Baseball has playoffs hopes swept away

The Cardinal won 12-1 yesterday to take all three games of the series in Palo Alto, Calif.

The Wildcats (32-26, 13-17 in the Pacific 10 Conference Southern Division) entered the weekend in a must-win situation, needing to win at least two of three games to reach the .500 level in the conference. With 15 wins the Wildcats could have been a considered a "bubble team" for a regional berth, but now the team's chances are all but gone.

With the three wins, the third-ranked Cardinal (37-13, 20-7 in the Six-Pac) remained two games ahead of UCLA for the conference title. Stanford and UCLA play a three-game series this weekend to determine the conference championship.

Things went bad from the get-go yesterday for the Wildcats as Cardinal Tony Schrager hit the first pitch thrown by sophomore Rob Shabansky for a home run.

Stanford went on to score three more runs in the bottom of the first.

Shabansky (8-6) went 6 2/3 innings, allowed four earned runs on 10 hits and two walks. He struck out two, but also threw two wild pitches and hit one batter.

Stanford scored one run in the second and third and then added two more in the bottom of the seventh. Arizona got on the board for the first time in the top of the eighth when senior pinch hitter Andre Dawson led-off with a single, stole second and was then batted in on a single by junior center fielder Diego Rico.

The Cardinal responded by scoring four in the bottom of the inning to put the game out of reach. After UA reliever Dave Abbott struck out the first two batters of the inning, he ran into trouble, walking the next two batters and then allowing an RBI single by John Gall. With two runners on, catcher Jon Schaeffer hit a three-run homer, his eighth consecutive games with a dinger.

Schaeffer finished the weekend 8 for 13 with eight hits, eight runs scored and nine RBI, including three home runs and two doubles.

On Saturday, the Cardinal used a late rally to take the second game of the series, 13-9.

The Wildcats took an early lead at 6-3 entering the bottom of the fifth, but Stanford answered with a total of 10 runs in the fifth, sixth and seventh innings to jump ahead for good.

Sophomore reliever Ryan Moskau (4-4) took the loss, allowing eight of the 10 runs scored during the stretch, all earned, in 2 2/3 innings.

Arizona made an attempt at a late comeback in the ninth. After scoring three runs, the Wildcats had the bases loaded with two outs for junior designated hitter Tom King. King, however, struck out on a check swing for the final out against Jeff Austin (3-2), who earned the victory.

Junior center fielder Diego Rico led all Wildcat batters with three hits, and junior first baseman Kenny Corley hit his team-high 12th home run.

Stanford starting pitcher Kyle Peterson worked himself out of a first inning jam to cruise to a 9-2 win over Arizona on Friday night.

The Wildcats started strong against Peterson, with King extending his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI single and then loading the bases with just one out.

Peterson (9-2) then recovered and forced senior Jeff Gjerde to pop out to shortstop and then struck out junior Colin Porter.

Escaping further damage, Peterson went on to pitch seven innings, allowing just five hits and one earned run while striking out 10 and receiving some help from three Cardinal homers.

Jon Schaffer hit a three-run home run, his 15th of the year, in the bottom of the first off of sophomore right-hander Darrell Hussman. Edmund Muth and Luke Quaccia also hit home runs for Stanford.

Hussman (4-8) went six innings in picking up the loss. He gave up seven runs off of seven hits.