April 8, 2005
vs.
Oregon State Beavers (24-4, 3-0 Pac-10)
Saturday, April 9 - Game 1
LHP Mark Romanczuk (5-3, 3.98) vs. RHP Dallas Buck (6-0, 0.84)
Saturday, April 9 - Game 2
RHP Jeff Gilmore (5-1, 3.20) vs. LHP Anton Maxwell (5-0, 4.03)
Sunday, April 10
TBA vs. RHP Jonah Nickerson (6-0, 1.17)
LIVE GAME COVERAGE
Audio Broadcast (Scott Allen, Sean Bruich and Jeff Love)
Webcast: 
Saturday
Gametracker: Saturday - Game 1 | Sunday
STANFORD-OREGON STATE SERIES HISTORY
All-Time Series: Stanford 34-15
2004 Results: Series - Stanford 2-1 (at Oregon State, April 8-10) Stanford 11-8, Oregon State 5-4, Stanford 16-4
Last Meeting At Stanford: Series - Stanford 2-1 (April 17-19, 2003) Stanford 5-2, Oregon State 8-7, Stanford 10-0
Series Notes: Stanford has won two-of-three games in each of its last two series with Oregon State after the Beavers had won two-of-three from the Cardinal in a three-game set in Corvallis during the 2002 campaign Stanford has won five of the six series played between the clubs since the Pac-10 North and South Divisions merged in 1999, including three-game sweeps of the Beavers in 1999 and 2001
STANFORD NOTES
Awesome April - Stanford has tied a season-best win streak by posting a 4-0 record in its first four contests of April after posting a modest 14-9 record through its March slate Most recently, Stanford erased a six-run deficit in a 7-6 comeback win over Santa Clara at Sunken Diamond this past Tuesday Stanford extended a string of Pac-10 series-opening victories to 10 by sweeping a three-game set at Washington State last Friday-Sunday The Cardinal has also won five of its last seven league opening games since the Pac-10 North and South Divisions merged in 1999
Two-Time Defending Pac-10 Champs - Stanford is the two-time defending Pac-10 champions, has won at least a share of a Pac-10 or Southern Division title in six of the last eight years and has picked up 20 conference titles in school history Stanford, who was picked in a preseason poll of the Pac-10 coaches to win the conference title again in 2005, is currently only one of two teams without a blemish on its mark this season with a current 3-0 conference record (Oregon State is the other) The Cardinal is one-half game behind league-leader Arizona (5-1 Pac-10)
Rankings - Stanford moves up two spots to No. 10 in this week's Baseball America poll (April 4) after having been at No. 12 for the previous three weeks Stanford returns to the Top 10 in the Baseball America poll for the first since dropping out after being swept at Texas February 18-20 Stanford had been among Baseball America's Top 10 every week since February 10, 2003, prior to the recent six-week stretch Stanford is No. 11 in both the Sports Weekly/ESPN (even) and NCBWA (+1) polls, while jumping up four spots to No. 12 in the latest Collegiate Baseball rankings Stanford has been ranked No. 1 in the Baseball America poll at some point in the season during seven of the last eight campaigns prior to this season but has not reached the top in 2005 Texas is the No. 1 teams this week in the Baseball America, NCBWA and Sports Weekly polls, while Cal State Fullerton is Collegiate Baseball's top squad
This Week's Remaining Opponents (Oregon State) - Oregon State heads into its showdown series at Stanford with a 24-4 record that is the school's best start since the 1962 club opened the season 26-2, as well as with a No. 16 ranking in the Baseball America poll that is highest in the history of the program The Beavers, who swept California in their opening Pac-10 series last Friday-Sunday to run their current win streak to seven games, have done it with both pitching and hitting Oregon State has a stellar 2.76 ERA that leads the second-best mark of 3.62 Stanford has posted by .88 points, while the Beavers are hitting at a .324 clip that is second only to Arizona's league-leading .337 team batting average Oregon State's .969 fielding percentage ranks sixth in the conference Individually, the Beavers boast the Pac-10's batting average (.448) and stolen base (16) leader in Jacoby Ellsbury, as well as a pair of pitchers in Dallas Buck (6-0, 0.84) and Jonah Nickerson (6-0, 1.17) that share the Pac-10 in wins while ranking 1-2 in ERA, and the conference's save leader in Kevin Gunderson (6)
Home Series Win Streak Stands At 14 - Stanford has won 14 straight regular season home series dating back to Arizona taking two-of-three on The Farm from April 25-27, 2003 The run includes five straight Pac-10 home series
Head Coach Mark Marquess - Head coach Mark Marquess, in his 29th season at the helm of the Stanford program, now has an all-time record of 1208-574-5 (.677) On March 5, 2005, he became just the 16th NCAA Division I head coach to reach the 1200-career win mark when Stanford defeated California by a score of 10-3 at Sunken Diamond He is currently ranked ninth among active Division I coaches in wins and is 16th on the NCAA's all-time list
Recent Action - Stanford has won a season-high-tying four straight games, sweeping its first Pac-10 series of the season at Washington State last Friday-Sunday before a non-conference victory over Santa Clara at Sunken Diamond this past Tuesday (April 1 - Stanford 14, at Washington State 5) Stanford opened Pac-10 play with a convincing 14-5 victory at Washington State as Michael Taylor (4-5, 3 2B, 3 RBI) had the first four-hit game of his career, while adding a career-best three doubles and a career-high-tying three RBI. Stanford pounded out a season-high 20 hits with 10 for extra bases. Mark Romanczuk earned the victory, pitching shutout baseball through the first five innings before giving up three in the sixth frame, while Nolan Gallagher tossed the 3.0 innings to earn the save (April 2 - Stanford 11, at Washington State 4) Jed Lowrie (3-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI) homered twice for the third time in his career to lead Stanford to an 11-4 victory over Washington State, while Jeff Gilmore earned the victory despite allowing a season-high 10 hits and giving up four runs over a 5.2 inning performance that was his shortest start since his only loss at Texas on February 19 (April 3 - Stanford 8, at Washington State 6) Stanford completed a three-game Pac-10 opening sweep with an 8-6 comeback victory over Washington State. A hard-hit two-out RBI single by John Mayberry, Jr. scored Adam Sorgi with the go-ahead run in the eighth and a ninth inning single by Jim Rapoport (4-5, 2B, SB), who had the first four-hit game of his career, gave the Cardinal an insurance run. Blake Holler improved to a perfect 5-0 by picking up the victory out of the bullpen, holding the Cougars scoreless over the final 2.1 frames despite giving up two hits, hitting two batters and walking another (April 5 - at Stanford 7, Santa Clara 6) Brendan Domaracki's RBI triple in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Michael Taylor with the game-winning run to lift Stanford to a 7-6 comeback victory over Santa Clara in a non-conference game. Domaracki (2-2, 3B, RBI), Jim Rapoport (2-3, SB) and Michael Taylor (2-4, SB) had two hits each for the Cardinal, while John Mayberry, Jr. and Jed Lowrie both drove in a pair of runs. Matt Manship recorded the victory as the third of five Stanford pitchers by shutting the Broncos out in the sixth and seventh frames, allowing just one hit and striking out two. Stanford trailed 6-0 after four innings before mounting its comeback.
Jed Lowrie ... Named Pac-10 Player of the Week - Stanford's National Player of the Year candidate and First Team Preseason All-American was named the Pac-10 Player of the Week for the first in his career on April 5 after hitting .500 (7-14) in four games the previous week and highlighting his week with the third two-homer game of his career in an 11-4 win at Washington State on April 2 Lowrie has put up nice power numbers, this season leading the team in homers (10, #2 Pac-10), RBI (40, #5 Pac-10), slugging percentage (.714, #1 Pac-10), total bases (70, #10 Pac-10), sacrifice flies (7, #1 Pac-10), walks (17) and runs scored (26, shares team lead) to go with a .333 batting average that is third on the club Defensively, he has made just one error in 120 defensive chances for a .991 fielding percentage while starting all 27 of the team's games
 Jim Rapoport leads the team with a .358 batting average after hitting safely in 12 of his last 13 games  | |
Jim Rapoport - Stanford's hottest hitter now leads the team in batting average with a .358 mark after hitting safely in 12 of his last 13 games with a pair of career-high-tying six-game hit streaks (February 27 - March 24 and March 26 - April 5) surrounding the only blemish during the run Rapoport is hitting a team-best .500 (23-46) during the 13-game stretch, adding 12 runs scored, a double, a triple, seven RBI, eight walks and seven stolen bases He has raised his average 127 points during the run, from .231 to its current season-high mark of .358
John Mayberry, Jr. - Stanford's National Player of the Year candidate and First Team Preseason All-American has hit safely in each contest on Stanford's current four-game win streak, going 8-for-18 (.444) with four doubles and seven RBI, while picking up multiple-hit contests during each of the first three games of the stretch Mayberry, who had just one hit in 11 at bats in three games prior to his current run, is second on the club with a .343 batting average while ranking second on the team in RBI (29) and tied for second in homers (4) Mayberry also boasts the team's longest hit streak of the season at eight games (February 5-20) and has a team-high 14 multiple-hit games overall, while ranking second on the team with nine multiple-RBI contests
Jeff Gilmore - Has arguably been Stanford's most effective pitcher this season, posting a 5-1 record with a 3.20 ERA (#10 Pac-10) and a .217 opponents' batting average (#8 Pac-10) that are both the second-lowest among all Stanford pitchers with at least one inning pitched per team game played Paces the team in innings pitched (56.1, #4 Pac-10), while ranking second in strikeouts (41) and starts (8, #8T Pac-10), as well as tied for second in appearances (9) Ironically, leads the team and is second in the Pac-10 with 14 hit batters, including 12 in his last 21.0 frames 15.1 innings over his past three appearances
Mark Romanczuk - Has won 28 career games at Stanford (28-7), good for a sixth-place tie on Stanford's all-time win list with Bruce Mignano (1979-82) and is just nine victories behind all-time school-leader Jeff Ballard's 37 from 1982-85 Romanczuk, who has a current 5-3 record and a 3.98 ERA with a team-high 44 strikeouts in 54.1 innings (#5T Pac-10) over nine starts (#2T Pac-10), is on the Roger Clemens Award Watch list for the award given annually to the nation's top pitcher
Michael Taylor - Stanford's highly heralded freshman has raised his average to a season-high .293 by collecting multiple-hit contests in four of his last eight games, hitting .464 (13-28) over the period The run included his four-hit game in the Pac-10 opener at Washington State (April 1) when he was 4-for-5 with a career-high three doubles and a career-high-tying three RBI
Pitching Staff - Stanford's pitching staff has a 3.62 ERA through 27 games as the Cardinal is attempting to record an ERA under 4.00 for the fourth time in the last six seasons Stanford's current mark is its second-lowest since the team recorded a 3.44 ERA in 1977 with the only exception the final 3.50 ERA posted by the 2001 club Opponents are hitting just .242 against Cardinal pitching
Outstanding Defense - Stanford has a current overall team fielding percentage of .980 that leads the Pac-10 and is three percentage points higher than the school record pace of .977 set by the 2001 club despite making six errors in its last five contests Stanford has played errorless baseball in 13 of its 27 games, including a season-high stretch of four in a row from March 20-26 In fact, Stanford has played outstanding defense in the past five seasons with five of its top seven team fielding percentages recorded during the period
Offense Coming Back - Stanford's offense looks to rebounding from early season woes as the Cardinal has raised its batting average to a .293 mark that is tied for its highest since dropping to .275 after the first game of a three-game set at Cal State Fullerton way back on February 4 Stanford is trying to extend a string of consecutive seasons with a batting average of .300 or better to 10 in a row with the Cardinal actually hitting .307 or better in each of its last nine campaigns Stanford had recently dropped back down to .280 before collecting 54 hits over the team's four-game win streak, including a season-high 20 at Washington State on April 1 to start the run Stanford's current 6.7 run per game average is down 1.6 runs from last season's final average, when the Cardinal scored 8.3 runs per contest
Comeback Kids - Stanford has come from behind in eight of its 18 victories this season, most recently when the team made its biggest comeback of the season by turning a 6-0 deficit into a 7-6 victory over Santa Clara at Sunken Diamond on April 5 Stanford has also trailed at one point in victories over Fresno State (January 29, January 30 - Game 2), Kansas (February 12), USC (February 26), California (March 5, March 6 - Game 2), Pacific (March 20) and Washington State (April 3)
Soggy Season - Stanford has had five games postponed due to wet weather conditions this season The Cardinal had its season-opener versus Fresno State (January 28) postponed, as well as series-openers against Kansas (February 11), California (February 25) and Pacific (March 19), and a single game against San Jose State (March 22) Stanford made up the first three games as part of doubleheaders before playing the Pacific contest on March 24 The San Jose State rainout has been not rescheduled yet
Stanford Snaps Two-Game Home Losing Streak - Stanford had dropped two straight home games (Sacramento State, 4-3, April 25; Pacific, 2-0 in 10 inn., April 29) before coming from behind for a 7-6 win over Santa Clara at Sunken Diamond in its most recent home game this past Tuesday, April 5 The two-game losing skid had marked the first time Stanford has lost consecutive games at Sunken Diamond since falling to Arizona (11-6) and Santa Clara (2-0) on April 27 and 29, 2003 Stanford is 12-4 at home this season and has won 52 of its last 62 contests overall at Sunken Diamond
Great Improvement On The Road - Stanford has now won five straight road games after beginning the season with a 1-5 mark away from Sunken Diamond Stanford had also lost four straight regular season road series (its longest since dropping seven consecutive regular season series away from Sunken Diamond from April 29, 1988 - April 10, 1989) before sweeping Washington State last Friday-Sunday
Winners - Stanford has won 40 or more games in a school record 10 consecutive campaigns and posted 11 consecutive winnings seasons, as well as 39 in the last 40 years and 56 in the past 58
Omaha - Stanford has captured two national titles (1987, 1988) and advanced to the College World Series 15 times, including 13 appearances in the last 23 years and for a school record five consecutive seasons from 1999-2003
Schedule Change - Stanford and Santa Clara have announced that two games to be played between the teams will reverse their locations The April 26 game will now be played at Stanford, while the May 10 contest moves to Santa Clara
Two Games At Arizona State To Be Televised - A pair of Stanford games at Arizona State (April 15, 16) will be televised locally in Arizona on AZ-TV The games are not on satellite and are available only in the Arizona area
Bay Area Boys - Stanford has an unusually high number of local products on its 2005 team this season with eight players from the Bay Area donning a Cardinal uniform (Erik Davis, Mountain View/Mountain View HS Darren Gemoll, San Jose/Leland HS Zach Gianos, Menlo Park/Menlo-Atherton HS Cameron Matthews, Mountain View/Los Altos HS Rex Petrill, Los Altos/St. Francis HS Greg Reynolds, Pacifica/Terra Nova HS Ryan Seawell, Menlo Park/Menlo School David Stringer, Palo Alto/Palo Alto HS)
Oregon Ties - Junior second baseman Jed Lowrie is the lone Stanford player that hails from the state of Oregon A native of Salem, Oregon, he spent his prep career at North Salem High School