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UA Baseball notes

Senior left-hander Rob Shabansky seems to be slowly making his way back from reconstructive elbow surgery. The senior, who missed all of last season with the injury, had been roughed up in his last three starts, logging an ERA of 12.5. Against Grand Canyon on Tuesday, though, Shabansky pitched four innings, allowing no earned runs on two hits, striking out nine batters in the process.

Shabansky's improvements on the mound are a step in the right direction, and the senior hopes to return to the starting rotation where he spent his first three years.

"Rob felt great," UA head coach Jerry Stitt said. "He was on a pitch count, but he went a little over."

The UA baseball team heads to Palo Alto, Calif., this weekend to take on top-ranked Stanford in a three-game series. The Cardinal, currently ranked No. 1 in the country by Baseball America, regained the top spot this week for the first time in more than a month. The Cardinal have won 10 of their last 12 games behind a powerful offensive attack led by right fielder Joe Borchard, a second-team preseason All-American.

Borchard, who doubles as the football team's backup quarterback, has a .353 career batting average for the Cardinal.

Borchard, who expects to be a first-round pick in this Spring's amateur draft, has the rare distinction of playing in a College World Series and a Rose Bowl in the same year.

Borchard is known as a switch-hitter who can hit for power and average from both sides of the plate. He has started every game this season and is hitting .276 with three home runs and 21 RBI.

Sancet Field became the latest stop in the victory tour of Grand Canyon head coach Gil Stafford.

Stafford, who has been the head coach for the Antelopes for 18 years, will step down this season following his election as the school's next president.

It is the first time on record that a coach has doubled as the school's president.

Stafford, whose story was featured in ESPN: The Magazine last week, chose longtime assistant Dave Stapleton to replace him following the season.

"Coach Stapleton played at GCU, played in the major leagues, and coached at Canyon for a considerable amount of time," Stafford said. "I was very pleased to have a former player as the next coach."

Stapleton knows that following his successful, not to mention newly-famous, boss will be a tall order.

"I have to follow somebody that has set the table and the standards very high," he said. "I think that the tradition at this school and this program will go on."

In his final game against UA, Stafford went out on top, as the Antelopes scored three runs in the ninth inning Tuesday afternoon to defeat Arizona, 8-7.