June 03, 2005

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Palo Alto Online

Final chance to leave a mark

by Rick Eymer

Stanford junior Jed Lowrie knew he had some power. He just needed to adjust to the fences. After not hitting a home run in his freshman year, he exploded for 17 last year and has 12 more this season as the Cardinal baseball team prepares to play in their first NCAA baseball regional away from Sunken Diamond in 10 years.

Lowrie, who will be playing his final games in a Stanford uniform this postseason, has a simple explanation for his lack of notoriety in the power department.

"We didn't have any fences in high school," said Lowrie, who was named to the College Baseball Foundation National Honors Team on Wednesday. "I could hit the ball 500 feet and only get a double out of it."

A poster for the North Salem High baseball team glorified the dimensions of the Vikings home field: 515 feet down the right field line, 620 feet to center, 315 feet to the left field line but then it increases significantly 30 feet into left.

"Those are tough dimensions," Lowrie said. "You have to hit and run. I had maybe eight career high school home runs."

Lowrie hopes he has a few more in him when Stanford (32-23) travels to Baylor to participate in the Waco Regional beginning with today's noon (PDT) game against No. 2 seed and 24th-ranked Texas Christian (40-18). The Cardinal are seeded third in the four-team double-elimination tournament. Eighth-ranked Baylor (39-21) is the top seed and will meet Texas-San Antonio (27-32) at 5 p.m. today.

The tournament continues through Sunday, with a game on Monday if necessary.

It's Stanford's second venture into the Longhorn state this year, following a trip to Texas in the middle of February which resulted in a two-run loss and a pair of one-run losses.

"The postseason is a clean slate for us," Lowrie said. "We get to start over. We got into the tournament and that's the most important part. Now we need to get hot and make some noise."

With Lowrie, John Mayberry Jr., Mark Romanczuk, Matt Manship, John Hester, Chris Minaker and Chris Lewis, Stanford has a handful of players who saw game action during the postseason run to the College World Series championship game in 2003. For some of the juniors, they would like to end their careers with another appearance in Omaha.

"Winning a national title is expected in a way," Minaker said. "That's the best expectation you can have, and it's a realistic goal. We always have our sights set on the ultimate prize."

Gilmore, Lowrie and Mayberry were named first team all-Pac-10 on Wednesday, while Hester, Romanczuk and sophomore Adam Sorgi were accorded honorable mention.

"Guys in the junior class went to Omaha and they know what it takes to get back," Lowrie said. "We're ready for the opportunity we have this year."

The first step is surviving Waco, and that will be difficult enough. TCU's top pitcher is junior Lance Broadway (14-1, 1.67). He's been part of three shutouts in his last four starts, including a complete-game four-hitter against top-ranked Tulane.

Broadway's only loss came in a relief appearance against host Sam Houston State on Feb. 22.

He brings a 21-inning scoreless inning streak into the Waco Regional, and has allowed just one run in his last 35 innings. He's struck out a school record 144 in 108 innings and opponents are batting just .191 against him.

He joined the Horned Frogs after spending the previous two years at Dallas Baptist. He'll likely join a professional organization this summer.

Lowrie and Mayberry are also both expected to go high in the Amateur Draft on Tuesday, and both are expected to sign.

"We're going to lose them," Stanford coach Mark Marquess said. "Like a lot of better players who have come through here, they mean a lot to this program and we're proud of what they've accomplished."

Gilmore, Romanczuk, and Hester are also likely candidates to get drafted and sign.

While Mayberry was a No. 1 round choice by the Seattle Mariners in the 2002 Amateur Draft, Lowrie played in relative obscurity and went undrafted.

"It didn't bother me because I knew I was going to go to college," Lowrie said. "This was my best option. But that's the great thing about baseball: we took different roads to get to the same path. The major leagues are why I play this game. That's been my goal all along."

Even should Stanford not reach its ultimate goal, Lowrie leaves with no regrets.

"I've had a great time here," he said. "In three years I've made some friends for life. Now we all want to end it the right way."

The regular season ended in frustration for the Cardinal, and they hope to revitalize their year with a strong run in the postseason.

"It's like a clean slate," Lowrie said. "We get to start all over. We got in and that was the most important part. Now we need to get hot and make some noise in the tournament."

The last time Stanford traveled for a regional was to Wichita in 1995 and that team reached the College World Series, but Marquess said it was a little different then.

"That was a six-team regional and that gets crazy," he said. "This team is much better able to handle losing a game in the regional because we have more depth in pitching. We can survive a loss. Whoever pitches Friday could come back to pitch Monday. With the old set-up you couldn't do that."

Gilmore (10-2, 3.61) and Romanczuk (5-6, 4.33) will pitch the first two days, though Marquess didn't know in which order and today's starter may be a game time decision.

"Everybody may ask what is wrong with Stanford and there's nothing wrong," Marquess said. "The expectation level is different. We're supposed to be good and that goes to the players. They think they're supposed to be good and that's half the battle. When you play for a good program you expect to win and do well. There are a lot of programs who would love to be in the postseason. We earned it. We're one of the best 64 teams and we're capable along with 20 or 30 other teams of winning the national championship."

Stanford finished sixth in the Pac-10, its lowest finish ever, and was out of the national rankings for the first time since 1993. Yet the Cardinal are in, and expecting to do well in Waco and beyond.

"What we've done before doesn't matter expect that it got us into the postseason," said Minaker, who has a 13-game hitting streak. "We're ready to start a new momentum. It's helped that we've played some of the best teams in the nation at their place. We played at Oregon State, at Texas and at Fullerton."

Stanford was 2-7 in the nine games against those teams, all currently ranked in the top 10. What's misleading about that record is that all seven losses were by two runs or less, and that gives Cardinal players the confidence they can compete with the best.

"The only thing new about it is it's a fresh start," Minaker said. "We can forget about the frustration of the regular season. The older guys know that feeling of success in the postseason. You always think this could be your last chance to leave your mark on Stanford baseball. We all want to be part of the winning tradition."

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