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.

With the first batter of the game, Mooneyham fell behind in the count and then served up a leadoff homer to second baseman Christian Stringer.

The Cardinal were able to rally in the bottom of the 2nd, scoring three runs on three hits.

Brian Ragira led off the inning with a soft, rolling grounder to Kubitza, who couldn’t reach the ball and then tried to push it to first base. The ball went past first baseman Ryan Lewis and Ragira was safe.

Kenny Diekroeger followed with a walk and a batter later, Lonnie Kauppila drives Ragira in with a base hit. The next batter, Eric Smith, hit a two-run double.

The lead wouldn’t last long, as the Owls scored two runs in the top of the 3rd. However, that would be the only runs they score off Mooneyham.

Mooneyham pitched six innings, giving up six hits, three earned runs, four walks, and struck out nine.

The Cardinal offense kept on going, scoring one in the 3rd, three in the 4th, one in both the 5th and 6th, and two in the 7th. They finished with 11 runs on the day and14 hits.

Dean McArdle came in to relieve Mooneyham in the 7th and pitched two innings. He gave up four hits and three runs while walking one and striking out one.

Sahil Bloom finished the game and pitched a perfect 9th inning to get the Cardinal the 11-6 win.

The Cardinal are now 13-1 on the season and are 9-0 at home.