March 16, 2011

Complete Release in PDF Format

Leading Off
• No. 12-ranked Stanford (6-5), following a break for finals and an extended rain delay, will travel to UC Davis (3-12) on Monday and are at Pacific next Wednesday. Stanford will play 11 of its first 13 on the road to start the season. Stanford returns home March 25-27, hosting Long Beach State. All home games will be webcast on CBS College Sports’ All-Access paid service through the gostanford.com website. All games will be on KZSU 90.1 FM, at kzsu.stanford.edu and on your iPhone by downloading the Stanford App and then listening to KZSU.

Stanford in the Rankings
• Stanford is ranked as high as No. 12 this week in Baseball America, No. 19 in Collegiate Baseball and No. 22 in the Coaches Poll. It’s early season RPI, according to Boydsworld.com is 9. 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-Michigan Series
(March 18-19, Stanford)
• Series: Michigan 1-0; Last: Stanford 0-1 in 1983
The team’s only meeting came in the 1983 College World Series when the Wolverines eliminated the Cardinal behind an 11-4 score. It what was a star-studded matchup, Michigan featured: Scott Kamieniecki, Barry Larkin, Chris Sabo, and Gary Wayne, while Stanford had: Mike Aldrete, Jeff Ballard, Mark Davis, and Pete Stanicek

• About the Wolverines: Michigan, which has won 35 Big Ten titles, is picked to finish second in the Big Ten behind Minnesota. Freshman outfielder Michael O’Neil has hit safely in all 15 games and enters the weekend batting a team-best .356. Michigan after dropping its first eight, all on the road in Florida, have gone 3-4, beating UMass twice and splitting at Winthrop. The series in Stanford marks the end of an 18-game road trip for Michigan and ninth year head coach Rich Maloney. UM enters the weekend with a .263 batting average, 6.21 ERA and .966 fielding percentage. Michigan had 35 wins a year ago, but lost its top four hitters and three of its top arms.

Cardinal Drop Series at Texas
• Stanford ended a tough stretch to start the year, dropping two of three at No. 6 Texas (L 3-4, W 9-2, L 2-4) to close out nine games in 11 tries on the road, and all against top-20 opponents. In what was a marquee matchup between Texas Taylor Jungmann and Stanford’s Mark Appel, was as good as advertised. A 2-1 game until the eighth, each team traded runs in the opener as Texas held on for the win. On Saturday, Stanford took advantage of three early errors by the Longhorns to even the series 9-2, as Dean McArdle went a career-best 7.2 innings. On Sunday, the Texas staff held Stanford scoreless for the first seven innings, in a 4-2 win.

Bullpen Ace
• Lefthander Chris Reed, after giving up seven runs in the second game of the season against No. 17-ranked Rice, has not given up a run since-- a span of four games and 7.0 innings. He has also limited opponents to just two hits, lowering his ERA to 3.86 on the season.

Setting the Table
• Sophomore centerfielder Jake Stewart has hit safely in 10 of the first 11 games this season, batting .354 in 11 starts in center field. The top prospect out of last year’s Alaska Summer League has six multi-hit games on the season.

Tough Friday Night Losses
• Sophomore righthander Mark Appel (0-2, 3.79) has suffered two tough losses the last two Friday nights against top June prospects Taylor Jungmann (Texas) and Sonny Gray (Vanderbilt). Appel gave up four runs over 7.1 inning against No. 6 Texas in what was a 2-1 game until the eighth and gave up two runs over 6.0 innings at No. 3-ranked Vanderbilt.

Shortstop Sensation
• Sophomore shortstop Kenny Diekroger enters the weekend ranking fourth in the Pac-10 in batting, at .422 with a team-best eight RBIs. The Pac-10 Freshman of the Year and preseason All-American has hit safely in 10 of 11 games and enters the weeknd on a modest six-game hit streak. He hit in 23 straight last season.

Consistent Lineup Card
• So far this season the Cardinal have had six players start all 11 games. The other three players have started at least eight games. Of the starting nine, all but seniors Ben Clowe (DH) and Zach Jones (C) are underclassmen.

Not a Wise Move to Run
• Senior catcher Zach Jones has thrown out seven of nine base runners this season, and earlier this season shut down a very potent Vandy team. The Commodores came in with 17 steals in 18 attempts and tried to steal just three times on Jones on the weekend, each time getting caught.

Tough to Score On
• Sophomore Dean McArdle, who went 5-0 as a freshman last season, has continued his late push to remain one of the team’s weekend starters. McArdle started the last three games last season and this year is 2-0 with a team-best 1.29 ERA over the first three weekends. McArdle went a career-best 7.2 innings in his last start against Texas.

Not Sure What’s Tougher
• Stanford played nine of its first 11 on the road, against three top-20 teams and then took 10 days off for finals. The Cardinal opened the season by taking two of three in Houston and at Rice, and lost at No. 3 Vanderbilt in Nashville and at No. 6 Texas. Three of the losses were by a single run, one was by two 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.

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.