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Apparently, the 2003 Stanford baseball team has taken to the consistency and invariability that characterizes the entire program year after year. Everything from the coach to the support staff to the jerseys returns each season; in this year’s version of the Cardinal, John Hudgins quietly keeps pitching and Ryan Garko and Carlos Quentin loudly keep hitting.
In a two-game homestand against Sacramento State that saw rain conspire to create a one-game weekend, No. 4 Stanford (23-10, 7-2 Pacific 10 Conference) got exactly what it expects every Friday night in a 9-1 win over the Hornets (20-16).
Hudgins, now 6-2 with an even 3.00 ERA, turned in a scintillating performance at Sunken Diamond, pitching eight scoreless, two-hit innings and fanning a career-high 11 batters. One week after throwing a complete game at Washington State, the junior retired 20 of the final 22 Sacramento batters he faced on Friday night and did not allow a hit over his last six innings.
“I feel like I’m on top of things pretty well right now,” said Hudgins, who now leads the Pac-10 in both strikeouts, with 78, and innings pitched, with 81.
The Cardinal ace seems to be growing rather nicely into the Friday starter role, occupied in recent years by top prospects Jason Young, Justin Wayne and Jeremy Guthrie. Against the Hornets, Hudgins allowed just two runners to reach second base in his eight innings of work.
“John Hudgins pitched one of his best games of the year in a phenomenal effort and was dominating for us tonight,” said coach Mark Marquess. “We played well with his pitching performance in putting nine runs on the board to support him.”
The nine runs came on a 13-hit night for the Cardinal, which has now put up double-digit hits on the scoreboard in 16 of its last 17 matchups to raise the team average to .325.
Garko extended his hitting streak to 10 games with three hits and two RBIs on Friday. The senior backstop is now batting .585 with five homers and 21 RBIs during the stretch.
Quentin used a fifth-inning single to push his hit streak to a career-high 21 games. During those outings, Quentin has hit .488 to pump his season average to .421 after 33 games. In the season’s final two months, Quentin will bid to become the first Stanford player to finish the season above .400 since Major Leaguer David McCarty hit .420 for the Cardinal in 1991.
Stanford used just one homer — a solo shot from sophomore Danny Putnam — in its eight-run victory, which also saw senior Tobin Swope, juniors Sam Fuld and Brian Hall and Putnam collecting multiple-hit games.
The Cardinal scored once in the first, playing station-to-station baseball after Fuld drew a one-out walk. He stole second, moved to third on Hall’s sacrifice bunt and scored on Garko’s RBI single to take the 1-0 lead with perfect fundamental baseball.
In the fourth, Putnam’s sixth homer of the season led off a three-run frame for Stanford. The Cardinal used the same formula as in the first — walk, steal, sacrifice bunt — to move freshman Jed Lowrie to third and scored him on an RBI groundout. With two outs, sophomore Chris Carter walked and scored after singles from Fuld and Hall to make it 4-0.
Next, Stanford added two runs in the fifth and, in the sixth, used three Sacramento wild pitches, a hit batsman and an error to put up three more, rounding out the home side’s scoring for the night.
With Hudgins remaining on the bench after the eighth, the Hornets managed to spoil the shutout after freshman reliever Kodiak Quick issued back-to-back walks to begin the ninth. The Hornets’ Bobby Ciani’s RBI single came with two outs, providing one disappointing moment of suspense in a game whose outcome was almost never in doubt due to Hudgins’ dominance on the mound.