Huskies sweep Stanford in Seattle

No. 18 Stanford’s (21-17, 10-8) schizophrenic baseball season continued this weekend with a sweep at the hands of Washington (24-19, 8-7) in Seattle.

Coming off two consecutive sweeps of Pac-10 Conference opponents, the Cardinal looked poised to make a bid for a conference title. But the Huskies, who by all indications appeared to be a lesser opponent, sent the Cardinal home with three losses, including a heartbreaking 15-inning loss on Sunday.

Surprisingly, Stanford’s bats, which had been hot against OSU and Cal the last two weeks, went ice cold this weekend. The team only scored six runs in the three losses.

These deficiencies in hitting spoiled good pitching performances, especially by sophomore Brett Mooneyham on Friday and the trio of junior Alex Pracher and sophomores Brian Busick and Scott Snodgress on Sunday.

On Friday, Mooneyham did all he could to keep the Cardinal in the game, going eight innings and striking out 13 Husky hitters while allowing just two earned runs on four hits and a season-low two walks.

Unfortunately, the Cardinal defense let Mooneyham down, allowing two unearned runs on errors by junior shortstop Jake Schlander and junior first baseman Jonathan Kaskow in the first inning. The Cardinal had three errors in the game, and mustered just six hits in the 4-2 loss.

Stanford’s only runs came in the top of the fifth on a two-RBI double by freshman left fielder Stephen Piscotty, cutting the Husky lead to 3-2. Later in the inning, with the bases loaded and one out, Schlander lined out to third, and freshman third baseman Kenny Diekroeger grounded out to end Stanford’s only threat.

Mooneyham (1-5) took the loss while Washington’s Forrest Snow (4-1) went 2.2 innings of hitless relief for the win.

Stanford appeared star-struck at Saturday’s game, playing under the lights at Safeco Field, home of Major League Baseball’s Seattle Mariners, and losing 9-1.

Sophomore pitcher Jordan Pries (3-2) got hit around for the Cardinal, while for the second consecutive day, the Stanford defense let its pitcher down. The Cardinal made four errors, leading to three Husky runs.

Pries took the loss, going 4.1 innings and allowing six runs, only three earned, on five hits.

Diekroeger was the offensive star for Stanford with three hits.

Andrew Kittredge (6-3) got the win for Washington, going 7.1 innings and allowing just one run and striking out eight.

Sunday’s game was the most exciting of the three, a 15-inning 4-3 Washington victory. The teams were in their 10th consecutive inning of scoreless baseball when pinch runner Sean Meehan scored on Pracher’s wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the 15th.

Pracher (6-3) had the longest outing of his career, going 7.2 in relief and allowing just the one run on three hits, along with five walks and five strikeouts.

The Cardinal offense, which took a two run lead in the top of the first on two Washington fielding errors, was again led by Diekroeger, who had his third consecutive multi-hit game, going 3-7. Despite his three hits, however, Diekroeger had a chance to give Stanford the lead in the top of the 12th with runners on first and third and one out, but he grounded into a fielder’s choice with junior second baseman Colin Walsh being tagged out at home.

Stanford doesn’t have any time to rest, as it plays host to Santa Clara today and San Jose State tomorrow at Sunken Diamond, before heading on a nonconference road trip to Long Beach State next weekend.