May 8, 2003
Richmond, Vir. - Stanford senior catcher Ryan Garko (Walnut, CA/Servite HS) has been named the Collegiate Baseball Insider West Regional Player of the Week, adding to the NCBWA Co-National Hitter of the Week and Pac-10 Player of the Week honors he received earlier this week. Garko earned all three honors for the first time in his career.
Garko had a huge series in Stanford's key three-game sweep at USC (May 3-4), going 10-for-13 (.769) with three home runs, 12 RBI and a 1.615 slugging percentage as the Cardinal moved 1.5 games ahead of idle Arizona State in the Pac-10 standings. Garko added two doubles, six runs scored, 21 total bases, two walks, a sacrifice fly and one stolen base in the series. He was 4-for-4 with two homers, his first career grandslam, a career-high seven RBI and a stolen base in the series finale and the second game of a doubleheader on Sunday. He was also 2-for-3 with two RBI in Sunday's opener and finished the doubleheader 6-for-7 with two homers, nine RBI and a stolen base. In Saturday's series opener, Garko was 4-for-6 with a double, homer and three RBI. Both of Garko's four-hit games tied career-highs. In four games for the week, Garko hit .588 (10-17) with three homers, 12 RBI, 21 total bases, a 1.235 slugging percentage, two doubles, six runs scored, two walks, one sacrifice fly and one stolen base. Garko is hitting .391 on the season with 13 homers, a career-high 64 RBI and a .698 slugging percentage.
Stanford (32-14, 13-5 Pac-10) currently leads the Pac-10 standings by one and a half games over Arizona State (44-9, 10-5 Pac-10) and two games over Arizona (33-17, 11-7 Pac-10). The Cardinal concludes a season-long seven-game road trip with a three-game conference series at California (27-24, 10-11 Pac-10) this Friday-Sunday, May 9-11 (2:30 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm). Stanford has won a season-best 11 straight road games.