A.J. Vanegas pitches against the St. Mary's College Gaels. (Photo: Mac)
Tuesday afternoon, the Cardinal team ventured to Moraga, Calif. to face the Gaels at St. Mary’s College of California.
RHP A.J. Vanegas pitched five strong innings, giving up only three hits and allowing no runs.
The Card offense proved, once again, that they can get things done.
Well. Look at that box score. Stanford beats Texas 15-1, bringing the season record to 7-0.
The nerds have clearly been bringing the best game they can to the field since opening day and it’s showing.
Freshman pitcher John Hochstatter went 6 1/3 innings in the Sunday matinee, giving up only one run. He walked three and struck out four.
Though Texas had tied the game in the top of the 4th inning, the Card had no problem rallying.
The scored 13 runs in the bottom of the 4th.
You read that right folks, 13 runs.
Junior third baseman Stephen Piscotty had a big day at the plate, going 2 for 5, walking once, and driving in 4. As did sophomore shortstop Lonnie Kauppila, who went 2 for 4 with 2 walks, 2 runs scored, and a triple.
In other words, the Stanford offense did this:
And it is a very, very fun thing to see this season.
Iron Chef Brett Mooneyham clearly has not let his kitchen mishap affect his pitching skills.
Clearly in control of the game, Mooneyham went the distance and pitched eight strong innings, giving up only one run.
» Continue reading “The Streak Keeps Going: Stanford Defeats Texas Again”
Well, that was a nice way to start things off in the Fullerton regional.
Mark Appel was absolutely stellar tonight. He threw a complete game, giving up seven hits whilst striking out eight. No walks, by the by. Yeah. He was on.
On the offensive side, Stanford took advantage of a bunch of Kansas State errors, and their baserunning was perfect. Lonnie Kauppila was the offensive star of the night with three hits, but almost all of the starters contributed (I believe Austin Wilson was the only one without a hit). Now we’re in the winners’ bracket. That’s a very secure place to be, because now we can lose and not be automatically eliminated.
Kudos to you, Mark Appel, and kudos to this young team. We’re on our way now!
To celebrate our victory in game one, here is a cracktastic Vocaloid video about vegetable juice.
No, we didn’t actually sneak into USC in a wooden horse. But that headline got your attention, didn’t it?
I spent my weekend scouting Minor Leaguers (I was unsuccessful in catching former Cardinal Erik Davis in Harrisburg on Saturday) and I have some photos to sift through, but here’s basically what happened in Southern California (and let’s be honest, NorCal is better except for Berkeley, which is icky).
In happier news, Lonnie Kauppila was Pac-10 Player of the Week last week, and we’re very proud of him. You can watch this lovely video of him and get to know him a little better!
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:
