Stanford Baseball: Stanford defeats Santa Clara

No. 30 Stanford built an early 7-0 advantage through three innings and cruised to an 8-3 victory over bay-area rival Santa Clara at Sunken Diamond on Monday night.

The Cardinal (22-17, 10-8) came through with some clutch-hitting, as it scored all seven of its runs with two outs.

After a scoreless first inning, Stanford shortstop Kenny Diekroeger led off the bottom half of the second with a single. With two outs, Dave Guiliani drew a walk that allowed Jake Stewart and Tyler Gaffney to come through with consecutive singles that plated three runs. Stewart was placed in scoring position via a wild pitch.

The Cardinal would continue to extend their working margin in the bottom of the third. First baseman Stephen Piscotty led off with a single, but was still stranded with two outs. However, catcher Ben Clowe delivered a two-out single. Then, Adam Gaylord reached on an error by the second baseman. The error proved very costly as freshman left fielder Dave Guiliani came through with a three-run homer—the first round-tripper of his Cardinal career—which ran the Stanford advantage to 7-0.

The Broncos (18-23, 4-10) got on the board in the fourth. Geoff Klein led off the inning with a double to right field. He advanced to third when Curtis Wagner followed with a double. With runners on the corners, Patrick Terry delivered a sacrifice fly. Designated hitter Ryan Rieger then doubled to left to plate a second run.

Stanford scored its final run in the seventh when Ben Clowe took a 2-2 offering down the right field line to score Kenny Diekroeger.

SCU pushed across its only other run when shortstop Evan Peters led off the top of the eighth with a solo home run.

Starter Dean McArdle improved to 3-0 with the win. He went four innings and allowed two runs on five hits. Mark Appel notched his second save, as he went the final five frames and allowed a single run on four hits.

No. 30 Stanford slams bay-area rival Santa Clara, 8-3