The No. 25 Stanford baseball team started its season off strong, sweeping No. 5 Rice in a three-game series at Sunken Diamond.

The Cardinal (3-0) is coming off a disappointing 2009 season in which Stanford missed the playoffs entirely, while the Owls lost to eventual national champion LSU in last year’s Super Regionals. Despite losing its top home run hitter (Brent Milleville), top run scorer (Toby Gerhart) and top pitcher (Drew Storen) from last season to graduation or professional sports, Stanford has reason to be optimistic about this year’s squad. Much of this optimism comes from the incoming freshman class, which Baseball America rated as the second-best in the nation.

These freshmen made a big impact, as center fielder Jake Stewart, left fielder Stephen Piscotty and third baseman Kenny Diekroeger all started the entire series for Stanford.

On Friday, the Cardinal fell behind early when Rice’s second baseman Michael Ratterree led off the season with a home run off Stanford sophomore pitcher Jordan Pries. Pries allowed five of the first eight hitters to reach base, but avoided any further damage in the first few innings. The Cardinal offense gained the lead quickly, scoring on a fielder’s choice and RBI singles by junior first baseman Jonathan Kaskow and junior shortstop Jake Schlander to go up 3-1 in the third inning.

Pries pitched well the rest of the way, allowing just three unearned runs off two Schlander errors while pitching into the eighth inning. These errors were extremely uncharacteristic, as Schlander was last year’s Pac-10 Defensive Player of the Year.

Stanford opened up its lead in the seventh inning when junior catcher Zach Jones connected for a solo home run, followed by an RBI double by Kaskow.

With the score 6-2, Rice’s left fielder Michael Fuda hit a two-run homer in the eighth to cut the lead in half, but junior reliever Alex Pracher came in and retired the last four hitters to clinch the Cardinal win, 6-4. Piscotty led Stanford with three hits and three runs scored in his first collegiate game.

The Sunday forecast called for rain, so Sunday’s game was moved to be a Saturday doubleheader.

The first game was a tight one early, as Stanford sophomore Scott Snodgress and Rice’s Jared Rogers and Boogie Anagnostou combined for a pitcher’s duel in the early innings. A two-run homer by Stanford sophomore designated hitter Christian Griffiths in the second inning was the big blow of the early goings, and the score was 2-1 after six innings.

In the seventh, Ratterree connected for his second home run in as many games, a three-run shot off junior reliever Danny Sandbrink that gave Rice the lead for the first time that day at 4-2.

Despite this blow, the seventh inning belonged to the Cardinal offense. Stanford sent 17 men to the plate, scoring 11 times in the seventh as Rice was forced to use five pitchers to get out of the inning. Even with all these runs, the Cardinal did not hit a home run in the inning.

Instead, Stanford scored in nearly every other way possible. In the inning, Cardinal batters had five doubles, three singles, four walks and a triple, while capitalizing on three Rice errors.

With the score 13-4, both teams got a chance to give playing time to their bench players. Each team tacked on a run in the eighth and Sandbrink closed out the win in the ninth with the final score 14-5.

Eight different Cardinal batters recorded an RBI and 11 recorded a hit, but no batter had more than two of either, making the win a truly team effort.

Just 45 minutes after the final out, the two teams were back at it again. The second game of the doubleheader had a much tighter feel from the beginning.

Stanford sophomore starter Brett Mooneyham had a nightmare of a first inning. Mooneyham walked five of the first six batters he faced, but thanks to a double play and an inning-ending strikeout, he only gave up one run in the inning.

The Cardinal responded on offense, scoring five consecutive runs to go up 5-1. Kaskow knocked in a pair of runs with a sacrifice fly and a bases-loaded walk in consecutive innings, while junior right fielder Kellen Kiilsgaard also knocked in two without a hit, using a bases-loaded hit-by-pitch and a sacrifice fly. Piscotty chipped in with an RBI single.

Both teams faced control problems throughout the game, as home plate umpire Billy Haze maintained a tight strike zone. Cardinal pitchers’ control problems caught up to them in the sixth, when two Owls scored on bases-loaded walks, and an RBI single by center fielder Steven Sultzbaugh brought Rice to within one at 5-4.

Rice’s designated hitter Diego Seastrunk tied the game in the eighth with a two-out RBI single.

With a runner on first and two outs in the ninth, Rice’s Michael Fuda hit a deep fly ball into the alley in right-center field. Junior right fielder Dave Giuliani, who entered the game as a defensive replacement, took a risk and dove to catch it instead of cutting it off. He missed the ball, which rolled all the way to the wall, and Rice took the late lead 6-5 on the RBI triple.

Stanford looked to be on the verge of its first defeat of the season as rain began to descend on Klein Field at Sunken Diamond. The Cardinal’s first two hitters of the ninth were retired quickly by Owl reliever Abe Gonzales.

Freshman Tyler Gaffney — a running back on the football team as well as an outfielder on the baseball team — kept Stanford alive when Gonzales hit him in the foot with a pitch. Senior pinch hitter Adam Gaylord moved Gaffney to third with a solid single to left. Gaylord was then replaced with a pinch runner, junior Kellen McColl. McColl immediately took a risk, stealing second base by a very small margin.

With two on and two out and Stanford trailing by one in the ninth, the game rested on the shoulders of Diekroeger, who was highly touted out of high school after being drafted in the second round of the MLB Draft by Tampa Bay. Diekroeger, who had been 0-4 in the game, came through with a deep fly ball that hit off the right field wall over Owl right fielder Chad Mozingo’s glove to score Gaffney and McColl and give Stanford the dramatic walk-off win, 7-6.

The three-game sweep over a top-five team should give the Cardinal confidence and momentum heading into the early part of its season. Stanford returns to action tomorrow against Pacific. First pitch is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Sunken Diamond.