May 9, 2006
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Stanford Cardinal (22-21, 7-11 Pac-10)
at
Santa Clara Broncos (26-22, 7-11 WCC)
Tuesday, May 9 (6 pm, PT)
RHP Nolan Gallagher (2-3, 3.37) vs. RHP Chris Stansbury (2-1, 5.73)
Live Game Coverage: Audio Broadcast (Lee-Ming Zen) | Gametracker
STANFORD-SANTA CLARA SERIES HISTORY
All-Time Series: Stanford 175-156-7
2006 Results: Series - Santa Clara 1-0 (at Stanford, April 25) Santa Clara 6-1 (10 inn.)
2005 Results: Series - Santa Clara 2-1 (at Stanford, April 5, 26) Stanford 7-6, Santa Clara 7-5; (at Santa Clara, May 10) Santa Clara 6-5 (12)
Series Notes: Santa Clara has won three straight meetings between the clubs for the first time since April 27, 1994 - February 19, 1995, after a 6-1 victory in 10 innings at Sunken Diamond in the first meeting of 2006 on April 25 The Broncos' two-of-three series victory over the Cardinal in 2005 marked the first time Santa Clara had won a series over Stanford since 1980 Stanford also had a recent 20-game win streak over the Broncos that lasted from February 17, 1997 - February 22, 2002
THE MATCHUP
Stanford is looking to continue playing solid baseball after winning three of its last four and each of its last two Pac-10 series for the first time since 2004 Stanford has struggled for most of the season in all three areas of the game, ranking sixth in the league in pitching (4.43 ERA), as well as eighth in both hitting (.266) and fielding (.965) Santa Clara is hitting a respectable .294 (#4 WCC) and also fielding a solid .967 (#6 WCC) but has struggled on the mound with a 5.13 ERA (#6 WCC)
STANFORD SNAPSHOT
COMING AROUND - Stanford has won three of its last four games overall and four of its last six Pac-10 contests after falling to 3-9 at the halfway point of the league schedule
TWO STRAIGHT PAC-10 SERIES WINS - Stanford has won each of its last two Pac-10 series against California (5/5-7) and Arizona State (4/28-30), marking the first time the Cardinal has won back-to-back conference series since ending the 2004 regular season with series win over USC and Arizona State Prior to winning its last two series, the Cardinal had gone over two months without winning a series since taking two-of-three at Fresno State (2/24-26), running its series losing streak to five in a row (at USC, Washington State, USC, at Oregon State, at Arizona)
A QUICK LOOK AT THE PAC - Stanford is in an unfamiliar last-place spot in the Pac-10 race in last place with a 7-11 league record Oregon State (11-4) is in sole possession of first-place and followed by USC (10-8), Arizona State (8-7) and UCLA (9-7), Washington (9-9), Washington State (7-8), California (9-11), Arizona (6-9) and Stanford (6-11) Stanford has finished last or tied for last just twice (1979, 1993)
RECENT STANFORD-CALIFORNIA SERIES RECAP - Sunday, May 7 (at Stanford 6, California 4): Chris Lewis (2-4, HR, 3 RBI) hit a two-run homer in the fourth inning and then drove in another run with a two-out RBI single in the eighth to lift Stanford to a 6-4 victory over California. Jeremy Bleich earned the win, allowing just one run on two hits and two walks over 4.1 innings of sparkling relief before a Sunken Diamond season-high crowd of 2586. Erik Davis picked up his second save of the season by thwarting a ninth inning California rally when he forced Chris Errecart to hit into a bases loaded game-ending 5-2-3 double play after the Golden Bears had already scored a run in the frame Saturday, May 6 (California 5, at Stanford 1): California evened the three-game series by holding on for a 5-1 victory. Tyson Ross earned the victory by giving up just one run on six hits and three walks, while striking out eight over the first 7.1 innings. Jeremy Burchett came on to retire Michael Taylor on a game-ending a groundout with the bases loaded and Taylor representing the tying run to pick up his fifth save of the season. Chris Minaker (2-3) extended his hit streak to a new season-high 12 games for the Cardinal Friday, May 5 (at Stanford 3, California 2): Chris Minaker (3-4, 2 HR, 2 RBI) hit two solo home runs before leading off the bottom of the ninth inning with a single and scoring the game-winning run on Randy Molina's one-out RBI single to lift Stanford to a dramatic 3-2 victory over California. Stanford ace Greg Reynolds tossed his second consecutive complete game to outduel California ace Brandon Morrow
LAST GAME VERSUS SANTA CLARA - Tuesday, April 25, 2006 (Santa Clara 6, at Stanford 1 -- 10 Inn.): Santa Clara scored five runs in the top of the 10th inning to rally for a 6-1 non-conference victory. Brady Fuerst smacked a two-run double off losing pitcher David Stringer with one out in the top of the 10th to snap a 1-1 tie by bringing home Eric Newton and Gabe Alcantar, who had singled earlier in the inning. Matt Long followed two batters later with an RBI single to bring home Fuerst and Dustin Realini's two-RBI single with two outs capped the rally. Daniel Nava (2-4, 2B) and Dustin Realini (2-5, 2 RBI) had two hits each for the Broncos, while Fuerst drove in a pair of runs with his 10th inning double. Chris Minaker (2-4, 2B) had half of Stanford's four hits
COMEBACK KIDS - Stanford has come from behind in 15 of its 22 wins, including 10 of its last 11 victories
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 27 games scheduled over the last 42 days of its regular season after playing its first 28 contests in the first 72 days Stanford played 17 games in April and has 17 more scheduled for May with one contest versus Santa Clara still a possibility to be rescheduled
MARQUESS 13TH ON ALL-TIME WIN LIST - Mark Marquess has moved into sole possession of 13th place on the all-time win list for NCAA Division I coaches, reaching the mark in a win over Arizona State on April 30 He has an all-time record of 1246-611-5 (.671) and is in his 30th season as Stanford's head coach Next up on the list for Marquess is Georgia Southern's Jack Stallings, who recorded 1255 victories in 39 seasons at Georgia Southern
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
HOT HITTERS - Chris Minaker had a season-high 12-game hit streak (.490, 25-51, 6 2B, 3B, 3 HR, 16 RBI) that included nine multiple-hit contests, as well as four three-hit games and three-RBI performances, finally snapped one shy of his career-high 13-game run in 2005 when he was 0-for-4 versus California (5/7) Chris Lewis has started to heat up again with a current five-game hit streak from May 1-7 (.400, 6-15, HR, 5 RBI)
OFFENSIVE STRUGGLES - Stanford has plenty of offensive struggles this season with a current .266 team batting average that is eighth in the Pac-10 and also the lowest by a Cardinal club since the 1975 team hit .262 The Cardinal has failed to get a double digit hit contest for five straight games but managed to win three of them
DEFENSIVE WOES - Stanford has made at least one error in 13 of its last 15 games, including three in its most recent contest versus California (5/7) The Cardinal is fielding at a clip of just .965 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
PITCHING PROWESS - Stanford has been able to makeup for some of its offensive and defensive troubles with some solid pitching performances The staff has not given up more than five runs in any of its last six games with a 3.40 ERA during the period
REYNOLDS WRAP - Stanford ace Greg Reynolds has posted back-to-back complete game victories in his last two outings, while also winning three straight decisions and four of his last five starts Reynolds was named the Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week on May 2 after throwing the first complete game of his career and the first by a Stanford pitcher this season with a three-hitter in a 7-1 win over Arizona State on April 28 He followed that performance by outdueling California ace Brandon Morrow in a 3-2 Stanford win on May 5
STURDY SENIORS - Stanford's four seniors have started all but six possible games between them this season with John Hester missing four of those starts just last week Position players Chris Lewis and Chris Minaker have each started all 43 games with Minaker playing every inning at shortstop, while Hester started 38 of the team's first 39 games behind the plate before not starting the last four Pitcher Matt Manship has made starts in 12 of the team's 13 weekend pitching rotations
ROOKIE CLASS - Joey August (27), Cord Phelps (26) and Jason Castro (25) have all started more than half of the team's games, while Brent Milleville (17), 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 for four consecutive starts at Oregon State (4/14), at Arizona (4/21), versus Arizona State (4/29) and against San Jose State (5/2) Max Fearnow, Ratliff and Yount have also seen action on the hill
IT'S SIMPLE ... HIT THE LONG BALL AND WIN - Stanford is 7-0 in games in which the Cardinal has two or more home runs
THE STANFORD 9 - The All-Time Starting 9 that represted the best of the first 30 years of the distinguished coaching career of Mark Marquess as voted upon be fans throughout the 2006 season was announced on Saturday. The team consisted of Mike Mussina (Pitcher, 1988-90), Ryan Garko (Catcher, 2000-03), John Gall (First Base, 1997-2000), Jed Lowrie (2nd, 2003-05), Ed Sprague (Third Base, 1996-98), Eric Bruntlett (Shortstop, 1997-2000), Joe Borchard (Outfield, 1998-2000), Sam Fuld (Outfield, 2001-04) and Jeffrey Hammonds (Outfield, 1990-92)
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 2478-1544-32 (.615)
STANFORD BASEBALL IN THE BIGS - Stanford has sent 74 players on to play Major League Baseball, including six (Joe Borchard - Florida Marlins, Seattle Mariners Eric Bruntlett - Houston Astros Mike Gosling, Cincinnati Reds John Gall - St. Louis Cardinals 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 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
Sunday, May 7
at Stanford 6, California 4
Saturday, May 6
California 5, at Stanford 1
Friday, May 5
at Stanford 3, California 2
Tuesday, May 2
at Stanford 6, San Jose State 2
Monday, May 1
at California 4, Stanford 3
Sunday, April 30
at Stanford 11, Arizona State 4
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)