Feb. 28, 2011

Read the A1 Feature in the Mercury News on Stanford's Major Leaguers
Read About Gerut's Major League Retirement with Dignity
Lowrie Becomes Stanford's Ninth 2010 Major Leaguer with a Degre

Complete Release in PDF Format

Leading Off
• No. 9-ranked Stanford (4-3) hosts Santa Clara (4-3) on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. before heading back to the Central Time Zone for the third time in three weeks, traveling to Austin for a three-game series at No. 6-ranked Texas (5-3) this weekend. Stanford began the season at No. 17-ranked Rice, winning two of three, beat No. 17 Cal last Tuesday, and dropped two of three at No 3 Vandy. Finishing in Austin on Sunday, Stanford will have spent 12 days away from home and nine in the Bay Area. Stanford will then take a 10-day break for finals. This weekend's matchup should feature RHP Mark Appel (0-1, 3.09 ERA) on Friday and RHP Jordan Pries (2-0, 1.64 ERA) sometime over the weekend.  The full rotation has not been announced. Texas will counter on the first two days with RHP Taylor Jungmann (2-0, 0.00) on Friday and RHP Cole Green (0-1, 5.91 ERA on Saturday. Neither pitcher has been announced for Tuesday. All games will be on KZSU 90.1 FM, the internet at gostanford.com and on your iPhone by downloading the Stanford App and then listening to KZSU.

Stanford in the Rankings
• Stanford dropped to No. 9 nationally in Baseball America and are No. 14 in Collegiate Baseball and No. 15 in the USA Today Coaches Poll. Stanford began the season No. 10 and moved up to No. 8 on February 21. Stanford will face eight teams ranked in the preseason national top-25 this season.

Stanford-Santa Series
(March 1 at Stanford; April 19 at Santa Clara)
• Series: 128-75-1; Last: Stanford 2-0, 2010

• Stanford leads the all-time series since 1959, 128-75-1 against its county rival. Last year, Stanford won 8-3 (at Sunken Diamond) and 14-0 (Santa Clara). Since 2003, Stanford has won 15 of 22 meetings, including five of the last six meetings.

• About the Broncos: Mark O'Brien's Broncos come into the midweek affair 4-3 on the young season having swept Albany this past weekend (4-0), hitting .368 as a team while allowing just 14 runs over the four games. C Zach Looney has a team-best .476 average with five runs, while 3B Kyle DeMerritt is hitting .400 over the first seven games. OF Matt Ozanne has a team-best five steals. For the Broncos, SCU has five pitchers with ERAs under 4.00. Curtis Wagner is the team's returning hitter (.4040), while Ozanne hit .380 last year. Wagner is batting over .300 again.

Stanford-Texas Series
(March 4-6 at Texas)
• Series: Stanford 24-25-1; Last: Stanford 0-3, 2010
In a very even series, Texas leads 25-24-1. Stanford dropped all three in Austin last year, 6-0, 6-3 and 8-2 to the then-No. 3-ranked Longhorns.  Stanford dropped two of three to Texas in 2009 and 2007. In 2001 and from 2003 to 2006 Stanford won four of five series. In post season play, Texas is 6-5. Texas beat Stanford twice at the 2002 CWS, Stanford won two of three in the 2001 regional at Stanford, the Cardinal lost once in a 1994 regional, beat Texas twice during the 1987 title run in Omaha, lost once at the 1982 CWS, and split the two meetings at the 1981 regional.

• About the Longhorns: Texas reached the CWS last year behind a 50-win season. The Longhorns enter Friday's matchup with a 5-3 record after winning two of three at Hawai'i this past weekend. Texas is ranked No. 6 by Baseball America and No. 12 by both Collegiate Baseball and USA Today. Augie Garrido's Longhorns are hitting .252 on the year with a 3.09 ERA and .979 fielding percentage. Erich Weiss is hitting .538 with eight runs and an .846 slugging percentage paced by three triples and two doubles, while mark Payton is chipping in at a more normal, .324 mark. Friday's starter, Taylor Jungmann, has not allowed a run in 18.0 innings, with opponents batting .148 against him. LHP Hoby Milner is 1-0 with an 0.82 ERA over 11.0 innings.

Vandy Sneaks By Cardinal in Top-10 Series
• No. 3-ranked Vandy and No. 8-ranked Stanford went toe-to-toe last weekend, with the Commodores (L 1-2, L 7-8, W 5-2) taking the first two games of the series, each by a single run, before Jordan Pries won his second game in a week with a three-hit, seven inning masterpiece on Sunday. In the opener between Vandy righthander Sonny Gray, the No. 4-rated junior by Baseball America and Cardinal sophomore Mark Appel, Appel went six innings giving up two runs on seven hits in a 2-1 loss. Gray countered with one run on three hits, surviving after a rough start. On Saturday, Kenny Diekroger had a career-best four hits and tied the contest at 4-4 and gave the Cardinal a 7-4 lead, but a run-scoring fielder's choice pushed across the go-ahead run in the eighth. Stanford had 17 hits in the loss, leaving 13 on base. On Sunday, Pries, on short rest after 4.0 shutout innings on Tuesday, pitched four no-hit innings and allowed just two runs in the fifth. Pries picked up the win with three hits over 7.0 innings as Chris Reed got the save with 2.0 shutout innings.

Pitching Shuts Down No. 17 Bears
• No. 8-ranked Stanford limited No. 17-ranked Cal to six hits to win its first midweek game of the season, 3-2. Jordan Pries went a predetermined 4.0 shutout innings, allowing just a first inning hit. A.J. Vanegas pitched the next three, allowing two runs in the fifth, before Scott Snodgress got his first save with two scoreless innings. Kenny Diekroeger drove in two of the three runs.

Mooneyham Out for the Year
• Lefthander Brett Mooneyham had season-ending finger surgery and will be out for the season. The junior and two-year weekend starter cut his left middle finger in January and had surgery last week. Mooneyham is 9-10 with a 4.67 ERA over 28 career starts. He was rated among the top-100 prospects for the 2011 Draft.

Scout the Opponents and the 2011 Draft
• Stanford's schedule normally features a number of top teams. The other side of the dugout will also feature a number of top prospects. On Baseball America's top-25 college prospect list, Stanford will face eight such players-- Rice third baseman Anthony Rendon (rated No. 1), UCLA pitchers Gerrit Cole (No. 2) and Trevor Bauer (No. 12), Texas righthander Taylor Jungman (No. 4), Hawai'i second baseman Kolten Wong (No. 15), Oregon lefthander Tyler Anderson (No. 16), Vanderbilt third baseman Jason Esposito (No. 18) and Oregon State catcher Andrew Susac (No. 23). Vandy pitcher Sonny Gray was the No. 4-rated junior entering the year.

Texas Two Step and a Nashville Swing
• Stanford will play nine of its first 11 on the road. The Cardinal opened the season by taking two of three in Houston and at Rice, and lost at No. 3 Vanderbilt in Nashville last weekend. Stanford closes out the stretch at Texas this weekend. Stanford is hitting an even .300 in the six road games and have an even 3.00 ERA.

Two Wins in a Week for Pries
• Junior RHP Jordan Pries came through with two big wins last week, posting four shutout innings with one hit against No. 17-ranked Cal on Tuesday before seven innings of three-hit baseball at No. 3 Vandy on Sunday. Both wins for the Cardinal righthander gave him a 1.64 ERA over 11.0 innings this season. Opponents hit .118 against him as he did not allow a run in 10 of his 11 innings.

Don't Run on Jones
• Senior catcher Zach Jones shut down the Vandy running game over the weekend. The Commodores ran on its first two opponents by a tune of 17-of-18. Against Jones, Vandy was 0-for-3. On the season, Jones has thrown out six of seven base stealers.

Friday Night Lights
• Sophomore RHP Mark Appel has a 3.09 ERA over 11.2 innings this season as the Friday night starter against No. 17 Rice and at No. 3 Vandy. After opening the season with 5.2 innings in a no-decision in an eventual 5-3 win at Rice, Appel gave up two runs on seven hits at Vandy in week two in a tough 2-1 loss. Appel came into the season as a top prospect out of the New England Collegiate Summer League after being a spot starter as a freshman and a reliever on a pitching-deep high school team.

No Sophomore Slump
• Sophomore center fielder Jake Stewart played in 55 games but hit just .209 as a freshman. What a  turnaround to start 2011. A top prospect out of the Alaska Summer League, Stewart has hit safely in six of the first seven games, hitting .367 on the year. Stewart also has a team-best three doubles.

Joining the .400 Club
• Over the first seven games of the season, sophomore Kenny Diekroger and Stephen Piscotty have anchored the left side of the infield and are each hitting an even .400 on the season. Piscotty has a team-best six runs, while Diekroeger has a team-high five RBIs. Both were prep shortstops with Diekroeger plays short this season and Piscotty plays third after playing at first and left last year.
 
Feeling Real Young
• Stanford has started seven underclassmen with only senior catcher Zach Jones and senior designated hitter Ben Clowe the designated "veterans." Three freshmen, Austin Wilson, Brian Ragira and Lonnie Kappulia joined a half dozen sophomores as starters. Stanford had four freshmen starters last year-- Kenny Diekroeger (3B), Stephen Piscotty (OF/1B), Jake Stewart (CF) and Tyler Gaffney (OF), who are again starting this year.

Still Perfect
• Sophomore RHP Dean McArdle remains perfect in his young career following a win in the series clincher at No. 17 Rice on Sunday. McArdle was 5-0 last year, finishing the year as the Sunday starter over the last three weeks of the season. McArdle gave up one unearned run over 5.0 innings at Rice, before lasting just 1.1 innings at Vandy in a no-decision.

Pac-10 Predictions
• Stanford Baseball received two of 10 first place votes and is picked to finish second in the Pac-10 Conference, according to the league's 10 coaches. UCLA, who along with Arizona State, played in last year's College World Series, received eight first place votes and 79 total points and is the preseason favorite. Stanford received 66 points, followed by Arizona State (60 points), Oregon (59) and Arizona (48). The bottom five consisted of: California (46), Washington State (37), Oregon State (28), USC (16) and Washington (11).

Some of the Classiest
• Baseball America put out its list of best players from each class, and no surprise Stanford with top-five recruiting classes in each of the last two years, was on it. Six players were rated in the top-50, paced by Kenny Diekroeger (No. 2), Mark Appel (No. 4) and Jake Stewart (No. 36) in the sophomore rankings and Austin Wilson (No. 3), A.J. Vanegas (No. 5) and Brian Ragira (No. 13) among the top freshmen.

Top Rated Class
• For the first time in the history of Baseball America's 11-year annual recruiting survey, Stanford Baseball had the nation's No. 1 recruiting class. This year's class is headlined by Los Angeles outfielder Austin Wilson, Texas utility player Brian Ragira, San Lorenzo righthander A.J. Vanegas and Burbank infielder Lonnie Kauppila. This year's top class, adds to the No. 2 ranked class a year ago that featured Kenny Diekroeger, Stephen Piscotty, Jake Stewart and Mark Appel. Collegiate Baseball rated this year's class No. 11.

Impressive Summers
• Stanford Baseball had seven players, the most in college baseball, ranked amongst Baseball America's top summer prospects. Kenny Diekroeger (New England), Chris Reed (Atlantic Collegiate League) and Jake Stewart (Alaska) were all rated as the top prospects in their respective leagues, joining Mark Appel (NECBL), Eric Smith (Atlantic), Stephen Piscotty (Alaska) and Brett Mooneyham (Team USA). Diekroeger, Appel Reed, and Smith were all named mid-summer All Stars.

From the Diamond to a Degree
• Stanford academics and athletics continues to rank amongst the nation's elite as Stanford Baseball, with an academic progress report number of 985, was ranked in the top-10 percent of all Division-I baseball programs.  Some Cardinal Major Leaguers who have earned their degrees include: Gold Glove catcher Bob Boone, Cy Young Award winner Jack McDowell, All Star Mike Mussina, Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro, Jr., former manager A.J. Hinch and long-time Major Leaguers Mike Aldrete and Jeffrey Hammonds.

Smart at the Top
• Of the 12 Major Leaguers in 2010, nine earned their degrees with Jason Castro and Drew Storen, both on pace to earn their degrees as well. An A1 feature in the San Jose Mercury News on February 28, featured both newly minted Major Leaguers. A Wall Street Journal report said that only two dozen Major Leaguers had earned their degrees in 2010. Jed Lowrie finished up his degree the last week of February giving the Cardinal nine of 12 Major Leaguers.

Professional Development
• The 2010 season saw the debuts of Drew Storen (Nationals) and Jason Castro (Astros), the retiring of eight-year veteran and former MLB pitcher Mike Gosling and the return to form for former Major Leaguers Greg Reynolds (Rockies) and Jed Lowrie (Red Sox).  Two future stars also continued to move up the charts in Indians infielder Cord Phelps and A's outfielder Michael Taylor as both former Cardinal stars finished the year in Triple-A.  Stanford had a dozen players in the Majors in 2010 given them 86 all-time. Marquess has coached 52 Major Leaguers since 1977 (53 have made the Majors with current White Sox GM Kenny Williams only playing football at Stanford).

Tickets Available
• Tickets for the team's home games are available at www.gostanford.com or by calling 1-800-STANFORD.

Two-Sport Tradition
• Including Heisman runner-up Toby Gerhart (running back and outfielder), current head coach Mark Marquess (who was a quarterback, defensive back and punt returner) and NFL Hall of Famer John Elway (and outfielder and quarterback), the Cardinal have had a number of great two-sport stars. One of the first was Ernie Nevers, who starred for the Cardinal in the early part of the 20th Centruy. That list has included: Major League pitcher Joe Borchard (also a QB), NFL and MLB player Chad Hutchinson (RHP and QB), 1940s Major Leaguer Lloyd Merriman, Brian Johnson (QB) and John Lynch (QB and RHP). Orange Bowl Champion and backup running back Tyler Gaffney is the latest two-sport athlete.