Final Overall Record: 46-14
Conference Record: 16-8
(Pac-10 Champions)
Home Record: 29-5
Road Record: 17-9
The 2004 baseball season ended earlier than most expected as the
Cardinal were knocked out of the NCAA Regionals by a hungry Long Beach
State team at Sunken Diamond. Stanford had a terrific regular
season posting a 44-12 overall record while they were ranked #1 or #2
in the country from late February through the beginning of the
postseason. But they ran into the 1-2 starting pitching punch of
Jered Weaver and Cesar Ramos in the Palo Alto Regional and that
combined with a struggling Cardinal pitching staff led to the premature
downfall of Stanford here in 2004.
Through the first week of May, it appeared Stanford was on their way to
fielding possibly the greatest team in the history of the
program. Following a convincing home sweep of Washington State
the first weekend of May and a Tuesday night win over San Jose State,
the Cardinal were sitting pretty at 36-6 to go with the #1 national
ranking. Back-to-back series losses at Washington and Arizona
brought Stanford back down to earth though as Stanford all of a sudden
was in a dogfight for the conference title. A return to Sunken
Diamond got the Cardinal back on track as they managed a pair of series
wins over USC and nationally ranked Arizona State to close the regular
season and claim the program's sixth Pac-10 title in the last eight
seasons.
But the season would not continue for very much longer. After an
easy 10-4 win over UNLV in the regional opener, Stanford had to deal
with Dirtbags ace and National Player of the Year Jered Weaver in the
all-important Saturday afternoon regional game. Weaver dominated
for eight innings holding Stanford to two runs (one earned) and Long
Beach jumped all over Mark Romanczuk and Kodiak Quick to the tune of
seven runs over the first seven innings. The Cardinal made a
valiant comeback effort in the bottom of the ninth against the
Dirtbags' bullpen as they plated two and brought the tying run to the
plate in the person of Jed Lowrie. But Lowrie just missed what
would have been quite possibly the most dramatic home run in Sunken
Diamond history when he flied out to the wall in deep left center field.
Stanford kept their CWS hopes alive that night with a 7-2 win over St.
John's, but their season would quickly come to an end the following
afternoon when The Beach handed the Cardinal an 8-4 defeat.
Making the first start of his career, David O'Hagan was tagged for six
runs on three two-run homers in just 2 2/3 innings and that would be
more than enough for the All-American Ramos. Stanford has
baserunners in every inning (often in scoring position), but lacked the
big hit that would get them back in the game and so the season abruptly
came to an end.
By-The-Numbers
Single-Season Team
Team Batting Average: .324 - third highest in school history
Home Runs: 96 - second highest in school history
Fielding Percentage: .974 - second highest in school history
Single-Season Individual
Jed Lowrie: Batting Average - .399 (7th highest in a single-season),
Runs - 72 (Tied for 10th)
Career Individual
Sam Fuld: Runs - 268 (1st), Hits - 356 (2nd), Doubles - 58 (Tied
for 6th), Triples - 16 (Tied for 3rd)
Matt Manship: Saves - 12 (Tied for 8th)
Statistics
Batting
* Jed Lowrie: .399, 17 HR, 68 RBI, 6 SB
* Danny Putnam: .378, 16 HR, 62 RBI, 6 SB
* Jonny Ash: .372, 5 HR, 35 RBI, 2 SB
* Brian Hall: .356, 9 HR, 52 RBI, 15 SB
* John Mayberry, Jr.: .333, 16 HR, 62 RBI, 9 SB
* Donny Lucy: .313, 12 HR, 47 RBI, 5 SB
* Chris Carter: .289, 9 HR, 39 RBI, 1 SB
* Sam Fuld: .273, 4 HR, 30 RBI, 9 SB
* Chris Minaker: .270, 4 HR, 33 RBI, 3 SB
* Ryan Seawell: .333, 0 HR, 7 RBI, 1 SB
* John Hester: .265, 0 HR, 7 RBI, 2 SB
* Jim Rapoport: .250, 0 HR, 9 RBI, 1 SB
* Chris Lewis: .233, 4 HR, 7 RBI, 0 SB
* Adam Sorgi: .214, 0 HR, 5 RBI, 0 SB
* Ben Summerhays: .167, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 SB
* Cameron Matthews: .000, 0 HR, 0 RBI, 0 SB
* Joe Ayers: DNP
* Josh Corn: DNP
* Zach Gianos: DNP
* Ryan Kissick: DNP
Team Batting Average: .324
Pitching
* Mark Romanczuk: 11-3, 4.31 ERA, 108.2 IP, 94 SO
* Jeff Gilmore: 10-2, 4.43 ERA, 107.2 IP, 77 SO
* Matt Leva: 6-2, 4.29 ERA, 35.2 IP, 19 SO
* David O'Hagan: 6-2, 2.97 ERA, 6 SV, 57.2 IP, 58 SO
* Kodiak Quick: 1-0, 3.62 ERA, 1 SV, 27.1 IP, 20
SO
* Matt Manship: 0-0, 4.19 ERA, 3 SV, 34.1 IP, 23
SO
* Blake Holler: 4-2, 4.34 ERA, 2 SV, 58.0 IP, 49 SO
* Jeff Stimpson: 1-2, 4.68 ERA, 1 SV, 32.2 IP, 23 SO
* Greg Reynolds: 4-1, 6.00 ERA, 27.0 IP, 15 SO
* Mark Jecmen: 1-0, 6.64 ERA, 20.1 IP, 24 SO
* Drew Ehrlich: 1-0, 3.14 ERA, 14.1 IP, 13 SO
* Jonny Dyer: 1-0, 4.82 ERA, 9.1 IP, 6 SO
* Pete Duda: 0-0, 8.44 ERA, 5.1 IP, 2 SO
* Logan Ardis: DNP
* Noah Hawthorne: DNP
Team Earned Run Average: 4.35
Top Five Games of 2004
5. May 2nd: Stanford 17, Washington State
3 - Single
game records aren't kept at Stanford, but the fans in attendance on
this warm Sunday afternoon at Sunken Diamond probably witnessed history
as the Cardinal blasted a whopping eight home runs as a team en route
to a 17-3 victory over the Cougars. Donny Lucy got things started
with
a two-run homer in the second and then Sam Fuld did the same thing four
batters later. In the third, it was back-to-back solo home runs
from
John Mayberry, Jr. and Danny Putnam. Chris Lewis connected for a
two-run homer in the fourth. In the fifth, Putnam smoked his
second
long ball of the day while in the bottom of the sixth, Brian Hall and
Chris Carter got into the act with back-to-back
round-trippers. The
damage could have been worse for Wazzu had the game not been called off
after 6 1/2 innings.
4. March 6th: Stanford 8, USC 7 (13 innings) -
The
Cardinal looked dead in the water as they trailed 7-3 at the start of
the top of the ninth down at Dedeaux Field. But a two-run home
run
from Jonny Ash cut the lead down to 7-6 and then an RBI single off the
bat of John Mayberry, Jr. made the score even at 7-7. The Trojans
had
runners in scoring position off David O'Hagan in the bottom of the 9th,
10th, 11th, and 12th innings, but each time the senior closer escaped
without giving up the winning run. Finally in the top of the
13th, consecutive singles from Ash, Jed Lowrie, and Danny Putnam gave
Stanford the lead while Matt Manship fired a 1-2-3 bottom half to
secure the victory.
3. April 3rd: Stanford 15, UCLA 13 - On the
strength of
home runs from Sam Fuld and Danny Putnam, the Cardinal stormed out to
an 11-2 advantage through 4 1/2 innings. But the Bruins would not
give up
as they chipped away at the lead before finally tying the game in the
bottom of the eighth at 13-13 on a three-run homer off David
O'Hagan.
However, Stanford would not accept defeat as senior third baseman Jonny
Ash smoked a two-run home run well over the wall in right field with
one out in the ninth to give the Cardinal back the lead at 15-13.
It
was Ash's second home run of the game. O'Hagan worked a 1-2-3
bottom
of the ninth to seal the win.
2. February 15th: Stanford 10, Kansas 6 - The
Cardinal
handled the Jayhawks in the first two games of the series, but found
themselves down 6-3 at the start of the bottom of the ninth in the
finale. The first
batter of the inning went down, but the next seven would reach base
safely capped by Brian Hall's walkoff grand slam to propel Stanford to
a dramatic 10-6 win. Donny Lucy's RBI single tied the game at 6-6
and
the bases remained loaded for Hall. Needing just a fly ball to
the
outfield to win the game, Hall instead decided to end the contest with
an exclamation point as he crushed the first pitch he saw for a grand
slam and a
series sweep for Stanford.
1. May 22nd: Stanford 5, USC 4 - The Cardinal badly
needed a win after dropping the series opener to the Trojans as a
Pac-10 title was on the line. Stanford trailed 4-3 heading into
the bottom of the eighth and the first two batters of the inning went
down without much of a fight. But then up stepped John Hester as
a pinch hitter and the backup catcher delivered a ringing double off
the wall in center. Sam Fuld was up next and it what turned out
to be the final great moment of his illustrious Stanford career, the
senior center fielder singled up the middle to score Hester from second
with the tying run. But when the ball rolled under the glove of
SC center fielder Daniel Perales, Fuld raced all the way around the
bases and scored the go-ahead run as Sunken Diamond erupted.
David O'Hagan slammed the door in the ninth to secure the 5-4 win.
Honors
All-Americans
* Jed Lowrie - Unanimous All-American, First Team selections by
Baseball America, Sports Weekly, and Louisville Slugger.
* Danny Putnam - First Team All-American (Baseball America)
* John Mayberry, Jr. - Third Team All-American (Baseball America)
* Mark Romanczuk - Third Team All-American (Louisville Slugger)
All-Pac-10
* Jed Lowrie - Pac-10 Player of the Year
* Jonny Ash - All-Pac-10
* Brian Hall - All-Pac-10
* Donny Lucy - All-Pac-10
* John Mayberry, Jr. - All-Pac-10
* David O'Hagan - All-Pac-10
* Danny Putnam - All-Pac-10
* Mark Romanczuk - All-Pac-10
(Eight selections is a school-record)
* Sam Fuld - Honorable Mention
* Jeff Gilmore - Honorable Mention
Season Analysis / A Look to the Future
The ending wasn't what we all had hoped for this team, but the
ride during the regular season was certainly an unforgettable
one. Stanford absolutely crushed the opposition during the first
three months of the season. On May 5th before their trip up to
Seattle, the Cardinal stood tall at 36-6 and 10-2 in Pac-10 play.
Their six losses had been by a grand total of 11 runs while Stanford
had not trailed by more than five runs in any one contest all
season. Included were series wins over the two teams currently
playing in the CWS Championship Series: Texas and Cal State
Fullerton. Complete and utter domination.
The season really turned starting with that series up at Washington as
the Cardinal lost a heartbreaking 3-2 game in ten innings in the opener
while they were trounced (for the first time all year) by a score of
9-2 in the finale. The following weekend, Stanford suffered
19-18 and 11-2 losses to Arizona and all of a sudden the pitching staff
was looking very vulnerable. Stanford won five of their last
seven at home (against USF, USC, and Arizona State) to go into the
Tournament on a high note, but even those two losses were blowouts were
the pitching staff had been hammered (9-3 to USC and 15-5 to
ASU). Shortcomings in your pitching staff can be overcome when
you have a hitting team like Stanford had this year, but the Cardinal
got quite possibly the worst draw imaginable as they had to face the
top 1-2 starting pitching combo in the country during the NCAA
Regionals. Stanford's offense was handcuffed all weekend and the
pitching continued to struggle and so Stanford was forced to watch the
CWS from home for the first time since 1998.
I detailed in my fall and January practice reports that hitting was
again going to be the strength of the Stanford Cardinal. This was
certainly the case as the Cardinal averaged over eight runs per game
and finished with the third highest batting average in school
history. This was as an experienced and confident a group of
hitters that we're ever going to see at Sunken Diamond. The
overall talent and depth 1-through-9 was incredible and led to numerous
high-scoring affairs here in 2004. Unfortunately, they were
basically shut down by the dynamic duo of Long Beach State in the
Regionals, but one can only wonder what this group would have
accomplished in hitter-friendly Rosenblatt Stadium had they advanced.
This truly was an offense that relied on the three-run home run.
Stanford did hit a couple of homers in the those two Long Beach games,
however both were of the solo variety and did little to get the
Cardinal back into the game. We may never see a lineup like this
one, 1-through-9, that had the type of power that this one did.
All-Americans Jed Lowrie and John Mayberry, Jr. return to anchor the
middle of the order next season, but the rest of the lineup will
largely be filled by players new to starting. Top-to-bottom, the
power probably won't be the same next season, however there's really no
shortage of talent, so big offensive numbers as a team certainly aren't
out of the question.
Pitching was the primary reason the Cardinal didn't advance back to the
College World Series this season. However, the struggles of the
pitching staff did not come as a surprise to anyone. Eight of the
ten regular pitchers this year were underclassmen, so taking some bumps
and bruises along the way was to be expected. A pair of
sophomores were forced into the top two starting pitching spots and
both came through with very solid, but certainly not spectacular,
seasons. Nevertheless, Mark Romanczuk and Jeff Gilmore will both
be back in the Cardinal and White next season and are primed to take
the next step toward stardom at the collegiate level. Pitching
was seen as the weakness of Stanford this year, but now that these
hurlers all have a year under their belt, look for the tables to turn
in 2005 as the Cardinal rely much more on their arms to carry them to
victory.
What's Ahead
Summer ball has started around the country as Stanford players
can be found playing for Team USA, in the Cape, all the way up in
Alaska, and down in Texas (among other places). The Bootleg will have complete
coverage of all the goings on this summer - both with players
participating in their various leagues and any news that comes out of
campus. Fall Ball begins in October once the players return to
school while the next season of Cardinal baseball is scheduled to get
underway in January.
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