Brent Milleville came through in the clutch. Again.

With the bases loaded and the game tied in the eighth inning against St. Mary’s Wednesday night, the junior first baseman, who drove in the winning runs against San Francisco and Santa Clara last week, hit a two-out, three-run double to put Stanford in front, 7-4. It was the Cardinal’s first lead of the night, and it stood — the Gaels came up empty in the top of the ninth, giving No. 5 Stanford its eighth win in nine games.

It was a night of perseverance for the Cardinal, who trailed by three after two innings. The team relied not only on the timely hitting of Milleville and his offensive compatriots, but also on the arm of freshman Alex Pracher.

Junior Max Fearnow started for Stanford and ran into trouble early, as he loaded the bases in the first inning and eventually surrendered two runs. At times, he looked in control of the game — he struck out the first two batters he faced in the second inning. But Fearnow struggled with control problems throughout the night — the third Gael run came in on a wild pitch, and the fourth was set up by another wild pitch that put a runner in scoring position.

With the score at 4-2 in favor of St. Mary’s in the fifth inning, coach Mark Marquess replaced Fearnow with Pracher, who would subsequently turn in the best pitching performance of his Cardinal career.

He went the distance for Stanford, striking out five and giving up only three hits (and no walks or runs) in the process.

“I just wanted to throw strikes,” said Pracher. “We’ve had a great offense all year, so I wanted to give them a chance to come back.”

He used a combination of his fastball and slider to fool batters — the latter was an effective put-out pitch. As the game progressed, so too did the movement and accuracy of his pitches.

“I developed a bit of a better slider today,” he said.

Pracher is part of a bullpen contingent that only seems to get deeper as the season progresses. Although the focus for most of the year has been on the potent Cardinal offense, the arms have been widely successful of late, which only bodes well for Stanford’s late-season and postseason chances.

“We’re starting to see the depth of our pitching,” said Milleville.

With Pracher in control, the Cardinal was able to fight its way back, but it wasn’t without help from Taylor Reid, St. Mary’s erratic relief pitcher. He replaced starter Anthony Aloitti in the fifth, inheriting the Gaels’ two run lead.

But it wouldn’t last.

The Cardinal placed runners on the corners with two outs in the fifth. Reid was able to strike out Joey August to seemingly end the inning, but the pitch was far wide of the catcher, and went to the backstop. August hustled to first on the dropped third strike and Jason Castro raced home to score. The next batter, freshman Zach Jones, singled home senior Randy Molina to tie the game.

The score would stay knotted at 4-4 until the bottom of the eighth, when Reid walked three batters to load the bases and set the scene for Milleville. Reid delivered an outside fastball, and Milleville drilled it the opposite way into the gap. Jake Schlander and Brendan Domaracki scored easily, and Castro hustled all the way from first to beat the throw to the plate.

Milleville said that he expected and was looking for a pitch outside to hit. But, even he was a bit stunned by the result.

“I wasn’t trying to do too much with it,” Milleville said. “All we needed was one run.”

“He’s a tough out,” said Marquess. “He’s using the opposite field well.”

The Cardinal lead seemed secure, as Pracher recorded the first two outs of the ninth. But a single and an error by Schlander put two runners on in a dangerous situation — the Gaels’ best hitter, first baseman Kyle Jensen, was the next batter up. Jensen entered the game leading St. Mary’s in nearly every statistical category: average (.407), hits (55), runs (35), homeruns (12) and RBIs (41).

In dramatic fashion, Jensen launched a ball into right field. Jeff Whitlow — a defensive replacement for Domaracki — sprinted in for the catch, sliding and snagging the ball in one motion. Whitlow actually ran so hard for the ball that he overshot it a bit, and had to reach back during his slide in order to reel it in. It was the defensive play of the game for the Cardinal, and was a fitting end to a suspenseful match.

Stanford is next in action this weekend, when they host USC for a three-game set in a crucial conference match-up.

“The Pac-10 is the strongest [conference] in the country,” said Milleville. “A big win this weekend would be huge.”