MATT HEISTAND/Arizona Daily Wildcat Arizona freshman third baseman John Hardy slides safely into home yesterday during Arizona's game against No. 2 Stanford at Sancet Field. The game was suspended in the sixth inning with Arizona ahead, 15-13, and will be resumed at a later date.

Postponement leaves yesterday's result undetermined

If the weekend wasn't crazy enough, yesterday it became even nuttier.

Two days after a 5-hour-and-19-minute game and one day after a 19-1 loss, yesterday's baseball game between No. 2 Stanford and Arizona was suspended in the eighth inning because the Cardinal had to catch a 6 p.m. flight back to Stanford, Calif.

At the time of the suspension, the Wildcats were winning 15-13. Arizona will most likely finish out the game in Stanford's Sunken Diamond on April 15.

Arizona head coach Andy Lopez said he didn't understand the logic in Stanford's leaving early so as not to miss their flight for financial reasons, despite a pre-game arrangement not to start any innings after 4:15 p.m.

"I understand the reality of economics, but now the kicker is Stanford's going to ask us to stay another day (when UA goes to California)," Lopez said. "I don't know what the Pac-10 office is going to say about that - we're taking the short end of the brunt right now."

Wildcat Brad Hassey, who is in his fourth and final season, has two hits and an RBI in the suspended game.

"It's definitely the first time (a game suspension) ever happened to me. I kind of wished that we would have played the last half inning here (at Sancet Field), which would have been nice," he said.

Arizona (21-14 overall, 2-6 in Pacific 10 Conference) overcame a nine-run deficit and eventually took a 13-11 lead on a two-out, bases-loaded single by freshman third baseman John Hardy. Cardinal shortstop Tobin Swope's error yielded two more runs after the hit.

"Stanford's pitchers seemed like they didn't have much left, and their bullpen wasn't that deep," right fielder Pat Reilly said. "We just strung together a couple hits and things just snowballed after that."

Reilly is 3-for-6 with two RBIs and three runs scored in his second straight start in the outfield, replacing the injured Jeff Van Houten.

The Cardinal (22-6, 2-0) sent 11 men to the plate in the second inning to score seven runs on seven hits.

However, UA clawed back with a six-run fifth that included a leadoff home run by left fielder Justyn St. Clair. The Wildcats had five singles and two walks before first baseman Chris Cunningham's bases-loaded strikeout killed the rally.

Stanford designated hitter Carlos Cooper blasted a solo home run off of the scoreboard in right field in the top of the sixth before Arizona answered with three more runs in the bottom of the frame.

UA starting pitcher Marc Kaiser was pulled in the third inning after giving up nine runs on 11 hits.

"He left balls up all day. Usually he pitches down in the zone with good velocity but he just couldn't find the low zone today," said catcher Ken Riley, who is currently 2-for-4 with a walk and a RBI.

Arizona will probably finish out the game at the end of next weekend's road trip against California. Last week at Oregon State, UA faced a time crunch with its scheduled flight but was willing to finish the game regardless of the financial consequences.

"It's kind of strange because we didn't have (the same) situation (as Stanford) last week. We knew that there was a possibility (of missing our flight) going into (OSU), and if it got late then we were going to stick around," Lopez said.

Lopez said the premature finish wasn't objectionable because Stanford and the umpiring crew had already agreed on the ending of the game.

On Saturday, the Cardinal blew away UA, 19-1, in a swirling windstorm.

Ten of Stanford's 26 hits went for extra bases as Cardinal pitcher Tim Cunningham rolled through the Wildcat lineup, giving up one run on five hits in seven innings.

UA starter Joe Little was roughed up for seven runs on 13 hits and left in the middle of the third inning after he threw 76 pitches.

Left fielder Justyn St. Clair scored the lone UA run courtesy of a passed ball. Hassey led all Wildcat hitters with three hits in four at-bats, including a double.

Stanford pounded out nine runs in the first four innings and later piled 10 more on in the last three, highlighted by a seven-run seventh as all nine starters had at least one hit.

On Friday, Stanford escaped with 5-4 victory in 18 innings. The 5-hour, 19-minute marathon was the longest timed game in Wildcat history, but fell one inning short of the game-length record set in 1973.

Stanford third baseman Andy Topham's home run in the top of 12th put the Cardinal up 3-2. But Arizona answered in the bottom of the inning when Hardy grounded into a fielder's choice, scoring Kaiser.

Stanford regained the lead in the 15th when Donny Lucy scored on a fielder's choice.

The Wildcats again tied the game when sophomore Moises Duran, who was running all the way from second, scored on a single into shallow right field by St. Clair.

But it came down to the 18th inning, when Stanford scored what would be the game-winning run on a passed ball by Cunningham, who caught the entire game.

When the Wildcats came up in the bottom of the inning, a controversial force-out at second base ended the game on a grounder behind the bag by Reilly. Kaiser apparently slid into second before a sprawling flip from Swope behind the bag, but umpire Ruben Candeleria called him out. The call brought on a barrage of boos and a conference by Lopez.

"I may have had a bad angle, but I thought he was there. Those guys get paid to make calls in those types of situations," Lopez said.

Reilly set a new NCAA record with 29 put outs in the game, three more than Davidson's Clay Hall and Miami's Randy Guerra.

"I know that we can play with Stanford - we knew that coming in," Duran said. "We beat them last year and I don't think they have anything new this year that's surprising."

Arizona will travel to Berkeley, Calif., to take on the Golden Bears this weekend with a probable stopover at Stanford to finish out yesterday's game.