Publication Date: Wednesday, March 03, 2004
STANFORD ROUNDUP
No. 1 Cardinal baseball
No. 1 Cardinal baseball
(March 03, 2004)sweeps series from Cal
by Rick Eymer
It didn't count in the Pac-10 standings, but a three-game road sweep of California still meant something for the Stanford baseball team as it began its longest stretch of the season away from home.
A bus ride to Berkeley may not be much of a trip, but it still seems like a long way from Sunken Diamond. It didn't seem matter for the top-ranked Cardinal (13-2), who completed their sweep of host California, 6-2, on Sunday as freshman Blake Holler solidified his spot in the regular rotation with another outstanding performance.
In his four appearances, Holler has two wins and two saves.
"I was able to throw strikes and keep the ball down," said Holler. "It worked."
Jeff Gilmore (3-1) also put his stamp on the rotation in Saturday's 10-3 victory over the Bears as he pitched seven solid innings.
Stanford came from behind on Friday to win the opener, 12-9.
The Cardinal meet another Pac-10 rival in a nonconference series when they take a trip down the coast to USC for three games beginning Friday at 6 p.m.
USC is one of the few teams with an advantage in the all-time series over the Cardinal at 198-150-3.
Stanford has a current five-game win streak, though, and has won four consecutive season series against the Trojans.
Stanford began playing nonconference series against both Cal and USC in 1999, after the Pac-10 schedule was changed to accommodate a change in the conference structure. The idea was to allow fans to see each team every year. Unless fans go on the road, they won't see Pac-10 rivals UCLA, Oregon State, Washington and Arizona this season.
Following the USC series, Stanford takes a two-week for finals before returning to action with a two-game series at St. Mary's beginning March 23.
On Sunday, Stanford won its 13th straight game against California, and the seventh consecutive at Cal.
Holler (2-0) worked a career-high seven innings in his second career start, allowing one run on five hits with four strikeouts.
John Mayberry, Jr. led Stanford's 13-hit attack with three hits and three RBI. Donny Lucy hit a home run.
Jonny Ash, Jed Lowrie, Danny Putnam and Chris Minaker each added two hits.
Lowrie, who went 7-for-10 in the series, extended his hitting streak to 11 games. He's hitting .472 on the season. Ash extended his hitting streak to 10 games after a 7-of-14 performance against the Bears.
Mayberry provided key RBI hits in each the fifth and seventh innings.
"It felt really good, especially since I wasn't really able to get the job done during the first two days of the series," said Mayberry. "Today, I just focused on the job at hand."
Stanford did not make an error in the series, recording its ninth errorless game of the season and improving its season fielding percentage to .978, which is better than the school record of .977 set in 2001.
Lowrie hit the first three triples of his career, drove in a career-high-tying four runs and reached base in all six at bats to lead Stanford on Friday. Ash also had three hits while Lucy and Brian Hall homered. Jim Rapoport added a pair of RBI.
"I haven't seen that before," said Stanford coach Mark Marquess about Lowrie's three-triple day. "It's very hard to do because you have to hit the ball in the right places."
Jonny Dyer (1-0) earned the win after holding the Bears to one run on four hits over 2 1/3 innings. David O'Hagan pitched two scoreless innings for his team-leading third save.
On Saturday, Danny Putnam had three hits, while Jed Lowrie drove in three runs.
Gilmore scattered six hits and allowed just three runs over seven innings to earn the victory, striking out two and not walking a batter.
Women's tennis
Top-ranked Stanford defeated visiting Oregon, 7-0, in the Pac-10 opener for both teams on Friday at the Taube Tennis Center.
Stanford beat host Cal, 6-1, on Saturday.
Stanford (10-0) swept the doubles matches to set the tone. The nation's top-ranked duo of Lauren Barnikow and Erin Burdette defeated Courtney Nagle and Daria Panova, 8-4, while Alice Barnes and defending NCAA singles champions Amber Liu recorded an 8-2 victory at No. 2 doubles.
The team of Emilia Anderson and Anne Yelsey completed the sweep with an 8-2 win in No. 3 doubles.
Men's tennis
Sixth-ranked Stanford defeated visiting Arizona, 5-2, on Friday at Taube Tennis Center.
The Cardinal also beat Arizona State, 7-0, on Saturday.
Stanford (8-2) won four of the six singles matches on Friday. Sam Warburg led the way with a convincing 6-4, 6-1 victory at No. 1 singles action.
K.C. Corkery, James Wan and Carter Morris also won in singles play.
The Cardinal head to La Jolla to play in the Pacific Coast Doubles Tournament on Friday.
Track and field
Freshman Ashley Freeman led a sweep of the 400 meters and Anita Siraki won the 5,000 meters to help lead the Stanford women win the Mountain Pacific Sports Federation Championship on Saturday at the Dempsey Indoor Track.
Stanford sophomore Alicia Craig won the 3,000 meter title with a meet record time of 9:26.67 on Friday.
Freeman ran a career-best 54.16, the second-best time in school history, to win the 400. Nashonme Johnson finished second at 54.35 while Keisha Gaines was third in 55.25.
Stanford won the team title with 148 points. UCLA was second with 109 points.
Siraki went 16:58.74 in winning the 5,000 meters.
The Stanford 1,600 relay team of Chinny Offor, Johnson, Gaines, and Freeman won in a season-best time of 3:40.19.
Offor also ran the second leg on Stanford's winning effort (11:18.42) in the distance medley relay. Sara Bei, who finished second in the mile, ran the opening leg while Offor ran the second leg followed by Katie Hotchkiss and Craig.
Jill Camarena finished second in the shot put (55-7 while Janice Davis finished second in the 60 meters (7.52).
The Stanford men finished third with 82.5 points. UCLA won the men's title with 127.
The Cardinal's strongest event was the 5,000 meters, where a second place finish by Neil Davis (14:10.25), Issac Hawkins in third (14:10.96), Brett Gotcher in fourth (14:16.27) and Jonathan Pierce in fifth (14:17.36) resulted in a majority of the Cardinal's points.
The distance medley relay team of Seth Hejny, Gerren Crochet, Joaquin Chapa and David Vidal placed second in a time of 9:47.32.
Softball
Stanford dropped a 7-5 decision to undefeated Arizona in the championship game of the Worth Wildcat Invitational softball tournament on Sunday.
Jessica Allister hit a three-run home run to give the Cardinal a 5-4 lead in the top of the sixth, but Arizona rallied for the win.
Stanford (13-5) scored a season-high in runs in the first game of the tourney, beating Oklahoma State, 10-0, on Friday.
Stanford also lost to Arizona, 2-1, on Friday.
Allister, who had three hits, homered, as did Lauren Lappin, to give Stanford a quick 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning against Oklahoma State.
Michelle Thiry also homered. Katherine Hoffman added two hits.
Women's gymnastics
Ninth-ranked Stanford edged host Oregon State, 197.850-197.175, on Friday.
Stanford (7-3) captured three of the top four spots in the all-around with sophomore All-American Natalie Foley capturing first in the all-around with a score of 39.725. Senior All-American Caroline Fluhrer finished second with a score of 39.625, while fellow senior All-American Lindsay Wing finished fourth with a score of 39.400.
Women's water polo
Third-ranked Stanford finished second in the Gaucho Invitational at UC Santa Barbara, losing 8-5 to top-ranked USC on Sunday.
The Cardinal (8-2) reached the championship game with a 6-5 victory over UCLA.
Hannah Luber scored two goals to lead Stanford over UCLA.
Senior Lauren Faust had two goals in the loss to USC.
Stanford travels to UC Davis on Friday.
The Cardinal opened the tournament with a 6-0 victory over UC San Diego, and a 9-7 win over Cal on Saturday.
Luber scored three goals in the win over UC San Diego. Luber and freshman Christina Hewko each scored two goals in the win over Cal.
Luber scored eight goals in the tournament, while Faust had four.
Men's volleyball
Stanford won its second straight match, beating visiting La Verne, 30-19, 30-22, 30-24, on Friday.
"I thought we played well," said Stanford coach Don Shaw. "We passed well and it allowed us to have some offensive structure."
David Vogel had 12 kills, while Craig Buell added 10 kills. Kevin Hansen dished out a game-high 40 assists and guided the Cardinal to a .453 hitting percentage.
The Cardinal travel to No. 2 UCLA on Friday, and then goes to UC Irvine on Saturday.
Women's lacrosse
Stanford lost twice over the weekend, dropping a 16-5 decision to visiting Notre Dame on Sunday and a 10-9 overtime loss to visiting Ohio State on Friday.
Notre Dame scored the game's first six goals to take control of the contest.
Sophomore Megan Burker led the 14th-ranked Cardinal with two goals.
Against Ohio State, goalkeeper Christina Saikus tied a career high with 20 saves, one short of the school's single-game record.
Men's diving
Stanford freshman Kevin McLean finished seventh on the platform and junior Jesse Fonner was eighth in the three-meter event in the Pac-10 Championships at the Weyerhauser King County Aquatic Center in Federal Way, Wash. over the weekend.
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