This isn’t a baseball post, but it’s a Stanford Athletics post – and a very important one, at that!

Stanford’s women’s sports teams recently won the Capital One Cup. Back in June, when the results were announced, a press release was sent out congratulating our women. It’s been a while since then, but now that the new school year’s started up, the trophy itself has finally made its way to campus.

The Cup trophy made its first appearance at a Stanford women’s soccer game, coincidentally played against Boston University, where my kid brother is currently a freshman engineering student. (Can you tell I’m proud of him?)

Tricia Gibbs, Capital One Senior Manager of Brand Sponsorships, presents the Capital One Cup Trophy (and a check) to Earl Koberlein, Stanford Senior Associate Athletic Director. (Photo courtesy of Capital One Cup.)

The trophy and check for $200,000 also made it to a Stanford football game the next day:

L-R: Tara Van Derveer (Head Coach, Women’s Basketball), Tara Danielson (Head Coach, Field Hockey), Paul Ratcliffe (Head Coach, Women’s Soccer), Rachel Quon (Women’s Soccer student-athlete), Becky Dru (Field Hockey student-athlete), Tricia Gibbs (Capital One), Alina Garcia Mendez (Women’s Soccer student-athlete), Mariah Nogueira (Women’s Soccer student-athlete), Emily Henriksson (Field Hockey student-athlete) and John Tanner (Head Coach, Women’s Water Polo). (Photo courtesy of Capital One Cup.)

Congratulations to all our women student-athletes – and all their coaches for bringing out the best in them!

According to the press release back in June, “Capital One congratulates Stanford University for winning the women’s Capital One Cup for the second consecutive season, with a record 152.5 points.” Not only are our ladies dominant, but they’re record-setters and role models! The award-winners were even honored at the ESPYs this year, so it’s good to see college athletics, especially women’s college athletics, receiving this sort of attention. Programs like the Cup will hopefully encourage other schools to strengthen their athletic programs – but not in a way that compromises their academic programs, because we’d like to remind you here that Stanford has now won twice in a row. Academics are important, people.

I’ll close this out with one more shot of the Cup from the soccer game so you can see how shiny our new trophy is.

Tricia Gibbs and Earl Koberlein with the trophy. (Photo courtesy of Capital One Cup.)

Friday was the first game of the Tallahassee Super Regional and the Stanford Cardinal faced the Florida State Seminoles.

And this happened.

This is ugly.Very ugly.

Don’t let it happen again, Cardinal, seeing as if you lose Game 2, you’re eliminated.

And we here at Nine Shot First don’t really want that to happen.

The Fresno State Bulldogs played the Pepperdine Waves in the first game of the day.

For eight innings, the Bulldogs were in control, leading 5-2 and doing everything right.

Until the top of the 9th. In an unpredictable manner, the Waves rallied back — and rallied hard. On five hits, Fresno State’s hopes of advancing were dashed when Pepperdine scored six runs — four on a grand slam by Matt Forgatch.

Pepperdine won 8-5, eliminating Fresno State from the regional.

The Waves advanced to play the Stanford Cardinal later in the evening. » Continue reading “Palo Alto Regional: And The Cardinal Emerge Victorious”

Well, things are going quite nicely on our end.

We’ll get to that in a minute, though. First, let’s talk about the game that happened before ours: Michigan State and Fresno State.

Both teams swapped runs early in the game – by the end of the first inning, it was 2-2, and the score stayed that way through five until Fresno State’s Trent Garrison broke through and drove in a run in the sixth on a two-out double. Fresno State tacked on another run in the seventh (the fourth run they scored with two outs in this game), then survived a scare in the bottom of the inning when the Spartans had two men on but failed to score.

Oh, and then there was a triple play. Strange things were happening tonight at Sunken – there was an oddity in the Stanford game, too. But we’ll get to that later. Fresno State scored a run before that triple play, then added three more in the top of the ninth to make the score 8-2. That was the final. Michigan State is done for the year with a 37-24 record.

And then…it was our turn.

» Continue reading “Palo Alto Regional: Day Two”

In the first game of the regionals, the Michigan State Spartans played the Pepperdine Waves.

Pepperdine struck first, scoring two runs in the 3rd. Michigan State got on the board in the 5th thanks to a Jordan Keur base hit, and they cut the lead in half.

However, the lead would become too insurmountable for them when Pepperdine opened the gates of runs. In the bottom of the 6th, the Waves batted around and scored four runs to make it 6-1.

Michigan State would score one more run in the 7th, but that was all. Pepperdine’s Jon Moscot threw a complete game, allowing 10 hits, 2 runs, 2 walks, and struck out 4 for the win.

The Fresno State Bulldogs played the Stanford Cardinal in the second game of the night. » Continue reading “Palo Alto Regional: Day One”

It was announced on Sunday that Klein Field at Sunken Diamond would be one of the 16 host sites for the NCAA baseball regionals.

Today, NCAA announced the bracket for the regionals. Stanford, Pepperdine, Michigan State, and Fresno State will play in the Palo Alto Regional, with the first games on Friday night. The regional will be using a double elimination format, as seen below.

All games will be broadcasted on ESPN 3. Tickets go onsale at 9 a.m. on Tuesday. According to the Stanford Cardinal website, “Patrons can call 1-800-STANFORD or visit gostanford.com to purchase tickets.”

This wasn’t the news I wanted to hear today, unfortunately, but it seems that former Stanford player and Mets farmhand Sean Ratliff has retired from baseball after his struggles to recover from his facial injuries last season.

Ratliff has one semester left at Stanford, and after that he’s got his whole life in front of him. He’ll be armed with a wonderful degree, so he’ll definitely be able to conquer the world, but it’s always really depressing when a player’s Major League dreams are cut short.

Godspeed, Sean. We still believe in you and we’re very, very proud.

The last time I was in Binghamton for a game, which was about a year ago, I bought a game-used Sean Ratliff bat. I am now even more glad that I was impulsive and did.

I'm going to treasure this forever.

Members of the Cardinal team celebrate Austin Wilson's walkoff home run. (Photo: Mac)

The weather cooperated with baseball for once this weekend in the Bay Area.

Saturday’s game against the University of Southern California Trojans was rained out and a doubleheader was scheduled for Sunday, Mar 25.

The series marks No. 3 Stanford’s first meeting with a Pac-12 team this season.

» Continue reading “Stanford Sweeps Double Header Against USC”

As @CAA_Baseball tweeted this morning, Jed Lowrie has launched a photography website: www.jl4photography.com.

If you’re thinking, “Jed Lowrie, the same guy that Nine Shot First senior reporter Steph loves so much?” then you are correct!

(And yes, I know it’s a change to see me, Mac, writing about Jed. Insert .gif of the Stanford Tree with a pair of sunglasses falling down to its eyes saying, “Deal with it.”)

The about page of his website seems to really reflect his personality:

Hello, my name is Jed Lowrie. Growing up in the beautiful Pacific Northwest, I gained a keen appreciation for nature. I was fortunate enough to attend Stanford University, where I majored in political science. Although I did not major in photojournalism, the most enjoyable elective courses I took were photography. I currently play Major League Baseball, but always find time for my photography when possible. I am a passionate photographer and traveler who enjoys capturing images of the world around me. I want to share them with you. Enjoy.

In an awkwardly dorky way, Jed manages to be articulate and still have that Stanford charm.

And as someone who has studied (or attempted to, at least) photography, Jed has a really great eye for things. Maybe there will be great ballpark and game shots soon? Who knows. It’s certainly something to watch out for, I’m sure.

Austin Wilson after his fourth inning three-run home run. (Photo: Mac)

No. 2 Stanford hosted the Rice Owls on Mar 10 at Sunken Diamond.

Iron Chef Brett Mooneyham took the mound for his 4th start of the season, opposing righty Austin Kubitza.

» Continue reading “Mooneyham, Offense Cook Rice”