April 30, 2006
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No. 16 Arizona State Sun Devils (29-15, 8-6 Pac-10)
at
Stanford Cardinal (18-19, 4-10 Pac-10)
Friday, April 28
at Stanford 7, #16 Arizona State 1
Saturday, April 29
#16 Arizona State 11, Stanford 7
Sunday, April 30 (1 pm, PT)
LHP Urlaub (5-1, 3.26) vs. RHP Matt Leva (2-0, 3.48)
Live Game Coverage: Audio Broadcast | Gametracker |
Webcast
STANFORD-ARIZONA STATE SERIES HISTORY
All-Time Series: Arizona State, 82-81
2005 Results: Series - Arizona State 3-0 (at Arizona State, April 15-17) Arizona State 9-2, Arizona State 6-5, Arizona State 10-9
Previous Meeting at Stanford: Series - Stanford 2-1 (May 28-30, 2004) Stanford 5-0, Stanford 10-3, Arizona State 15-5
Series Notes: Stanford snapped a four-game losing streak against the Sun Devils with its 7-1 win in Friday's series-opener but has still lost five of six after the Sun Devils held on for an 11-7 victory Saturday Stanford had been victorious in its four previous contests versus the Sun Devils and had also won four consecutive series between the teams from 2001-04 prior to being swept by the Sun Devils last season Stanford has still won 11 of the last 14 times the squads have played at Sunken Diamond since Arizona State was the last club to sweep a series from the Cardinal on The Farm with three straight wins from April 11-13, 1997
The Matchup: Arizona State jumped back into a third-place tie with UCLA (a loser at California on Saturday) and to within 2.0 games of league-leader Oregon State by snapping a three-game conference losing streak Saturday The Sun Devils have a strong offensive game with a .313 batting average that ranks second in the Pac-10 but have struggled with a pitching staff (4.91 ERA) and defense (.963) that both rank eighth in the Pac-10 Stanford fell further into the conference cellar (1.5 games behind eighth-place California) and needs a victory today to win its first conference series of the season in five tries The Cardinal has put up decent pitching numbers (4.59 ERA) to rank fifth in the league but is seventh in fielding (.963) and eighth in hitting (.266)
STANFORD SNAPSHOT
FIVE-SERIES LOSING STREAK - Stanford needs one win the final game of its current series with Arizona State on Sunday to end a five-series losing streak (at USC, Washington State, USC, at Oregon State, at Arizona) that is its longest since the Cardinal dropped seven in a row in its final six series of 1993 (at UCLA, Arizona, at Arizona State, at California, UNLV, UCLA), as well as its first series in 1994 (Cal State Fullerton) The last time the Cardinal has won a series this year is when the club took two-of-three in a non-conference set at Fresno State (February 24-26)
STANFORD HAS LOST FOUR OF LAST FIVE - Stanford ended its three-game losing skid with its impressive 7-1 victory over Arizona State in Friday's series-opener but its 11-7 loss to the Sun Devils on Saturday makes it four of the last five the Cardinal has lost
A QUICK LOOK AT THE PAC - Stanford is in an unfamiliar spot in the Pac-10 race in last place with its 4-10 conference mark Oregon State (9-3) is in sole possession of first-place, followed by USC (10-7), Arizona State and UCLA (8-6), Washington (7-7), Washington State and Arizona (6-8), California (7-10) and Stanford (4-10)
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 Stanford is playing its 17th game of April today and has 17 more scheduled for May with one contest versus Santa Clara still a possibility to be rescheduled
MARQUESS TIED FOR 13TH ON ALL-TIME LIST - Mark Marquess moved into a tie for 13th place on the all-time win list for NCAA Division I coaches with Stanford's victory over Arizona State on Friday night He has an all-time record of 1242-609-5 (.671) and is in his 30th season as Stanford's head coach
TWO MORE TV GAMES ON TAP NEXT WEEK - After making its 2006 television debut on CSTV Friday night, the Cardinal will have two more games televised live on Comcast Sports Net and FOX Sports Bay Area Net in back-to-back contests against California at Sunken Diamond next Friday and Saturday, May 5 and 6 (6 pm, PT; 4 pm, PT)
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
COMEBACK KIDS - Stanford has come from behind in 11 of its 17 wins, including five in a row before leading from wire-to-wire in Friday night's win over Arizona State
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 six weeks
HOT HITTERS - Chris Minaker has a current seven-game hit streak (.452, 14-31, 5 2B, 3B, 9 RBI) with five multiple-hit contests during the stretch Chris Lewis (.356, 21-59, 5 2B, 2 3B, HR, 11 RBI) has been Stanford's hottest hitter in 16 April games with Minaker (.333, 22-66, 9 2B, 3B, 2 HR, 17 RBI, SB) and Ryan Seawell (.333, 15-45, 3 2B, 5 RBI, 2 SB) right behind
DEFENSIVE WOES - Stanford is fielding at a clip of just .963 after posting a .971 or better mark in each of the past six years to account for six of the top eight fielding percentages in school history The Cardinal has made at least one error in nine straight games and 14 of the last 15
REYNOLDS WRAP - Stanford ace Greg Reynolds has won his last two decisions and three of his last four to lower his ERA from a season-high 4.09 to its current 3.66
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 37 games with Minaker playing every inning at shortstop, while John Hester has started 36 of 37 behind the plate Pitcher Matt Manship has made all 11 of his scheduled starts on the mound
ROOKIE CLASS - Stanford has also received significant contributions from its freshman class this season Cord Phelps (25), Joey August (23) and Jason Castro (20) have all started more than half of the team's games, while Brent Milleville (15), Austin Yount (9), J.J. Jelmini (2) and Sean Ratliff (1) have also made starts as position players Jeremy Bleich has a team-high seven saves and had been the team's closer for most of the season before being inserted into the starting rotation each of the last three weeks at Oregon State (4/14) and Arizona (4/21), and versus Arizona State (4/29) Max Fearnow, Ratliff and Yount have also seen action on the hill
LEAGUE RANKINGS - Stanford ranks fifth in the Pac-10 in pitching (4.59 ERA), seventh in fielding (.963) and eighth in hitting (.266)
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 2475-1542-32 (.615) STANFORD BASEBALL IN THE BIGS - Stanford has sent 74 players on to play Major League Baseball, including six (Joe Borchard - Seattle Mariners Eric Bruntlett - Houston Astros Mike Gosling, Cincinnati Reds Jeremy Guthrie - Cleveland Indians Rick Helling - Milwaukee Brewers Mike Mussina - New York Yankees) that have played in The Show in 2006
STANFORD IN THE MINOR LEAGUES - Stanford has 21 former players currently in Minor League Baseball (Jonny Ash - Corpus Christi Hooks, Houston Astros AA Chris Carter - Tucson Sidewinders, Arizona Diamondbacks AAA Jason Cooper - Buffalo Bisons, Cleveland Indians AAA Scott Dragicevich - Dunedin Blue Jays, Toronto Blue A Advanced Pete Duda - Unassigned, Arizona Diamondbacks Sam Fuld - Daytona Cubs, Chicago Cubs A Advanced John Gall - Memphis Redbirds, St. Louis Cardinals AAA Jody Gerut - Unassigned, Pittsburgh Pirates Jeff Gilmore - Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, Seattle Mariners A Mike Gosling - Cincinnati Bats, Cinncinnati Reds AAA Brian Hall - Unassigned, Toronto Blue Jays Jed Hansen - Fresno Grizzlies, San Francisco Giants AAA John Hudgins - Oklahoma RedHawks, Texas Rangers AAA Mark Jecmen - Lake County Captains, Cleveland Indians A Jed Lowrie - Wilmington Blue Rocks, Boston Red Sox A Advanced Donny Lucy - Winston-Salem Warthogs, Chicago White Sox A Advanced John Mayberry, Jr. - Clinton LumberKings, Texas Rangers A Chris O'Riordan - Mobile Bay Bears, San Diego Padres AA Danny Putnam - Midland RockHounds, Oakland A's AA Carlos Quentin - Tucson Sidewinders, Arizona Diamondbacks AAA Mark Romanczuk - Unassigned, Arizona Diamondbacks)
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
Saturday, April 29
Arizona State 11, at Stanford 7
Friday, April 28
at Stanford 7, Arizona State 1
Tuesday, April 25
Santa Clara 6, at Stanford 1 (10)
Sunday, April 23
at Arizona 12, Stanford 3
Saturday, April 22
at Arizona 14, Stanford 4
Friday, April 21
Stanford 10, at Arizona 6
Tuesday, April 18
at Stanford 12, Sacramento State 5
Monday, April 17
San Francisco 9, at Stanford 4