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Stanford And No. 11 Oregon State To Play Final Game Of Series Easter Sunday

Stanford And No. 11 Oregon State To Play Final Game Of Series Easter Sunday

April 16, 2006

Stanford Cardinal (15-13, 2-6 Pac-10)
at
No. 11 Oregon State (24-9, 5-3 Pac-10)

Thursday, April 13
at Oregon State 3, Stanford 0

Friday, April 14 (5 pm, PT)
at Oregon State 1, Stanford 0

Saturday, April 15 (12 pm, PT)
Postponed, Weather

Sunday, April 16 (12 pm, PT)
TBA vs. Jonah Nickerson (5-3, 2.47)
Live Game Coverage:
Audio Broadcast | Gametracker

STANFORD-OREGON STATE SERIES HISTORY
All-Time Series: Stanford 35-19
2005 Results: Series - Oregon State 2-1 (at Stanford, April 9DH-10) Oregon State 9-7 (DH Game 1), Oregon State 11-10 (DH Game 2), Stanford 4-3
Last Meeting at Oregon State: Series - Stanford 2-1 (April 8-10, 2004) Stanford 11-8, Oregon State 5-4, Stanford 16-4
Series Notes: Oregon State has won four of the last five contests between the teams, taking the first two games of the current series after winning two-of-three at Stanford last season • Stanford had won five of the previous five seven, including two straight series at Oregon State in 2004 and at Stanford in 2003 • Stanford had won eight of the first nine games between the teams after the Pac-10 expanded to include the Beavers in 1999 before Oregon State won two-of-three in 2002 in Corvallis

STANFORD SNAPSHOT
• SHUTOUT STORY - Stanford's back-to-back shutouts at the hands of Oregon State in the first two games of its current series versus Oregon State mark the first time the Cardinal has been shutout in back-to-back contests since February 22 and 25, 1975, when Stanford lost 4-0 to Fresno State in the second game of a doubleheader at Stanford and 13-0 at Santa Clara three days later ... The last time Stanford had been blanked in back-to-back conference games was when Washington State shutout the Cardinal in both ends of a doubleheader (3-0, 7-0) on May 8, 1970, in Pullman, Washington

• SCORING DROUGHT - Stanford has scored just two runs in its last 27 innings and is averaging just 4.8 runs per game this season

• A QUICK LOOK AT THE PAC - Stanford is in an unfamiliar last-place spot in the Pac-10 standings with its 2-6 conference mark ... USC (8-3) leads the conference and is followed by Oregon State (5-3), Arizona State (5-3), UCLA (4-4), Washington State (5-6), Washington (4-5), California (5-6), Arizona (3-5) and Stanford (2-6)

• SOGGY SEASON - Stanford has made 11 changes to its schedule this season due to soggy weather but is still on track to get 55 regular season contests in with a possible makeup date at Santa Clara to get to the maximum number of 56 games in a season

• BUSY SECOND HALF - The postponed games caused by weather and a normally more compacted second half of the schedule have combined to contribute to Stanford playing its final 28 games scheduled over the last 42 days of its regular season after playing its first 28 contests in the first 72 days

• TV GAMES ON THE HORIZON - Stanford is scheduled to play three games on three different television entities in the coming weeks ... Stanford's 2006 television debut will come on CSTV in the opener of a three-game home series versus Arizona State on Friday, April 28 (6 pm, PT) ... The Cardinal is also scheduled to be on Comcast and Fox Sports Net in back-to-back contests against California at Sunken Diamond on Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6 (6 pm, PT; 4 pm, PT)

• FOUR-SERIES LOSING STREAK - Stanford's current four-series losing streak is its longest since Stanford dropped two-of-three in each of its last three series of 1993 (at California, UNLV, UCLA), as well as in its first series in 1994 (Cal State Fullerton)

• COMEBACK KIDS - Stanford has come from behind in nine of its 15 wins, including each of its last three victories

• SEASON SUMMARY - Stanford started the season with a three-game sweep of then No. 5 Cal State Fullerton (2/3-5), before dropping two-of-three to Kansas (2/10-12), taking two-of-three against then No. 7 Texas (2/18-20) and at Fresno State (2/24-26), splitting a weather-shortened two-game set at California (3/3-4), then dropping two-of-three at USC (3/10-12), versus Washington State (3/25-27), against USC (4/1-2) and then dropping the first two games of a series at Oregon State (4/13-14) ... The Cardinal has won single games against Nevada (2/21), at San Jose State (4/8) and versus Pacific (4/10)

• WINNING THE CLOSE ONES - Stanford has a 6-4 record in one-run games this season, has won three of four contests that have been tied after eight innings and is 2-1 in extra inning contests

• BEATING THE BEST, TROUBLE WITH THE REST - Stanford is 5-3 against ranked teams but has just been able to even its record at 10-10 against unranked opponents (according to Baseball America at the time of the games) with victories in its last two contests at San Jose State and versus Pacific

• OUT OF THE POLLS - Stanford has not been ranked in any of the five major polls (Baseball America, Collegiate Baseball, NCBWA, Rosenblatt Report, USA Today) for the last four weeks

• HITTING WOES - Stanford is hitting just .189 in its last three games with only 17 hits in 90 official at bats, including a season-low-tying four in each of the first two games of its current series at Oregon State

• HIT STREAKS INTACT - Although Stanford has had troubles at the plate of late, John Hester and Michael Taylor have been able to extend their modest hit streaks to four games each with one hit in each contest

• PITCHING PERFORMANCES - Stanford has received some great pitching performances at the same time its offense has struggled over the last three games as the staff has allowed just four earned runs in those 25.0 innings of work (1.08 ERA) ... The performances have lowered Stanford's team ERA under 4.00 (3.99) for the first time since allowing a season-high 16 runs at USC on March 11 that put it over 4.00 for the first time in 2006

• SPREADING OUT THE WINS - A total of 10 different Stanford pitchers have combined for the team's 15 wins this season with no single hurler recording more than two

• THE 100 CLUB - John Hester picked up his 100th career hit when he singled to leadoff the series-opener at Oregon State (4/13), while Chris Lewis reached the milestone versus Pacific (4/10) and Jim Rapoport against USC (4/1 - Gm. 1) ... Michael Taylor is just four shy of the mark ... Chris Minaker reached the 100 career RBI mark at San Jose State (4/8) and is just one shy of scoring his 100th career run

• STURDY SENIORS - Stanford's four seniors have yet to miss a start this season ... Position players John Hester, Chris Lewis and Chris Minaker have each started all 28 games with Minaker playing every inning at shortstop and Hester playing all but two innings behind the plate ... Pitcher Matt Manship has made all nine of his scheduled starts on the mound

• ROOKIE CLASS - Stanford has also received significant contributions from its freshman class this season ... Joey August (19), Cord Phelps (18) and Jason Castro (16) have all started more than half of the games, while Brent Milleville (7), Austin Yount (8), J.J. Jelmini (2) and Sean Ratliff (1) have also made starts ... Jeremy Bleich has seven saves and has been the team's closer for most of the season before making his first start as a member of the rotation in his most outing at Oregon State (4/14) ... Max Fearnow, Ratliff and Yount have also seen action on the hill

• MARQUESS THREE WINS FROM 13TH ON ALL-TIME LIST - Mark Marquess has moved to within the three victories of 13th on the all-time win list with his all-time record of 1239-603-5 (.672) in his 30th season as Stanford's head coach

• LEAGUE RANKINGS - Stanford ranks fifth in the Pac-10 in fielding (.969), sixth in pitching (3.99) and seventh in hitting (.264)

• IT'S SIMPLE ... HIT THE LONG BALL AND WIN - Stanford is 6-0 in games in which the Cardinal has two or more home runs

• STANFORD BASEBALL HISTORY - Stanford has captured two College World Series titles (1987, 1988) and advanced to the CWS 15 times, including 13 appearances in Omaha in the past 24 seasons and a school record five in a row from 1999-2003 when the Cardinal finished as runners-up three times (2000, 2001, 2003) ... The Cardinal has also won five NCAA Super Regionals, 13 NCAA Regionals and 20 Pac-10 titles ... Stanford Baseball is in its 113th year of existence with an all-time record of 2472-1534-32 (.616)

• STANFORD BASEBALL IN THE BIGS - Stanford has sent 74 players on to play Major League Baseball, including four (Joe Borchard - Seattle Mariners; Eric Bruntlett - Houston Astros; Rick Helling - Milwaukee Brewers; Mike Mussina - New York Yankees) that have played in The Show in 2006

• STARS AT SUNKEN - Mike Mussina took in Stanford's game against USC at Sunken Diamond on April 2 and brought teammate (and 2005 AL MVP) Alex Rodriguez with him

RECENT STANFORD RECAPS
Friday, April 14
at Oregon State 1, Stanford 0

Thursday, April 13
at Oregon State 3, Stanford 0

Monday, April 10
at Stanford 2, Pacific 1

Saturday, April 8
Stanford 13, at San Jose State 3

Sunday, April 2
USC 6, at Stanford 1

Saturday, April 1
at Stanford 9, USC 7 -- DH Game 1
USC 3, at Stanford 2 (12 inn.) -- DH Game 2

2005 STANFORD-OREGON STATE RECAPS
Saturday, April 9 (DH)
Oregon State 9, at Stanford 7 (Game 1); Oregon State 11, at Stanford 10 (Game 2)

Sunday, April 10
at Stanford 4, Oregon State 3