Professional Baseball Career - Signed a professional baseball contract with the Houston Astros' organization in June of 2002 after being selected in the ninth round of the 2002 MLB First-Year Player Draft ... Hit .232 with two homers, 16 RBI and five stolen bases in 47 games for the Short Season A Tri-City Valley Cats of the New York-Penn League in the summer of 2002.
Cardinal Career (1999-2002) - A two-time All-NCAA Regional choice ... Finished his career with a .288 batting average, 18 homers, 121 RBI and 24 stolen bases ... Also added 113 runs scored, 188 hits, 36 doubles, three triples, a .435 slugging percentage and a .327 on-base percentage ... Played in 198 games with 167 starts ... Posted 50 multiple-hit games and 31 multiple-RBI contests ... Known for several big moments, including a two-homer game in a 10-9, 10-inning win over Texas in the first 2001 NCAA Regional championship game, as well as a CWS grandslam versus Louisiana Lafayette in the third game of the 2002 CWS that sparked a 19-9 comeback victory ... Graduated in December of 2002 with a Bachelor's degree in Political Science.
As a Senior in 2002 - All-NCAA Regional selection, primarily due to a sparking defensive performance at shortstop that included 23 assists in three Regional games, including a team-season-high 11-assist performance in a 3-2, 13-inning win over Cal State Fullerton (5/31) ... An honorable mention All-Pac-10 choice, hitting .287 with five homers, 42 RBI and 10 stolen bases ... Hit .316 with three homers, 18 RBI and five stolen bases in 24 Pac-10 games ... Posted 16 multiple-hit games and 12 multiple-RBI contests ... Started the team's final 34 games at shortstop after starting 24 of the first 31 games at third base ... Played in 59 games with 58 starts ... Struggled in nine postseason games (4-31, .129) but had key hits with an RBI single in a 5-3 win against USC in the NCAA Super Regional (6/8), a two-RBI double versus Long Beach State in the first NCAA Regional meeting between the clubs (6/1) and an RBI single in Stanford's five-run fifth inning in an 8-4 victory over Long Beach State in the Regional championship game (6/2) ... Also executed a key squeeze play in the ninth inning versus Notre Dame (6/18) to give Stanford a key insurance run in a 5-3 victory ... Stole a pair of bases versus Washington State (5/25) ... Hit a key two-run homer in a 5-3 win over Arizona State (5/10) ... Posted back-to-back multiple-hit games at Oregon State, going 3-for-5 with two doubles and three RBI in the final game of the series (4/28) ... Was 3-for-4 versus Sacramento State (4/24) ... Picked up a season-high five RBI, the only two-triple game by a Stanford player in 2002 and three hits versus Saint Mary's (4/16 - 3-4, 2B, 2 3B, 5 RBI) ... Had a big three-game series at Arizona (4/5 - 4/7), going 10-for-18 (.556) with a double, two homers, six RBI and a stolen base ... Posted the first five-hit game of his career (5-8, HR, RBI) at Arizona (4/5) before coming back with three hits (4/6 - 3-6, 2B, 2 RBI) and three RBI (4/7 - 2-4, HR, 3 RBI, SB) in the final two games of the series ... Returned to action versus USC (3/24) after missing six games due to a hamstring injury and was back in the starting lineup for all three games of the Texas series (3/28 - 3/30) ... Picked up his first three-hit game of the season at Santa Clara (2/23 - 3-3) ... Hit his first home run of the campaign at Fresno State (2/18) ... Had a season-high six-game hit streak (2/2 - 2/12), going 9-for-24 (.375) with two doubles, seven RBI and two stolen bases during the stretch ... Was 2-for-4 with a double, stolen base and three RBI at Florida State (2/8) ... Had a pair of back-to-back 2-for-4 contests in the final two games of the Cal State Fullerton series (2/2, 2/3).
As a Junior in 2001 - Hit .272 with 15 doubles, seven homers, 45 RBI and 11 stolen bases ... Tied for second on the team in stolen bases, while ranking third in RBI and tied for third in homers ... One of the team's biggest clutch hitters, especially in the postseason as he tied for the team lead with 11 RBI and co-led the club with three postseason homers, while hitting .302 ... Had a huge College World Series hit with a two-RBI single in the fourth inning of Stanford's 4-1 victory over Cal State Fullerton (6/13) as the Cardinal advanced to the CWS title game ... Blasted a two-run homer in the fifth inning to lift the Cardinal to a 3-2 victory over South Carolina (6/3) in the final game of the NCAA Super Regional after picking up three hits in the first game of the series (6/1 - 3-5, 2 RBI) ... Had his first career two-homer game versus Texas (5/27 - 2-3, 2 HR, 4 RBI) in the first NCAA Regional championship game ... Hit safely in six straight postseason games (5/26 - 6/3), going 11-for-23 (.478) with a double, three homers, nine RBI and two stolen bases during the stretch ... Hit .417 (5-12, HR, 5 RBI) in the NCAA Super Regional after hitting .412 (7-17, 2 2B, 2 HR, 4 RBI, 2 SB) in the NCAA Regional to earn All-Regional honors ... Posted a career-high 15-game hit streak (3/9 - 4/10), the second longest of the season by a Stanford player, going 21-for-59 (.356) with two doubles, one triple, two home runs, 14 RBI and seven stolen bases during the stretch ... Tied a season-high with four hits and set a career-high with four runs scored, while adding four RBI at Washington State (5/19 - 4-6, 2 2B, HR, 4 RBI) ... Had a big series against USC (3/9 - 3/11), going 7-for-10 (.700) with a double, homer, six RBI and three stolen bases ... Hit a walk-off grandslam in the bottom of the 10th inning to give Stanford a memorable 9-5 comeback win versus USC (3/11) and complete a three-game sweep of the Trojans ... Set a career-high with six RBI and added a season-high-tying four hits in his 4-for-5 (2B, HR, 6 RBI, SB) day against USC (3/11) ... Also stole two bases for the first time in his career versus USC (3/10) ... Picked up three RBI versus Santa Clara (5/1 - 2-5, 3 RBI) and had a three-hit, three-RBI game against Oregon State (4/13 - 3-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI) ... Singled home the go-ahead run versus Saint Mary's (3/27) in Stanford's 8-3 win ... Finished the season with 14 multiple-hit games and 12 multiple-RBI games (tied for second on the club) ... Hit .306 with two homers, 16 RBI and four stolen bases in Pac-10 action.
As a Sophomore in 2000 - Hit .327 with 10 doubles, six homers and 33 RBI in 50 games and 41 starts ... Added 40 runs scored and three stolen bases ... Made his first start in left field versus San Jose State (4/11) and kept the job, making 31 of the team's final 32 starts in the position ... Hit safely in nine of his first 10 starts in left field, hitting .425 (17-40) with four doubles, three homers and 12 RBI over the stretch ... Posted both a seven-game hit streak and a seven-game RBI streak (4/16 - 4/29) ... Had another hot streak from May 10-27, recording another seven-game hit streak and at least one RBI in six of the seven games ... Hit .433 (13-30) with eight RBI in his second hot streak ... Began the season battling for the starting job at second base and was hitting .308 through his first 18 games ... Hit .294 in the College World Series and .261 with three doubles, a homer and a stolen base in 11 postseason contests ... Had a grand slam home run to help the Cardinal rally for a 19-9 comeback win over Louisiana-Lafayette (6/15) in the third game of the CWS, finishing the contest 2-for-5 with three runs scored and a stolen base to go with the grandslam ... Had multiple hits in a pair of NCAA Regional games versus Alabama (5/28 - 2-5, RBI) and Fresno State (5/26 - 2-4, 2 2B, RBI) ... Had a big weekend in the final regular season series versus UCLA, going 6-for-12 (.500) with a homer and three RBI ... Had three-hit games against California (4/29 - 3-5, 2B, RBI) and Cal Poly (4/25 - 3-5, 2B, 3 RBI) during his first hot streak, which also included a 5-for-12 series with two homers at USC (4/20 - 4/22) ... Finished the USC series by going 3-for-5 with a homer and two RBI (4/22) ... Totaled 19 multiple-hit games and seven multiple-RBI contests.
As a Freshman in 1999 - Used primarily as a defensive specialist and a pinch-hitter ... In 22 games, including four starts, hit .192 with one RBI ... Went 2-for-3 with a run scored in a 5-3 loss to Fresno State (1/31) ... Was 1-for-2 against Nevada (3/2) and 1-for-1 with a run scored and an RBI in a 13-10 win at Washington (4/11).
High School - A 1998 graduate of El Camino High School ... Hit .505 with four homers, 30 RBI, 35 runs scored and 35 stolen bases as a senior en route to First Team All-State and First Team All-City (Sacramento) honors ... Earned Second Team All-City honors as a junior ... A three-sport star who also earned El Camino team MVP honors in both soccer and basketball ... Member of the California Scholarship Federation ... Coached in baseball by Frank Calcagno.
Amateur Summer Baseball - Played his last three summers of amateur baseball with the Anchorage Bucs of the Alaska Baseball League ... Hit .240 with three doubles, a homer, 16 RBI and six stolen bases in 2001 ... Also played in the NBC World Series in the summer of 2001 with the Lake Havasu Heat ... Hit .291 with two doubles, a homer, 11 RBI and 12 steals in 2000 ... Had a .341 on-base percentage in 1999, thanks primarily to 13 walks in only 71 official at bats ... Played for the Charles Eggen American Legion team in the summers of 1997 and 1998, hitting .430 with five homers, 35 RBI and 30 stolen bases as his squad advanced to the state tournament in 1998.
Personal - Son of Ralph and Janet Topham ... One of five children in his family ... Worked in the Stanford Athletics Media Relations Office in the fall of 2002.