for a 1.135 slugging percentage. In addition, he has five walks, a sacrifice fly, a stolen base and a .581 on base percentage.
JOHN GALL CLOSING IN ON STANFORD AND PAC-10 CAREER HIT RECORDS
John Gall has increased his career hit total to 325 and moved to within seven hits of passing Paul Carey's all-time Stanford record of 331. Gall is also just 13 hits shy of breaking the Pac-10 record of 337 career hits, set by Arizona's Chip Hale.
KEEPING AN EYE ON THE RECORD BOOK
John Gall, who has already broken Stanford's career RBI mark is making a run on several other Cardinal all-time records ... Gall's career batting average has risen back to .363 (325-895) as he has regained his top spot on the all-time Stanford batting average list ... Gall has 325 career hits and is primed to break Paul Carey's school record of 331 and Chip Hale's Pac-10 record of 337 in that category ... Gall also has 65 career doubles and is just three shy of breaking Troy Paulsen's school record of 67, in addition to ranking among Stanford leaders in home runs (42, 3rd-T) and at bats (895, 5th-T) ... Gall's career RBI record currently stands at 236.
Justin Wayne has improved his all-time record at Stanford to 24-2, which ranks as the top won-loss percentage (.923) by any pitcher in Stanford baseball history. Wayne has also moved into a sixth-place tie on Stanford's all-time strikeout list with 297 and is just one win shy of entering Stanford's record books for all-time victories ... He is also tied for 10th on Stanford's all-time save list with six.
Edmund Muth currently ranks seventh on Stanford's all-time home run list with 39 for his career and is 10th with 14 career triples. Muth leads the Cardinal with 10 homers this season and is third with 37 RBI. Muth is also ranked seventh on Stanford's all-time double list with 52 and just one run from entering Stanford's all-time top 10 list in that category with a current total of 190 career runs.
Jason Young has moved into 10th place on Stanford's all-time winning percentage list with a career record of 17-4 (.810) and is seven strikeouts away from entering Stanford's career strikeout Top 10 list with 263 for his career.
MORE NOTES
Edmund Muth, John Gall and Joe Borchard are engaged in a friendly battle for the team's RBI lead as Gall leads with 44, while Borchard (38) and Muth (37) trail closely ... Muth (3), Gall (3) and Borchard (5) account for all 11 of Stanford's homers in Pac-10 action ... Chris O'Riordan has hit safely in 12 of his last 13 games, going 19-for-43 (.442 over that span) ... Eric Bruntlett has walked 10 times in the last four games ... Stanford hit .377 in the Washington State series, outscoring the Cougars by a total of 41-6 ... Stanford has put together five win streaks of four or more games ... Mark Marquess won his 400th Pac-10 game at Washington State (4/9/00).
STANFORD IN THE NATIONAL POLLS
Stanford has risen to #5 in all three polls (Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball and USA Today Baseball Weekly) with its current five-game win streak. The #5 ranking follows a #7 in Baseball America last week, which was the lowest the Cardinal had been all season. Florida State is #1 in all three polls. Stanford began the season at #1 in all three polls before dropping four-of-six games during one stretch to fall out of the top spot in all three polls for the first time on February 14. The Cardinal finished the 1999 campaign ranked #3 in all three polls. Stanford's poll history includes a run as the "king of the polls" in 1998 when the Cardinal held the top spot in the Baseball America poll for a record 14 consecutive weeks.
STANFORD BASEBALL HISTORY
Stanford's storied baseball program has had many highlights as the program is currently in its 107th season with an all-time record of 2204-1423-32 (.607). Just a few of the highlights have included back-to-back NCAA Championships (1987, 1988), 11 College World Series appearances, 17 conference titles and 20 NCAA Tournament berths. Stanford has boasted a total of 39 All-Americans who have earned a total of 45 All-American honors, including NCAA Player of the Year choices Jeff Austin (1998), David McCarty (1991) and Steve Dunning (1970). Other numbers for the Cardinal baseball program include 92 all-conference players earning a total of 114 honors, 53 major league players (including 12 currently in Major League Baseball) and 10 first round draft picks in the last 13 years.
STANFORD SUPERLATIVES
(thru games of 4/11/00)
Overall Record: 26-9
Conference Record: 6-3
Post-Season Record: 0-0
Home Record: 12-5
Away Record: 14-4
Neutral Record: 0-0
Day Games: 17-6
Night Games: 9-3
Vs. Ranked Opponents: 8-6
according to Baseball America
On Television: 2-1
January: 2-0
February: 9-5
March: 10-2
April: 5-2
May: 0-0
June: 0-0
Monday: 1-1
Tuesday: 4-1
Wednesday: 0-0
Thursday: 0-0
Friday: 8-2
Saturday: 7-3
Sunday: 6-2
1-Run Games: 3-2
2-Run Games: 5-0
3+-Run Games: 18-7
Stanford Scores First: 17-4
Opponent Scores First: 9-5
Leading After 5 Innings: 22-4
Trailing After 5 Innings: 2-4
Tied After 5 Innings: 2-1
Leading After 8 Innings: 25-0
Trailing After 8 Innings: 0-9
Tied After 8 Innings: 1-0
TOP HITTING STREAKS
15, Eric Bruntlett (5/30/99 - 2/12/00)
10, Edmund Muth (3/25/00 - 4/9/00)
10, Eric Bruntlett (2/29/00 - 3/25/00)
9, John Gall (3/28/00 - 4/11/00)
9, Craig Thompson (3/3/00 - 3/25/00)
8, Craig Thompson (1/28/00 - 2/12/00)
7, Joe Borchard (4/1/00 - 4/11/00)
7, Billy Jacobson (3/3/00 - 3/21/00)
7, Chris O'Riordan (3/19/00 - 4/1/00)
*Current Streaks In Bold
2000 HONORS
PRESEASON ALL-AMERICANS
Joe Borchard, Edmund Muth, Brian Sager, Justin Wayne, Jason Young
COLLEGIATE BASEBALL NATIONAL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
3/7/00 - Justin Wayne
PAC-10 PITCHER OF THE WEEK
3/7/00 - Justin Wayne, 3/21/00 - Mike Gosling
4/2/00 - Justin Wayne
PAC-10 PLAYER OF THE WEEK
4/10/00 - John Gall
HEAD COACH MARK MARQUESS AND THE STANFORD COACHING STAFF
The Stanford baseball coaching staff is headed by Mark Marquess, who is in his 24th season at the helm on The Farm. Marquess is one of the premier collegiate coaches in the nation. He has been named NCAA Coach of the Year three times and has received Pacific-10 Coach of the Year honors on eight occasions, including each of the last three seasons. Marquess was named the Pac-10 Southern Division Coach of the Year seven times before being named the first Pac-10 Coach of Year in the newly aligned league format beginning in 1999. He has posted a 971-491-5 (.664) overall record at Stanford, including an impressive 400-269 (.598) mark in Pacific-10 Conference action. He picked up his 950th win versus Cal State Fullerton on February 6, 2000. He is just 29 victories from becoming the 23rd coach in the history of Division I collegiate baseball to post 1,000 career wins. Marquess took over sole possession of 23rd place on the NCAA Division I all-time victory list with a win at California on February 25 and is 16th on the NCAA's active victory list for Division I coaches. The 1969 Stanford graduate has led the Cardinal to two NCAA Championships (1987, `88), nine College World Series appearances (1983, `84, `85, `87, `90, `94, `97, `98, `99), nine Pac-10 regular season titles and 17 NCAA Tournament showings. He also coached the Cardinal to victory in one of the NCAA's inaugural Super Regionals last season, won eight of the last 16 Pac-10 Southern Division (Six-Pac) championships and captured the reunified 1999 Pac-10 title. Even more eye-opening than the number of titles won by the Cardinal is the consistent level of success Marquess has brought to the program. The Cardinal has suffered just one losing season during his tenure, won nearly 60 percent of its Pac-10 games and has finished either first or second in the prestigious Pacific-10 (formerly Six-Pac) 17 times in the last 19 seasons. A member of the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame, Marquess was the head coach of the 1988 United States Olympic baseball team which captured the Gold Medal. Marquess was an accomplished football and baseball standout on The Farm, and is a member of the Stanford Athletic Hall of Fame. He is one of only six collegiate head baseball coaches to have both played and coached in the College World Series. Marquess was the starting first baseman on Stanford's 1967 College World Series squad. Dean Stotz also is in his 24th campaign with the Cardinal and recently was promoted to associate head coach prior to the 2000 season. Mark O'Brien (2nd season) and Tom Kunis (1st season) complete the Cardinal coaching staff. Tom Dunton, who served 25 seasons as Stanford's pitching coach, is an administrative assistant.
MEDIA INFORMATION
WEBSITE
You can access the Stanford Athletics Website throughout the year for updated information on the Stanford Baseball team. Go to www.gostanford.com and then click on "Sportsfinder" or "Choose A Sport". You can then choose "baseball" from the various home pages of Stanford Athletics teams listed.
EMAIL
To be placed on the Stanford Baseball Media Email List and receive regular email updates about the Stanford Baseball team, please contact Kyle McRae at (650) 725-2959 or kyle.mcrae@stanford.edu.
CREDENTIALS
Requests for press, radio, television and photo credentials should be addressed to Kyle McRae.
INTERVIEWS
All coach and player interviews should be directed through Kyle McRae. Requests for feature article interviews must be submitted at least 24 hours in advance. Head coach Mark Marquess and selected players will be available for interviews in the Stanford dugout approximately 10 minutes following each game.
STANFORD BASEBALL BROADCASTS
All remaining Stanford Baseball games will be broadcast live on KZSU (90.1 FM) and over the internet at www.gostanford.com.
BROADCASTING ARRANGEMENTS
Requests for visiting broadcasting privileges and contracts at Sunken Diamond should be addressed to Kyle McRae as far in advance as possible.