Stanford 8, UC-Davis
4
1. Stanford 002 100 005
4. UC-Davis 110 010 010
WP:
Drew Storen: 2 IP, 0 R, 3 H, 1 K, 0 BB
Starter: Jeffrey Inman: 7 IP, 4 R, 3 ER, 8
H, 5 K, 1 BB
LP:
Justin Fitzgerald, 0.2 IP, 2 R, 1 ER, 3 H
Key
stretch:
First baseman
Brent Milleville blasted the Aggies out of the Regional -- and Stanford into the
Regional Finals against Pepperdine -- with a no-out, two-run shot to left in the
top of the ninth, pulling Stanford ahead 5-4. Catcher Jason Castro led off the
inning reaching on Davis first baseman Evan Hudson's fielding error to count for
the tying run, setting the stage for Milleville's first hit of the
day.
DH Randy Molina followed Milleville's blast with a double and then pinch hitter Toby Gerhart walked as the Cardinal tried to position themselves to add an insurance
run. And third baseman Zach Jones, shortstop Jake Schlander and second baseman
Cord Phelps all delivered, each hitting consecutive RBI singles to pull Stanford
ahead 8-4 with one out in the ninth. Joey August's third double-play of the game
would end the inning, but not after UC-Davis had gone through four pitchers in
the ninth, attempting to stall Stanford's surge.
Davis looked
to have won the game in the eighth, as Stanford reliever Drew Storen inherited
Hudson on first with none out, saw Hudson advance to third on a Grant Hirneise
single to right, and let Hudson score on Matt Dempsey's one-out lineout to left.
The sac fly gave Davis a 4-3 lead, and left the visiting Aggies just
three outs away from beating the Card for the fourth time this season and the
second time in this weekend's Regional.
But Stanford's five-run ninth proved too much for the
Aggies, who anticlimactically managed only two two-out singles
off Storen in the bottom of the inning.
UC-Davis
closed out their last Stanford contest hot, scoring four in a go-ahead
seventh, and kept that offensive momentum early Sunday. Ryan Royster
started the game with a double to left and scored on a Ryan Scoma sacrifice
fly to left as Davis took a 1-0 lead in the first. In the second, Royster's
groundout to second scored Hirnesie unearned, pulling the visiting underdogs
ahead 2-0. Earlier in the inning, Stanford starting pitcher Jeffrey Inman
mishandled a Dempsey bunt, allowing Hirneise to take third in the first of two
Stanford errors on the game.
But Stanford
responded, with Phelps' solo shot leading off the third, and Molina's two-out
double scoring Castro to tie the contest at 2-2.
Stanford took
its first lead of the game in the fourth, with some timely production from the
bottom of its order, which had struggled up to this point in postseason play.
No. 8 hitter Jones doubled to left-center with one out, and No. 9 hitter
Schlander singled to the same spot to score Jones. Stanford led 3-2, but a Scoma
RBI single in the fifth plated Royster and retied the game at three.
Stanford
loaded the bases and Davis had runners on the corners in the seventh,
but rightfielder Brendan Domaracki's foul out and a Ryan Scoma ground out
ended each half of the inning.
The heroes:
Excuse the cliche, because it really was a
team effort Sunday afternoon. Fifteen different Stanford players were on the
field at some point during the game, and eight batters combined for the
Cardinal's 17 hits.
Having said
that, Milleville receives and deserves the headlines for his
poise, hitting his two-run, go-ahead homer just three outs away from a potential
season-ending loss. I'm a firm believer in the value of statistics in baseball,
but Milleville really is a player who plays better than his numbers would
indicate, as he thrives under pressure and has produced one clutch hit after
another this season.
But how about
Schlander and Jones? In the Regional preview,
we wrote one of Stanford's biggest obstacles to postseason success was how the bottom of the order would order fare, and pointed out that the
bottom of the order went 0-for-9 in the first game against Davis. Today,
however, the freshman pair went 5-for-9, with the last two of those hits each
scoring a key insurance run in the ninth. Schlander, in particular, deserves
praise for a team-high three hits and two RBI.
Leadoff man Phelps and No. 2 hitter August also
combined for five hits, as did Castro and Molina
in the three and five spots. Between Jones and Schlander, Phelps and
August and Castro, Milleville and Molina, Stanford's 17 hits truly came from
top, middle and bottom of the order.
Inman insured that those runs would be
enough, scattering just three earned runs in seven innings pitched. One
underrated key to Inman's day was that he didn't allow Davis more than one run
in any given inning. Given that Davis is more of a hit-for-contact than
hit-for-power team, they need a big inning like their four-run seventh Friday to
win ballgames. Inman didn't let them have it. Secondly, Inman went a full seven
innings, saving key pitching depth as Stanford now prepares to face Pepperdine
for a trip to the Super Regionals.
Milleville and friends gave him breathing room, but
Storen also did a nice job of making sure the win would hold
up, snuffing out Davis' last-gasp chance in the ninth.
Tough day at the ballpark:
August did have two hits, but he more than
erased that with three double plays. Given that August is a ground-ball hitter
and given how many baserunners Stanford had on the bags, the stat is
understandable, but it still cost the Cardinal six outs.
Next up:
Stanford must win two from Pepperdine to advance to Super
Regionals. The first contest went underway shortly after Stanford finished off
Davis. The second, if necessary, would come Monday afternoon.
Stanford 5, Arkansas
1
1. Stanford
(34-22-2): 011 100 020 5R 10H 1E
3. Arkansas (34-24): 000 010 000 1R 9H 1E
WP: Austin Yount
(7-3): 5 IP, 1 R, 7 H, 5 K, 0 BB
Save: Jeremy Bleich: 4 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 4 K, 5 BB
LP: Dallas Keuchel (7-3): 4
IP, 3 R, 6 H, 3 K, 1 BB
Key stretch:
Stanford didn't win this game with a single,
explosive inning. Instead, a run apiece in the second, third and fourth gave
the Cardinal some distance, and two more in the eighth all but eliminated the
Razorbacks from postseason play.
DH Randy Molina's lead-off homer in the second started
the Stanford scoring. In the third, catcher Jason Castro's double to left scored
Phelps, and in the fourth, Jones' line-out to left scored Molina from third.
Three straight Arkansas singles accounted for their only
run in the fifth, Yount's final inning. But Yount snared Andy Wilkins' two-out
shot up the middle on one hop -- and fired to Milleville on first to end the
inning, and Stanford's only real jam.
Bleich struggled with control, as his five walks
suggest, and his save would not be without drama. Arkansas stranded seven
baserunners in the game's final three innings, but Bleich again snared a Wilkins
dart up the middle to end the seventh. He then induced a strike out
and foul flyout to end the eighth, and two strikeouts to end the ninth.
A Milleville single, Molina double, wild pitch and
Ratliff sac fly accounted for Stanford's final two runs in the eighth.
The heroes:
Molina (3-for-4, three runs, one RBI) scored
most of Stanford's runs and outhit all his teammates, but it was his solo
shot to start the second that gave Stanford a lead it would never relinquish.
That homer also snapped the Cardinal out of the offensive funk that plagued them
against UC-Davis the day previous, as Stanford would add runs in each of the
next two innings.
Ratliff (2-for-3) and Phelps
(1-for-4, one walk, one run) were the other Stanford
batters to reach base multiple times on the afternoon.
The pitchers, especially Bleich, got lucky, because it's
not often that an opponent manages just one run on nine hits. But both
Yount and Bleich contributed to their luck with nifty glovework to end big innings, and Bleich
especially saved his best stuff for the biggest at-bats.
Tough day at the ballpark:
Gerhart, Schlander and Jones
were the only three Cardinal not to hit, though
Jones was credited with an RBI for his fourth-inning lineout to left.
Arkansas starter Dallas Keuchel
surrendered three runs and six hits in just four innings. That's not
great, but the Razorbacks' five through nine hitters going just 2-for-20 was what really sunk the Hogs.
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