April 18, 2006
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Sacramento State Hornets (17-22)
at
Stanford Cardinal (15-15)
Tuesday, April 18 (5 pm, PT)
RHP Travis Kane (2-3, 5.62) vs. RHP Matt Leva (1-0, 5.40)
Live Game Coverage: Audio Broadcast | Gametracker | 
Webcast
STANFORD-SACRAMENTO STATE SERIES HISTORY
All-Time Series (since 1959): Stanford 25-12
2005 Results: Series -Tied 1-1 (at Stanford, March 25) Sacramento State 4-3; (at Sacramento State, March 26) Stanford 8-2
Series Notes: Stanford snapped Sacramento State's two-game win streak over the Cardinal with a victory in the second meeting between the clubs last season as each squad won their road game in the two-game series ... Stanford had won four straight before the Hornets' two-game win streak
STANFORD SNAPSHOT
FOUR-GAME LOSING STREAK - Stanford has lost a season-high-tying four consecutive games ... Stanford has not lost five straight since a five-game skid from March 22-29, 1993
A QUICK LOOK AT THE PAC - Stanford is in an unfamiliar last-place spot in the Pac-10 standings with its 2-7 conference mark ... The race tightened up when Arizona state took two-of-three over league-leader USC (8-4) in a trio of one-run games in Tempe last Thurdsay-Saturday ... The Trojans are now closely followed in the standings by just one-half game by both Oregon State and Arizona, who are actually each one game better than USC in the loss column with 6-3 marks ... UCLA (5-4), California (6-6), Washington (4-5), Washington State (5-7), Arizona (3-6) and Stanford (2-7) follow the leaders
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 - Rescheduled games caused by earlier weather-related postponed contests and a normally more compacted second half of the schedule have combined to contribute to Stanford having 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 near future ... 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 televised 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) ... All three games will be broadcast live with the Fox Sports Net contest being shown live locally on FOX Sports Network Bay Area
FOUR-SERIES LOSING STREAK - Stanford's current four-series losing streak (at USC, Washington State, USC, at Oregon State) is its longest since Stanford dropped its final six series of 1993 (at UCLA, Arizona, at Arizona State, at California, UNLV, UCLA), as well as in its first series in 1994 (Cal State Fullerton)
OFFENSIVE WOES - Stanford scored just one run in 25 innings in the Oregon State series, which was the team's lowest scoring output ever in a three-game regular season set, and has managed just seven in its last five games since scoring a season-high-tying 13 at San Jose State (4/8) ... Stanford was shutout in the first two games of the Oregon State series, marking the first back-to-back shutouts the Cardinal had suffered since February 22 and 25, 1975, when Stanford lost 4-0 to Fresno State in the second game of a home doubleheader and 13-0 at Santa Clara three days later ... The last time Stanford had been blanked in back-to-back league games was on a both ends of a doubleheader at Washington State shut (3-0, 7-0) on May 8, 1970 ... Stanford had just 10 hits in the Oregon State series with a season-low two in a 12-1 seven-inning loss in the finale after getting a previous season-low four in each of the first two contests ... For the season, Stanford is averaging just 4.6 runs per game and hitting a Pac-10 low .260
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), dropping two-of-three at USC (3/10-12), versus Washington State (3/25-27) and against USC (4/1-2), and then being swept in a three-game set at Oregon State (4/13-16) ... The Cardinal has won single games against Nevada (2/21), at San Jose State (4/8) and versus Pacific (4/10), before losing its first non-series game of the season to San Francisco (4/17) in its most recent contest
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
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 five weeks
HOT HITTERS - Chris Lewis has hit safely in seven of his last eight games, while John Hester has hit safely in five of his last six contests and Jason Castro has five hits in his last eight at bats
PITCHING PERFORMANCES - Stanford had allowed just four earned runs in 25.0 innings of work (1.08 ERA) in three contests from April 10-14 before giving up nine at Oregon State and eight versus San Francisco in its last two games to put the staff's ERA back up at 4.34 ... Stanford's team ERA had dipped under 4.00 (3.99) for the first time since March 10 prior to the last two contests
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 three shy of the mark ... Chris Minaker scored his 100th career run at Oregon State (4/16) and reached the 100 career RBI mark at San Jose State (4/8)
STURDY SENIORS - Stanford's four seniors have started all but one game possible between them this season ... Position players Chris Lewis and Chris Minaker have each started all 30 games with Minaker playing every inning at shortstop, while John Hester has started 29 of 30 behind the plate ... Pitcher Matt Manship has made all 10 of his scheduled starts on the mound
ROOKIE CLASS - Stanford has also received significant contributions from its freshman class this season ... Joey August (20), Cord Phelps (20) and Jason Castro (17) have all started more than half of the games, while Brent Milleville (9), 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 recent 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 1239-605-5 (.671) in his 30th season as Stanford's head coach
LEAGUE RANKINGS - Stanford ranks fifth in the Pac-10 in pitching (4.34 ERA), sixth in fielding (.965) and ninth in hitting (.260)
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 2472-1537-32 (.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
Monday, April 17
San Francisco 9, at Stanford 4
Sunday, April 16
at Oregon State 12, Stanford 1 (7)
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