Baseball drops 2 to No. 4 Stanford

He slammed the door on the Wildcats in a close conference game to give the Cardinal to win, 4-2 Saturday at Sancet Field.

Austin entered the sixth inning with runners on second and third and Stanford holding onto a 3-2 lead. He came in with a blazing fastball, and stuck out Arizona junior left fielder Jason Hendricks and junior right fielder Colin Porter to escape the inning.

"I felt okay after coming in for an inning on Thursday," Austin said. "Sure was hot enough to have a lot of heat (on his pitches) today, especially playing here in Arizona."

Austin finished the game going 3 2/3 innings, allowing no runs on three scattered hits, walking no one and striking out seven batters. Austin picked up his second save of the year behind Brent Hoard (6-1) who earned the victory.

"I just picked up this relief role recently," Austin said. "It's exciting, it's definitely exciting."

The Wildcats were able to get on the board first when junior shortstop Jake Thrower reached first on a fielder's choice in the first inning. Thrower advanced to third on junior center fielder Diego Rico's single to right field, and then came across to score on junior first baseman Kenny Corley's sacrifice fly to right field.

Stanford tied the game in the top of the third and then scored two more runs on three straight singles in the top of the fourth. In the bottom of the fourth, Rico led off with a single, took second on Corley's base hit to right and then scored on junior designated hitter Tom King's single to left field, pulling the game to 3-2.

Stanford received a cushion in the eighth inning when catcher Jon Schaeffer led off the inning by hitting the first pitch offered to him by sophomore left hander Rob Shabansky over the left field wall for his sixth home run of the season.

Shabansky (6-4) went seven innings, giving up four runs on nine hits and three walks. Shabansky, who pitched to two batters in the eighth, finished with four strike outs.

"We did not execute well today," Arizona head coach Jerry Stitt said. "We played well, we hustled hard, but just a couple times we didn't execute and it hurt us."

No. 25 Arizona fell to 25-16, 8-7 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division, while No. 4 Stanford, the first place in the conference, improved to 23-8, 10-2 in the Six-Pac.

Sophomore left hander James Johnson broke a personal four-game losing streak by posting career highs in innings pitched (8) and strike outs (9) as the Wildcats took the second game of the series, 11-7 on Friday night.

Johnson (3-4) allowed six runs on six hits and four walks in picking up his first career Six-Pac victory. Johnson benefited from a strong Arizona offensive attack, which featured three hitters each with three RBI.

With the score locked at 1-1 entering the bottom of the third, the Wildcats exploded for five runs off of Stanford starter Chad Hutchinson. Sophomore third baseman Omar Moraga brought the crowd to its feet by starting the inning with a home run to left field.