Stanford wins last series on the road

The Stanford baseball team (30-21, 13-11 Pac-10) likely secured a postseason berth this weekend, taking two out of three from Arizona (32-20, 11-13) in its last road games of the season.

The Cardinal got solid pitching performances from sophomore lefty Brett Mooneyham on Friday and freshman Dean McArdle on Sunday in its two wins.

The Cardinal had a chance to win Saturday too, but the bullpen blew a late lead as the Wildcats prevailed, 9-8.

On Friday, Mooneyham (3-5) scattered eight hits over 7.2 innings to allow just one run in the Cardinal’s 3-1 victory. Junior Alex Pracher pitched the last 1.1 innings for his fourth save.

Offensively, junior second baseman Colin Walsh led the charge for Stanford, knocking in all three runs. In the top of the fourth, Walsh hit an opposite-field home run to give the Cardinal a 2-1 lead. An inning later, Walsh added an RBI double, capping the Cardinal scoring.

On Saturday, the Cardinal blew the lead twice, at 5-2 and 8-7, to take the loss.

Arizona sophomore outfielder Steve Selsky hit a two-out, two-RBI double in the bottom of the eighth off freshman Mark Appel to give the Wildcats the lead for good. Appel had come on to relieve sophomore Brian Busick (5-2), who took the eventual loss after going 3.2 innings and allowing three runs. Sophomore Jordan Pries started on the mound.

The loss spoiled a good hitting day for freshman outfielder and first baseman Stephen Piscotty, who went 5-5 with three RBIs. Junior catcher Ben Clowe, who is hitting .350 in limited playing time this season, had three hits, including a home run and a double, in his first start in nearly two weeks. Clowe started behind the plate on both Saturday and Sunday in place of junior Zach Jones, who has been sputtering in the lineup in recent games.

On Sunday, Clowe was in the leadoff spot for Stanford’s 8-4 victory. It is unclear if Stanford’s regular leadoff hitter, freshman outfielder Tyler Gaffney, was injured or just given a day off.

McArdle (5-0), who was making the second weekend start of his career, went five innings, allowing just three runs on six hits. He left after allowing a solo home run to Selsky to lead off the sixth.

Junior Danny Sandbrink went 3.1 solid innings of relief, allowing just a run before Pracher came on to get the game’s final two outs.

Stanford got off to a big start offensively, jumping out to an 8-0 on three runs in the second inning, one in the third and four in the fourth.

Junior shortstop Jake Schlander got the Cardinal on the board with a two-RBI triple down the right field line with one out in the second. Schlander had three hits and scored a pair of runs in the win.

Freshman third baseman Kenny Diekroeger also had three hits, including a two-RBI single in the four-run fourth in the win. Unfortunately for Diekroeger, his 23-game hit streak was snapped in Saturday’s loss. Even with that hitless game, Diekroeger is still leading Cardinal hitters with a .366 average.

Stanford now has four games remaining on the season, a single game versus UC-Davis on Tuesday and a three game series at home against No. 3 Arizona State to close out the regular season. Although the Cardinal no longer has a chance to catch the Sun Devils and win the Pac-10 Conference, a strong showing next weekend could greatly increase Stanford’s chances of hosting a regional.