Baseball topples No. 18 Stanford

By Tom Schreier

Stanford came to Stephen Schott Stadium ranked No. 18 in the nation and having won eight games in a row. The Stanford Cardinals, who Santa Clara Head Coach Mark O'Brien considers "one of the top two, three programs in the country for the last 25 years," looked futile against preseason All-Americans Tommy Medica and Geoff Klein--who hit back-to-back home runs in the seventh inning--and the Broncos pitching staff, which consisted of six underclassmen pitchers.

Freshmen pitcher Brock Simon and teammate Rhett Nelson, who had pitched around dangerous batters all season long, were aggressive in the first three innings.

"I wanted to get the ball rolling a little bit and everyone picked up on it. It was just a team effort today," said Simon, who was beaming after his stellar performance.

Simon understands that he must be more effective in relief in order to complement the work of starters Nate Garcia, Alex Rivers and Chris Mendoza.

Relief pitching is an unfamiliar role for Simon, who was a starter at Jesuit High School in Sacramento, but he understands the importance of his position and has a plan to turn things around.

"It's different when you start because you know when everything is happening, but you've got to get down to the bullpen and find it," says Simon. "Relieving is a little bit new to me, but...it's just like a start basically, you're facing the same guys. It's just a different point in the game. You just take it like that."

Santa Clara's pitching staff held the Cardinal scoreless until the ninth inning when Jon Hughes gave up a three-run home run with no outs on the board. Hughes was replaced by J.R. Graham who closed out the game.

"I thought we had been preparing right and I thought we were competing well, and I thought we did a good job of that and we got rewarded for that tonight," said O'Brien.

"We pitched well, we played good defense and we obviously had good, timely hitting. (It's) funny how baseball works. We've been in those situations lately and haven't got it done and we got it done tonight."

Pat Stover, whose struggle with a slump has left him out of the lineup recently, came off the bench and tripled with the bases loaded.

"It's just a momentum booster," said Stover, who is looking to turn his season around after the win. "Just knowing that...I beat (a tough pitcher) is just a good confidence booster."

Medica, a preseason All-American and professional baseball prospect, has played well all season. In the bottom of the seventh inning he turned on a pitch and ended up hitting the scoreboard in left-centerfield.

"Hitting is contagious," said Medica, who has emphasized the notion of infectious hitting all year long. "Stove (Pat Stover) came up with the bases loaded -- I wasn't able to get it done -- and got the triple off the gap. Once you get one, get some guys moving around the bases, everyone's going to start jumping on and hitting the ball well."

Santa Clara looks to turn their WCC fortunes this weekend when they face the Gonzaga Bulldogs. They return for a five-game homestand on May 5 when they play UC Davis at 6 p.m.

Contact Tom Schreier at tschreier@scu.edu or (408) 551-1918.