April 18, 2004
at
No. 2 Stanford (28-5, 6-2 Pac-10)
Friday, April 16
at Stanford 7, California 4
Saturday, April 17, 1 pm
at Stanford 9, California 2
Sunday, April 18, 1 pm
TBA vs. LHP Blake Holler (3-2, 4.65)
MEDIA COVERAGE
Gametracker: Sunday
Live Audio: gostanford.com ... Sam Stefanki and Mike Etchepare will handle the broadcast ... A Gametracker with live stats will also be available from a link at gostanford.com.
QUICK TEAM NOTES
Stanford has held onto its spot on top of the Pac-10 standings with a 6-2 conference record after winning the first two games of its current series versus California, 7-4 on Friday night and 9-2 Saturday ... The Cardinal is one full game ahead of USC (5-3 Pac-10), while Arizona and Washington are tied for third with 4-3 marks ... Stanford is the No. 2 team in the nation in all four of the latest major college baseball national polls released on Monday, April 12 (Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA and Sports Weekly/ESPN) ... Last week, Stanford had been the country's No. 1 team in the Baseball America (for the seventh consecutive week) and Collegiate Baseball polls, while ranking second in the NCBWA and Sports Weekly/ESPN polls ... Stanford's 28-5 record is the third-best in school history after 33 games following the 1982 (29-3-1) and 1967 (28-3-2) clubs ... The Cardinal has won all 10 of its regular season series this year and ran its overall series win streak to 14 with wins in the first two games of its current series versus California ... Stanford has also won 22 of its last 23 series dating back to last season ... Stanford goes for its first Pac-10 sweep of the season, its fifth of the year and its eighth during its current 14-series win streak this afternoon versus California ... Stanford has won 15 straight games and six consecutive series against the Golden Bears ... Stanford will play 15 of its remaining 23 regular season games at home, where the Cardinal has won 23 of its last 24 contests and has a 14-1 record this season ... Stanford has also won 28 of its last 32 true road games, finishing last year with a 14-game win streak in true road games and beginning this season with a 14-4 mark away from Sunken Diamond ... All told, the Cardinal has a 51-9 record in its last 60 games dating back to the 2003 campaign ... Stanford has come from behind in 12 of its 28 wins this year and is 4-5 when either tied or trailing heading into the ninth inning (2-1 tied, 2-4 trailing) ... Stanford is 5-1 this season against ranked teams ... Stanford has been errorless in 12 of its first 33 games ... The Cardinal has more than doubled its opponents scoring (299-143) as 24 of its 28 wins have been by three or more runs and 13 of its winning margins have been by six runs or better ... Stanford is currently hitting a season-high and Pac-10-leading .326, while averaging 9.1 runs per contest and posting 10 or more runs in five of its last nine contests ... The Cardinal has also reached double-digits in hits in a season-high nine straight games and 26 times this season ... The pitching staff leads the Pac-10 with a 3.94 ERA, while the Cardinal ranks second in the conference with a .972 fielding percentage ... Stanford is looking to extend its school record string of consecutive appearances at the College World Series to six, as well as its string of 40-win season to 10, while Stanford has won 50 or more games in three of the last four seasons ... Stanford has captured 11 Pac-10 titles in the last 21 years and finished either first or second in the conference 21 times in last 23 seasons.
QUICK INDIVIDUAL NOTES
National Player of the Year candidate Jed Lowrie leads the Cardinal in nearly every offensive category - batting average (.393), runs scored (43), doubles (7, shares team-lead), triples (4), homers (10), RBI (45), extra-base hits (21), total bases (93), slugging percentage (.762), bases on balls (29), on-base percentage (.506), sacrifice flies (5) and multiple-RBI games (16) ... Jonny Ash leads the team with 51 hits and 16 multiple-hit games, while ranking just behind Lowrie with a .375 batting average ... Brian Hall has moved up to third on the club with a .369 batting average during a current career-high hit streak of 18 games (3/5 - 4/17) ... Hall's hit streak is the longest by a Stanford player this season as his average has risen 161 points during the streak from a season-low .208 ... Hall also leads the team with 10 stolen bases and shares the team lead with seven doubles, while contributing seven homers and 32 RBI ... Hall and Jeff Stimpson swept the Pac-10 Player and Pitcher of the Week honors when the awards for the week ending April 11 were announced this Tuesday ... Danny Putnam is the team's co-leader in homers (10) after hitting two on Saturday, while adding a .355 batting average and ranking third on the club with 35 RBI ... John Mayberry shares the team's lead with seven doubles, while ranking second in homers (9) and RBI (38), as well as fifth in batting average (.351) ... Ryan Seawell (.345) and Donny Lucy (.331) are the team's other players hitting better than .300 ... Lucy hit a pair of homers for the first time in his career on Saturday and has a current career-high 10-game hit streak ... Sam Fuld (.283, 1 HR, 18 RBI, 4 SB) broke Stanford's all-time runs scored record when he crossed the plate for the 245th time in his career on Saturday and is also among Stanford's all-time leaders in hits (327, #3), at bats (960, #3), triples (16, #3T), doubles (58, #6T) and games played (233, #7) ... Mark Romanczuk leads the team with seven wins, while David O'Hagan has a team-high four saves and the lowest ERA (2.60) among pitchers with at least one inning per team game played ... Jeff Stimpson has an 0.48 ERA in 18.2 frames.
ALL-TIME SERIES
Stanford has won 15 straight games and six straight series versus the Golden Bears and holds an all-time 226-207 advantage in the 433 career meetings between the schools. Stanford has won the first two games of the current series between the teams with a 7-4 victory in the series-opener on Friday and a 9-2 win Saturday. Earlier this season, Stanford swept a non-conference series against California in Berkeley (February 27-29; W, 12-9; W, 10-3; W, 6-2). Stanford beat the Golden Bears in all six meetings last year, sweeping a non-conference series on The Farm from March 7-9 (W, 11-2; W, 9-4; W, 11-2) before taking a trio of close conference games May 9-11 in Berkeley (W, 9-8; W, 6-4; W, 5-4 - 10 inn.). The 15-game win streak extends back to the 2002 season when the Cardinal won the final four games between the teams. California last won a series against the Cardinal when the Golden Bears took two-of-three in Berkeley from April 27-29, 2001. California has not won a season series versus the Cardinal since taking four-of-six in 1978.
2004 VERSUS CALIFORNIA
Stanford 12, at California 9 (February 27, 2004) - Jed Lowrie (3-3, 3 3B, 4 RBI) hit the first three triples of his career, drove in a career-high-tying four runs and reached base in all six at bats to lead Stanford to a 12-9 victory over California. Jonny Ash (3-5, 2 RBI) also had a three-hit day for the Cardinal, while Donny Lucy (2-5, HR, RBI) and Brian Hall (1-4, HR, RBI) homered. Jonny Dyer picked up the victory by limiting the Golden Bears to one run on four hits with one strikeout over 2.1 innings. David O'Hagan came on in the eighth and pitched 2.0 scoreless one-hit innings with a strikeout to earn a save. California's James Holder (4-5, 2B, HR, 4 RBI) had a game-high four hits. Matt Swanson, the fourth of six California pitchers, took the loss by allowing three runs and three hits with two strikeouts over 2.0 innings.
Stanford 10, at California 3 (February 28, 2004) - Stanford assured its fifth consecutive series victory over California with a 10-3 victory. Danny Putnam (3-5, HR, 2 RBI) led Stanford's 11-hit attack, while Jed Lowrie (2-3, 2B, 3 RBI, SB) drove in three runs. Jeff Gilmore scattered six hits and allowed just three runs over a career-high-tying 7.0 innings to earn the victory, striking out two and not walking a batter. Gilmore had perfect 1-2-3 innings in the first, second and fourth frames, while Stanford's only double play of the game helped him face just three batters in the sixth.
Stanford 6, at California 2 (February 29, 2004) - Stanford won its 13th straight game against California by completing a three-game non-conference sweep of the Golden Bears with a 6-2 victory. The win also marked the seventh consecutive win for the Cardinal at California's Evans Diamond. Blake Holler worked 7.0 innings to earn the victory, allowing just one run and five hits with four strikeouts. John Mayberry, Jr. (3-5, 2B, 3 RBI) led Stanford's 13-hit attack, while Donny Lucy (2-4, HR, RBI) hit his second homer of the series. Jonny Dyer got the final two outs in the bottom of the ninth to earn his first collegiate save.
at Stanford 7, California 4 (April 16, 2004) - Brian Hall (4-4, 2B, RBI) extended his career-high hit streak to 17 games and tied a career-high with four hits to lead Stanford to its 14th straight victory over California. Mark Romanczuk picked up his seventh victory of the season on the mound by allowing just five hits and four runs over the first 7.0 innings, while Jeff Stimpson came on to pitch 2.0 hitless innings of relief with two strikeouts to earn his first collegiate save. California scored all four of its runs by hitting three home runs. Danny Putnam (2-3, 3B, RBI) and Chris Carter (2-3, RBI) had two hits each for the Cardinal, while Chris Minaker drove in a pair of runs. Jeff Dragicevich and Brian Horwitz had solo shots in the third and fourth innings for the first two Golden Bear runs, while a two-run homer by David Weiner with no outs in the eighth chased Romanczuk.California starter Adam Gold (5.0 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 6 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO) suffered the loss.
at Stanford 9, California 2 (April 17, 2004) - Danny Putnam (3-4, 2 HR, 5 RBI) and Donny Lucy (2-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI) each homered twice to lead Stanford to its 15th consecutive win over California by a score of 9-2. Sam Fuld also broke Stanford's all-time record for runs scored, while Brian Hall extended his career-high hit streak to 18 games. Jeff Gilmore pitched the first complete game of his career and the first by a Cardinal pitcher this season, allowing just two runs and five hits with a walk and four strikeouts. Chris Minaker (3-4, 2B, SB) and Jed Lowrie (3-4, RBI) added three-hit games for the Cardinal. Allen Craig (2-3) was the only California player with more than one hit, while Chris Grossman drove in a pair of runs. California starter Mike Padgett (2.2 IP, 7 H, 3 R, 3 ER, 2 BB, 1 SO) took the loss.
THIS WEEK
at Stanford 12, Santa Clara 3 (April 13, 2004) - Sam Fuld scored twice to tie the school's all-time runs scored record in Stanford's 12-3 non-conference victory over Santa Clara. The Cardinal scored five times in the bottom of the first inning as Danny Putnam's three-run homer keyed the outburst. Jed Lowrie (3-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI) and John Hester (3-5, 3 RBI) added three hits and three RBI each for the Cardinal with Lowrie blasing a two-run shot in the second inning for his team-leading 10th long ball of the season. Brian Hall extended his career-high hit streak to 16 games and stole his team-leading ninth base. Matt Leva - the first of five Stanford pitchers that combined on a six-hitter - was credited with the victory. Nathan Faulkner (2-4, HR, 2 RBI) homered and had a pair of hits for the Broncos.
LAST WEEK
Stanford 11, at Oregon State 8 (April 8, 2004) - Stanford scored seven runs in the final two innings and John Mayberry, Jr. hit a pair of home runs in an 11-8 victory over Oregon State. Stanford trailed 7-4 before tying the game with a three-run eighth inning and scoring four more runs in the ninth. Donny Lucy's two-RBI single in the ninth proved to be the game-winner, while Brian Hall hit a game-tying two-run homer in the eighth two batters after Mayberry led off the inning with a tape measure blast. Mayberry (2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI) hit a pair of homers for the second time this season. David O'Hagan picked up the victory, while Kevin Gunderson suffered the loss. Chris Campos (2-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI) and Paul Richie (2-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI) both doubled, homered and drove in three runs for Oregon State.
at Oregon State 5, Stanford 4 (April 9, 2004) - Oregon State held off a late comeback by Stanford for a 5-4 victory. Stanford closed an early 5-1 Oregon State lead to a one run on Jed Lowrie's two-run homer in the top of the eighth inning but left five runners stranded in the final two frames. Oregon State reliever Ben Rowe picked up the first save of his career after coming on with two outs and runners on the corners in the top of the ninth inning to strike out John Mayberry, Jr. Mike Lissman (2-4, 2 HR, 4 RBI) provided most of the offensive punch for the Beavers with a pair of homers and four RBI, while Chris Campos was 3-for-3. Jake Postlewait scattered four runs and nine hits with five strikeouts over 7.1 innings in his winning performance. Blake Holler suffered the loss, allowing five runs and seven hits with two strikeouts and a walk in 3.2 innings. Brian Hall (2-3, HR, RBI), Ryan Seawell (2-4, 2B) and Sam Fuld (2-5, 2B) had two-hit games for the Cardinal.
Stanford 16, at Oregon State 4 (April 10, 2004) - Stanford scored seven runs in the top of the first inning and homered a season-high-tying five times to take a 16-4 victory over Oregon State in the rubber game of a three-game series. Donny Lucy (3-4, HR, 2 RBI), Brian Hall (3-5, HR, 3 RBI), Chris Carter (2-4, HR, 3 RBI), Danny Putnam (2-5, 2B, HR, season-high 4 RBI) and John Mayberry, Jr. (1-3, HR, 2 RBI) all homered for the Cardinal. Jonny Ash (4-6, RBI) recorded a career-high-tying four hits. Jeff Stimpson earned his first collegiate victory by striking out a career-high six batters in 2.2 hitless frames. Chris Campos (3-5, 2 HR, 4 RBI) homered twice and drove in four runs for Oregon State.