Neither team scored in the first inning tonight as UCLA ace
starter Casey Janssen and Mark Romanczuk breezed through with
little trouble. However, the Cardinal came on in the top of the
second pounding Janssen for six runs to take the early big lead.
Danny Putnam got things started with a single which was
followed by a double down the left field off the bat of John Mayberry, Jr. to put two runners in scoring position. Donny Lucy
was up next and the Cardinal catcher smoked a ball to deep left
field just past the outstretched glove of Bruin left fielder
Anthony Norman as it bounced up against the wall. Putnam easily
scored on the play, but Mayberry had to hold at third base as he
anticipated having to tag up had the ball been caught. Lucy
cruised into second with a double.
After a walk to Brian Hall, DH Ryan Seawell came up and hit a
soft grounder to second. UCLA second baseman Mike Svetlic came
charging in, gloved the ball, but he rushed his throw to first
and it sailed past first baseman Wes Whisler for an error. Two
runners scored on the play to make it a 3-0 game.
Stanford wasn’t done, however, as #9 hitter and starting
shortstop Chris Minaker came up and promptly crushed a home run
down the left field line for a 6-0 Stanford advantage. The ball
cleared the fence in left by a good margin, the only question was
fair or foul? Fortunately for Minaker and the Cardinal, the ball
stayed just inside the line for the home run.
The Bruins would answer back though against Romanczuk with a
single run in the bottom of the second and three scores in the
bottom of the third to make it 6-4. In the second, Brandon Averill singled with one out, was balked to second, and scored on
Chris Denove's two-out, RBI single. Then in the third, a
double and a single from the first two batters of the inning put
a couple of guys on. Then clean-up hitter Ryan McCarthy ripped a
line drive homer over the fence in left and all of a sudden it
was a 6-4 contest.
The Cardinal were held off the scoreboard by Janssen in the
third, fourth, and fifth innings, but they still were hitting the
ball hard. In the third, Stanford put runners on second and third
with just one out, but Seawell struck out and Minaker lined out
to end the threat. Then in the fourth, Sam Fuld led off with a
walk which was followed by a Jonny Ash single. However, Fuld was
picked off second and then Jed Lowrie lined into a double play to
end that inning.
Meanwhile, Romanczuk settled down after his rough third inning
to keep the score at 6-4. The sophomore lefty allowed just one
hit over the middle three innings tonight. Romanczuk had some
problems early in the game with his fastball in that he was
leaving the ball up. Many times, it was thrown hard enough to get
past the UCLA hitters, but on occasion they were able to catch up
to it for some hard hits. Romanczuk’s curve ball was very
impressive all night as it seemed he could get that pitch over
whenever needed for a strike. Then as the game wore on, the
fastball became easier to control and Romy sailed through the
rest of the ballgame.
With the score still 6-4 Stanford, the Cardinal plated two
runs off Janssen in the top of the sixth. Hall got things started
with a single and then he stole second. The speedy right fielder
moved to third when Seawell flied out to right, and then scored
on a Minaker single up the middle. Stanford would keep the bats
going in the inning as Fuld singled to put runners on corners and
then Minaker scored on a sacrifice fly to deep center off the bat
of Ash.
Facing the UCLA bullpen, the Cardinal added a single run in
the top of the seventh and then two more scores in the eighth. In
the seventh, Lucy came through with a clutch two-out, RBI single.
Then in the eighth, Lowrie delivered a two-run triple to deep
right center field. Lowrie just missed a home run as the ball
bounced off the very top of the wall.
Romanczuk had little trouble in the later innings giving up a
few harmless singles. He was relieved by freshman Jeff Stimpson
to start the ninth and Stimpson closed the game out with a
perfect 1-2-3 frame.
Game Notes:
* Romanczuk went eight full innings tonight surrendering four
runs on ten hits. He walked only two and struck out ten. It was
the second time in his career he had recorded a double-digit
strike out total (13 versus Kansas on February 13th).
* Minaker had a huge day at the plate going 2-for-5 with a
home run (first of his career) and four RBI.
* Other multi-hit games came from Hall (3-for-4, SB), Fuld
(2-for-4), Lowrie (2-for-4, 3B, 2 RBI), and Lucy (2-for-3, 2B, 2
RBI).
* Hall extended his hitting streak to ten games. Ash now has a
seven-game hitting streak.
* Stanford reached double figures in runs for the 11th time in
25 games this season.
* UCLA starter Casey Janssen had allowed just 12 earned runs
in his first seven starts of the season entering play tonight
(2.35 ERA, .160 opposing average). He was tagged for eight runs
(seven earned) on eight hits in six innings by Stanford this
evening.
* Stanford has now won seven consecutive games – their
longest winning streak of the season.
* The 22-3 start to the season is the third best start in
Stanford baseball history. Only the 1982 team (22-2-1) and the
1978 team (22-2-1) started better.
Stanford 0 6 0 0 0 2 1 2 0 -
11 14 0
UCLA 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 0 0
- 4 10 1
WP: Mark Romanczuk (6-1)
LP: Casey Janssen (5-2)
HR: Stanford – Chris Minaker (1) ; UCLA – Ryan
McCarthy (4)
Records: #1 Stanford (22-3, 1-0), UCLA (14-12, 0-1)
* These two teams will play game two of this three-game series
tomorrow afternoon at 1:00pm. Blake Holler (3-1, 3.03) is
scheduled to start for Stanford while the Bruins are expected to
counter with Bryan Beck (2-2, 2.12).
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