Stanford: Rubber game at Sunken

By Alex Gyr - April 29, 2007

Sunken Diamond has been a pretty bleak place to be in recent weeks. Before yesterday's game, Stanford was just 1-6 in Pac-10 play at home and just 12-11 overall at Sunken, a place where the Card normally dominate.

But today there is a different feel at the ballpark. A buzz that has eluded this team all year. Last night people around campus were talking about Stanford baseball in a positive way, and that is definitely a first this season. And it was all thanks to a walkoff three-run home run by Michael Taylor with two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning that gave Stanford a dramatic 9-7 victory over Oregon State.

There is no doubt that the win should give the Cardinal a little bit of a spark, but the question is: was it in time to matter. Even if Stanford gets red hot a postseason berth may be out of reach. But today for the final game of the series there is a feeling of optimism among the Cardinal faithful.

Oregon State can ill afford a series sweep to Stanford, the last place team in the Pac-10. Arizona State and UCLA are still hot and a loss again today would push the Beavers two games under .500 in conference play. Surprisingly, OSU is going with freshman righthander Jorge Reyes who is making just his third start of the year. He is filling in for Daniel Turpen who had been a fixture this season in the Sunday starters spot. Turpen threw out of the bullpen yesterday and we could definitely see him again today if Reyes gets into trouble.

Junior righthander Erik Davis will make his first career weekend start today for the Cardinal. He pitched four innings on Wednesday in a makeup game against Fresno State, but threw under 60 pitches and Stanford coach Mark Marquess said he should be good to go as long as the Cardinal need him.

Today's game was pushed up to a 12:30 start time from a original 1:00 start to accomodate Oregon State's travel plans. It will be interesting to see how many fans actually make it for first pitch after the last minute change.

As usual, I'll be back postgame. The last two game have each lasted four hours, so it might be a while, but I will return.