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.
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.
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.
Now we shall talk about another draft pick who chose us instead, Mr. John Hochstatter.
Seriously, we did better in the draft than some MLB teams, it feels like.
Hochstatter is a left-handed pitcher, which means he’s yet another threat for Stanford on the mound. We have a lot of those and I like that. He’s been on 16U and 18U teams for the United States, where he performed well enough to get on the Twins’ radar (they drafted him in the 42nd round this past June). He chose us, and according to this article in his local Patch he’s thinking of majoring in psychology. Attaboy, that’s a good major! He seems like he’s got it together. I quote said Patch article:
Describe yourself in three words. Dedicated, responsible, trustworthy
What was your biggest challenge in high school? I think the biggest challenge was making a decision on where I’m going to go to college, and that was just because there were so many great options. I was lucky enough to get offers from basically the Pac-10. I chose Stanford; it was just the combination of their athletics and academics. And they gave me a great offer, so college won’t be a burden for me.
I think I like him.
Anyway, you’re not here to see what AJ Vanegas and Brian Ragira’s former 18U teammate has to say about college selection, although it’s very encouraging. You want to see what he looks like as a pitcher. Here you go:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHtihcXaOM4
I’d say he looks pretty good, don’t you? Let’s give him an opportunity to really shine at Sunken.
UNC’s staff ace, Patrick Johnson, held us off until the eighth. Then, with two outs and two men on, he was taken out for a reliever. Ragira blooped a little ball into the infield and that magically scored our two runs.
That was all we got, though. UNC had a homer in the seventh that added two runs to their fragile one-run lead that they’d had for all of the game, and then in the bottom of the eighth they put two more runs on. It basically…was not cool to watch. Seriously.
Here is a depiction of how well we played today, minus starter Mark Appel, who was fantastic. Mark can be the guy at the computer who doesn’t understand the epic fail.
So we swept Cal this weekend. That means they didn’t beat us at anything this year that involved playing baseball. Isn’t that awesome? We think so.
Anyhow, here’s some important things so you can see us on TV. We look cool on TV.
Regionals. You can catch us on ESPNU on Friday, presuming you get that channel. We’ll be playing at 4 pm, which I’m pretty sure is in Pacific time because we’re playing at Fullerton. Please be excited for us and cheer us on so we win. We also like being reminded we are smart.
People who won awards. Piscotty was First Team All Pac-10. Ragira was Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. Ragira, Kenny Diekroeger, Tyler Gaffney, Chris Reed, Jake Stewart and Austin Wilson all made honorable mention, as well. So we win things. We are cool besides being smart.
Now that you’re all excited for us and stuff, the next big event after the postseason is the MLB Draft, which is a week from now. Less than that, even, since it starts on Monday. So maybe some of these boys will become professionals in something other than neuroscience.
Lots of good news on this lovely Tuesday afternoon.
Stanford swept the University of Washington, coming from behind on Sunday just when it seemed like they were going to lose. The kids never say die, and I love that.
And then they went and beat Stockton yesterday, too. So now they’ve won five games in a row. Pretty nifty.
Here’s Brian Ragira on the win on Sunday:
Ragira was named the Pac-10 Player of the Week this week, so we’re especially proud of him. I think you should be, too.
Stanford’s hosting UC Davis tonight at Sunken before going up to the University of Oregon to play the Ducks this weekend. Eight games in ten days, people. We’re hanging in there. If you’re in California or Oregon, you might get to watch the games: Friday night’s game will be tape delayed, but it’ll be on Fox Sports Net on Saturday. Sunday’s game will be live on Comcast SportsNet Northwest, CSN Bay Area and Comcast Sports Southeast. Enjoy!
Yeah. That first game against Washington State, where Mark Appel left with an 8-2 lead? Let’s forget about that one. It didn’t go as planned. Walk-off homers from the other team kind of put a damper on things.
Now that second game – let’s talk about that one. Jordan Pries struck out a season-high seven batters over five innings, and despite the fact that there was snow – yes, snow – the Cardinal ended up scoring 22 runs. They haven’t scored over 20 since April of 2008, which they did against USC. (2008 means they still had players like Jed Lowrie and John Mayberry Jr. on the roster. That makes this fairly impressive.) Ragira had a grand slam and seven RBIs, Lonnie Kauppila had six hits and drove in five runs, and Austin Wilson went 4-6 and drove in four more. That’s sixteen of the runs right there.
Basically, that game was good.
And the third one – oh, the third one. You see, the third one gave Nine his 1400th career win, and that’s why it’s easily the most important one in this series despite the high-scoring affair from the day before. After taking a 4-0 lead, errors allowed Washington State to creep back into it before Chris Reed shut them down with a five-out save. And of course, Dean McArdle started this one, which means he still refuses to lose a game. Ever.
A couple of notes:
Zach Jones, who had been struggling to open the season, drove in seven runs between Friday and Saturday after having just one RBI the entire season up to this point.
Kenny Diekroeger has a 14-game hitting streak. Keep tabs on Kenny.
Stanford is playing San Jose State on Tuesday at home before heading off to USC for the weekend. The San Jose State game starts at 5:30 pm PST.
There are six players and two GMs in the Majors right now who hail from Stanford. I’m sure at some point this season you will hear about all of them here, because Steph is crazy.
The Fresno State Bulldogs played the Pepperdine Waves in the first game of the day.
