After a hot streak that saw it win eight straight games, including two consecutive sweeps of Pac-10 opponents, the No. 18 Stanford baseball team finally saw its momentum grind to a halt on Monday. Though the Cardinal offense had overpowered Cal over the weekend, it sputtered against Santa Clara (15-22), getting shut out for the first eight innings of the game. In a stunning upset, the Broncos took the game 9-3. Stanford (21-14, 10-5 Pac-10) will now have a few days off before starting a three-game set at Washington on Friday.
Though Stanford was shut down offensively until the ninth inning, no single Bronco pitcher receives the credit. Santa Clara used seven pitchers in the game, none of whom pitched more than two innings. Starter Brock Simon gave up just one hit and one walk, with one strikeout.
Every pitcher used by the Broncos proved to be fairly successful against the Stanford lineup. Six pitchers gave up no runs — only Jon Hughes, who pitched the seventh, eighth and part of the ninth inning, gave up three runs, after his team had already established a 9-0 lead.
With the exception of sophomore pinch hitter Scott Colton, who drove a three-run home run over the wall in the ninth in his first at-bat of the game, Stanford’s offense was simply unable to string together any rallies. Despite getting nine hits in the game, the Cardinal’s only RBIs came on the Colton homer, and the team left eight runners on base. Three Stanford players did hit well, though without any RBIs — freshman right fielder Tyler Gaffney and junior first baseman Jonathan Kaskow, both of whom went 2-3, and freshman third baseman Kenny Diekroeger, who went 2-4.
On the other side of the ball, seven Stanford pitchers also played in the game, although their innings were nowhere near as evenly distributed as those of the Bronco pitchers. Junior starter Danny Sandbrink, after throwing five shutout innings, was charged with three runs in the sixth inning and left the game having recorded 5.0 innings of work.
The succession of pitchers that followed Sandbrink fared little better against the Broncos offense, which piled on nine runs in the sixth, seventh and eighth innings. Four pitchers — sophomore Scott Snodgress and freshmen Chris Jenkins, Dean McArdle and Garrett Hughes — combined to give up six runs in these innings. The last two pitchers used, freshman Sahil Bloom and sophomore Elliott Byers, were able to stop the bleeding, but not before the Card had fallen into a hole too deep to climb out of.
Poor defense also did not help the Cardinal. Two errors were made in the game, including one by Diekroeger, his 10th of the season.
Santa Clara was led offensively by right fielder Tommy Medica and designated hitter Pat Stover. Medica had three RBIs, including a home run, while Stover’s three RBIs came on a bases-clearing triple.
Stanford will now look ahead to its next series in Seattle, Wash. against Washington, who sits at 5-7 in Pac-10 play. The Huskies’ last Pac-10 series ended in a 2-1 loss to No. 1 Arizona State. The second game of the series will be played at Safeco Field, home of the Seattle Mariners.