Stanford Baseball Continues Strong 2012 Season

The Stanford Cardinal retained their No. 12 spot in USA Today's/ESPN coaches' poll on Monday. Stanford (32-14, 14-10 Pac-12) swept Washington State (24-23, 9-14) in three games this past weekend.

On Tuesday, the Cardinal hosts San Francisco for a non-conference game and then heads to Utah (13-35, 7-20) for a three-game weekend series. Stanford is tied with Arizona State (32-17, 14-10) in the Pac-12 standings and is only two games behind second place No. 17 Arizona (33-15, 16-8). Stanford has an opportunity to move up the standings this weekend if they take care of business against last place Utah.

Other Pac-12 teams ranked in the coaches' poll include No. 17 Arizona, No. 10 Oregon (37-14, 18-8), No. 11 UCLA (35-13, 15-9) and No. 20 Oregon State (32-17, 13-11).

Stanford's rankings in other poll

• No. 15 in Collegiate Baseball Newspaper Poll
• No. 11 in NCBWA
• No. 17 in Baseball America College Top 25

The Stanford Cardinal are coming off a week where they went 1-3 where Stanford lost two of three against Oregon State and the other loss came against San Jose State.

With those loses it drops Stanford from No. 7 to No. 12 in the latest USA Today/ESPN college baseball rankings. The loss also drops Stanford from being the highest ranked Pac-12 team, and that honor now goes to Oregon who is ranked No. 10. In the Pac-12 there are five total teams ranked with the other three being UCLA who is No. 11, Arizona is No. 15 and Oregon State comes in at No. 23.

Here are the latest college baseball rankings:

Rank	School	Record	Points	Last week
1	Florida State (31)	39-7	775	1
2	Baylor (1)	38-8	735	2
3	South Carolina	36-12	677	3
4	LSU	38-11	658	4
5	Florida	35-13	649	5
6	Rice	33-13	555	8
7	North Carolina	34-13	552	10
8	Texas A&M	34-14	531	9
9	Kentucky	37-11	518	6
10	Oregon	34-14	484	12
11	UCLA	31-13	479	14
12	Stanford	29-14	444	7
13	Arkansas	34-15	370	13
14	Cal State-Fullerton	30-14	350	17
15	Purdue	35-9	330	11
16	Central Florida	37-11	316	15
17	North Carolina State	33-12	293	18
18	Arizona	30-15	271	16
19	Oregon State	30-15	215	20
20	San Diego	36-11	165	23
21	Miami (Fla.)	30-17	156	21
22	Virginia	31-14-1	143	22
23	Louisville	33-15	129	19
24	Mississippi	31-18	61	25
25t	TCU	29-16	34	NR
25t	Texas	27-18	34	24

More all things Stanford go visit Rule of Tree.

The Stanford Cardinal swept the Arizona State Sun Devils this past weekend in three games to rise in the national polls and the Pac-12 standings.

Stanford (25-10, 8-7 Pac-12) rose six spots to No. 13 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll. Stanford Third baseman Alex Blandino drove in a team-high eleven runs, batted .563 and hit four home runs in the team's three victories over the Sun Devils (24-16, 9-9) and one win against San Jose State last week.

The Cardinal are currently tied for third place in the Pac-12 with No. 28 Oregon State (26-12, 8-7).

Other Pac-12 teams ranked in the poll include No. 6 Arizona (26-13, 12-6), No. 9 Oregon (27-12, 11-7) and No. 10 UCLA (26-10, 11-7).

Stanford heads south to face UCLA for a three-game weekend series that will have serious Pac-12 standings implications.

Stanford's rankings in other polls:

• No. 13 in Baseball America
• No. 9 in ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Poll
• No. 7 in NCBWA

Stanford fell to No. 19 in the latest Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll on Monday. The Cardinal dropped two of three games to the Oregon Ducks this past weekend, but beat California and Pacific earlier to compile a 3-2 record from last week.

Despite the team's impressive overall record of 22-9, the Cardinal are currently seventh in the Pac-12 standings with a 5-7 conference record. Oregon's series win against Stanford placed the team first place in the Pac-12 tied with UCLA (24-8, 10-5 Pac-12) and Arizona (24-11, 10-5).

Oregon, UCLA and Arizona are ranked No. 6, No. 7 and No. 8 respectively in the same poll. Other Pac-12 schools ranked in the poll include No. 21 Arizona State (23-13, 9-6) and No. 30 Oregon St. (23-11, 6-6).

Stanford hosts San Jose State on Tuesday for a non-conference matchup and then resumes their Pac-12 schedule against Arizona St. for a three-game weekend series.

Stanford's rankings in other polls:

• No. 10 in USA Today/ESPN Top 25 Coaches' Poll
• No. 14 in Baseball America's College Top 25
• No. 8 in NCBWA

The Stanford Cardinal took two of three games in a road series against the Washington Huskies this past weekend and beat the California Golden Bears in a non-conference road game on Monday to move their record to 20-7.

Stanford (20-7, 4-5 Pac-12) remained ranked No. 16 in the latest Collegiate Baseball Newspaper poll.

The team has outscored its opponents 45-28 in its past five games, including a 19-6 romping over California (2-7, 7-13) on Monday night. Stanford is currently tied for fifth with Washington (17-11, 4-5) in the Pac-12 standings.

Other Pac-12 schools ranked in the poll include No. 9 Arizona (23-9, 9-3), No. 10 Oregon (20-9, 8-4), No. 11 UCLA (21-7, 8-4) and No. 24 Arizona State (19-12, 6-6).

Stanford hosts Pacific (10-12) for a non conference game on Tuesday and then will host Oregon for a three-game weekend series starting on Friday.

Stanford's rankings in other polls:

• No. 5 in USA TODAY/ESPN Top 25 Coaches' Poll
• No. 6 in Baseball America
• No. 5 in NCBWA

The Stanford Cardinal (16-6, 2-4 Pac-12) dropped from No. 2 to No. 16 in the latest update of Collegiate Baseball Newspaper's Poll.

No. 5 Arizona (21-7, 7-2) swept Stanford in a three-game series this past weekend. After opening the season 15-2, the Cardinal have lost four of its past five games. Despite being ranked in the top 25 of all the major polls, the Cardinal are ninth in the Pac-12 standings after starting their conference season with a 2-4 record.

After a Monday night game against Saint Mary's (14-12), Stanford heads north for a weekend series against Washington (16-9, 3-3).

Other Pac-12 schools ranked in this poll include UCLA (20-5, 7-2), No. 14 Oregon (18-8, 6-3) and No. 23 Oregon State (17-8, 6-3).

Stanford's ranking in other polls:

• Baseball America: No. 6
• NCBWA: No. 6
• USA Today/ESPN Coaches' Poll: No. 6

For more news and notes on the Cardinal, head over to Rule Of Tree.

Many scouts around the nation believe that Stanford Cardinal starting pitcher Mark Appel will be the No. 1 overall pick at the 2012 MLB Draft. Typically it a high school player going at the top-spot in the draft given their upside and potential, but Appel is the real deal. He features ace-like stuff on the mound, has the frame to hold up over the course of a long season and knows how to pitch on the mound.

Appel and the No. 2 ranked Stanford Cardinal recently took on the No. 8 ranked Arizona Wildcats in Tucson. ESPN scouting guru Keith Law made the trip and watched the righty. Here is a snippet from his latest update:

Appel was 95-97 early in his outing and pitched at 94-95 even later in the game, at times showing a plus changeup and an above-average slider. But his location was inconsistent on all three pitches, and his tendency to leave the two offspeed offerings up in the zone was behind most of the 12 hits Appel gave up in 8-plus innings of work. (He never should have gone out for the ninth, but eight innings is only a half-day's work in the minds of Stanford's coaching staff.) He did throw several changeups in the 80-82 range with good tumble, but when he doesn't finish the pitch and get it down in the zone, it's like a BP fastball, and Arizona hitters had no trouble turning on it.

According to Law, he still believes Appel will be the No. 1 selection, although he needs to continue working on his command if he hopes to become an ace one day at the Major League level. The Pac-12 conference will provide him with some tough compeition and he will get no breaks from here on out.

For more on the Cardinal, Appel and their baseball program, be sure to check out Rule Of Tree.

Stanford along with the other top five ranked college baseball teams in the nation retained their rankings from last week. The Cardinal (15-3) began Pac-12 conference play this past weekend with a doubleheader sweep over the USC Trojans. Stanford is looking to get in a groove in this weekend's games after not playing since March 11th prior to its series against USC.

Florida (22-2) remains ranked No. 1 in the USA Today/ESPN Top 25 poll. There are currently four other Pac-12 teams ranked behind Stanford in the poll: No. 9 UCLA (17-4), No. 12 Arizona (18-7), No. 16 Oregon (15-6) and No. 19 Oregon State (15-7). Florida and Stanford were also ranked No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in Baseball America's top 25 rankings update on Monday.

After a Tuesday non-conference game against UC Davis, Stanford travels to Tuscon, Arizona for a three-game series against the No. 12 ranked Wildcats.

For more on the Cardinal, head over to Rule Of Tree.

After taking their first loss of the season last Friday night, the Stanford Cardinal baseball team looks to take back their No. 1 ranking, starting with St. Mary’s on Tuesday evening.

The Card (10-1) finish up a four-game road trip at Saint Mary’s (8-4) before hosting its third top-10 team of the season, No. 4-ranked Rice (11-1) for a weekend set at Sunken Diamond.

Despite dropping its first game of the season, the Cardinal still managed 25 runs over the final two games against Fresno with Brian Ragira leading the club with a .396 average while Stephen Piscotty has 21 RBI’s already this season.

RHP Brian Busick (0-0, 9.00) will take the mound for the Card this afternoon, while LHP Ben Griset (1-0, 1.38) will get the ball for the Gaels. St. Mary’s enters Tuesday’s matchup as winners of five of the last eight meetings against Stanford.

First pitch is set for 2 p.m. PT

For more on the Cardinal, head over to Rule of Tree.

There are few collegiate starting pitchers better than Mark Appel this season and the projected first round pick was on the mound once again on Friday night against Fresno State. Appel had a perfect record of 2-0 heading into the matchup, but some timely hitting from FSU and a bit of poor defense worked against the talented righty. The Cardinal took the 7-4 loss.

Appel worked eight innings and struck out 11 batters while only walking three. In a bit of promising news, he allowed just two fly ball outs, meaning he continued to do a great job of keeping the ball on the ground.

The game was not televised, but many heard from reports out of FSU that the Stanford catcher, Eric Smith, missed a crucial tag at the plate that opened the floodgates. Appel was charged with seven runs (all earned), but it did sound like the guys behind him did not play their best game.

For more on the Cardinal, head over to Rule Of Tree.

The No. 1-ranked Cardinal (8-0) get set for their longest out of conference road trip of the season as they head down to Fresno State (4-5) for a three-game series against the Bulldogs starting this Friday.

Stanford has been nearly unstoppable so far this year, outscoring opponents 77-26 over its first eight games, including six wins over teams currently in the top 10.They're batting .331 as a team, led by Jake Stewart 's .412 clip with a pair of leadoff homers, while Stephen Piscotty already has a team-high 19 RBIs and impressive .270 average.

Stanford will once again send preseason All-American RHP Mark Appel (2-0, 1.29) to the mound on Friday, junior LHP Brett Mooneyham (2-0, 2.57) on Saturday and possibly freshman LHP John Hochstatter (2-0, 0.71) on Sunday, though that is subject to change.

Fresno State (4-5) will counter with LHP Tyler Linehan (1-1, 0.59), RHP Cody Kendall (1-0, 4.50) and LHP Thomas Harlan (1-1, 0.71), coming off a loss to UC Santa Barbara Tuesday and a dropped weekend series to Pepperdine before that.

Friday and Saturday's games are schedule for 6 p.m. while Sunday's matchup will be at 1 p.m.

For more on the Cardinal, head over to Rule of Tree.

The Stanford Cardinal men's baseball team was looking to go 8-0 to begin the season Tuesday night against the UC Davis Aggies, and behind another terrific performance from third baseman Stephen Piscotty, the No. 1 ranked Card (8-0) defeated the visiting UC Davis (5-3) by the score of 5-1 at Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto.

Jake Stewart's second leadoff homer of the season gave the Cardinal a 1-0 lead, starting the night right for his fellow Cardinal. Stephen Piscotty once again was the star of the show, driving in three runs on the night including a tie-breaking two-run double in the third inning. Brian Ragira followed that up with an RBI double right after as Stanford would control the game early at 4-1. They would never look back as Piscotty added some insurance in fifth with an RBI groundout to make it 5-1.

Dean McArdle (1-0) got the win for his 2.2 innings of scoreless relief tonight, following Brian Busick's perfect inning and Sahil Bloom's solid 2.1 innings of relief. Ben Burke (0-1) gave up the first four runs over 2.2 innings for the Aggies, taking the loss.

Full box score can be found here.

Below you can check out Piscotty's postgame interview as he talks about another one of his big nights:

Stanford Baseball: Stephen Piscotty Post-Game (via stanfordathletics)

For more on the Cardinal, please check out Rule of Tree.

Not only did the Stanford Caridnal baseball team make the jump to No. 1 in the country, they also got some recognition from the Pac-12 as well as junior RHP Mark Appel was named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week for his performance on the mound for the Card.

Appel struck out a career-best 10 in the team’s win over the No. 7-Texas Longhorns Friday night. Appel dazzled with four no-hit innings along with a shutout into the eighth, finishing the game with one run on three hits. He even retired 10 Longhorns in a row until they got their first hit off of him in the fifth.

Appel is 2-0 with a 1.29 ERA in two starts, and is scheduled to start the team’s series against Fresno State on Friday.

Appel was a first team preseason All-American, and is currently seen by Baseball America as the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming MLB draft this June.

For more on the Cardinal, head over to Rule of Tree.

Mark Appel and Stephen Piscotty are proving why they're some of the top MLB prospects in the land, each playing an integral part in the No. 2 Stanford Cardinal's early success this season.

Piscotty used two at-bats in the fourth inning to drive in four runs as part of a 13-run inning that powered the No. 2-Stanford Cardinal (7-0) to a 15-1 victory over the No. 7-ranked Texas (2-5), ensuring the series sweep at Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto.

It was the first Stanford sweep of Texas ever between these two schools, decimating the Longhorns with 28 runs and a .364 batting average in the three games set, including 17 hits on Sunday.

Freshman John Hochstatter (2-0) pitched six and 1/3 innings, giving up one run on only five hits, four strikeouts and three walks. Not too shabby for his first career collegiate start.

As for ace Mark Appel (2-0), he and third baseman Jake Stewart led the way in the Card's 7-2 victory in the series opener on Friday, striking out 10 while taking a shutout into the eighth inning, while Stewart hit his first home run of the season as part of his three hit day.

Brett Mooneyham (2-0) held his ground on Saturday as well, striking out seven over eight innings of work, while and Kenny Diekroeger and Jake Stewart's three hits apiece paced the Card to a 6-2 series clincher on Saturday.

The Card host UC Davis for a one gamer on Tuesday, then head down to Fresno State to take on the Bulldogs for a weekend set on the road starting Friday.

For more on the Cardinal, head over to Rule of Tree.

The No. 2 Stanford Cardinal won their series opener against the visiting Texas Longhorns on Friday with another lopsided win and a terrific outing for ace pitcher and top prospect, Mark Appel. The Cardinal improved to 5-0 with the win, while Texas fell to 2-3.

Appel, who is expected to place very high in this summer's MLB Draft, set a career-high with 10 strikeouts and carried a shutout into the eighth inning. He allowed three hits and three walks in the game and at one point retired a stretch of 10 consecutive batters. Texas loaded the bases in the top of the eighth, but Davis Schmidt was able to record the final four outs, for the first save of his career.

On the offensive end for Stanford, Jake Stewart had three hits, including his first home run of the season. Brian Ragira also had three hits, including two doubles and three RBI.

The two teams will face off again on Saturday at Sunken Diamond, beginning at 1:00 p.m. PT.

For all news and information regarding the Stanford Cardinal head over to Rule of Tree.

Following back-to-back come from behind wins, The No. 2-ranked Cardinal (4-0) will play host No. 7-ranked Texas (2-2) starting on Friday night for a three game weekend series at Sunken Diamond.

Stanford will send ace right-hander Mark Appel (1-0, 1.29) to the mound on Friday, and LHP Brett Mooneyham (1-0, 4.50) on Saturday to square off against Texas' Nathan Thornhill (0-0, 0.73) and Hoby Milner (3-3, 2.91) in the first two games of the series respectfully. Sunday's starters are still to be determined.

Friday's game starts at 5:30 p.m., while Saturday and Sunday will 1 p.m. affairs in Palo Alto,

Stanford is off to great start, owning 35-run weekend against No. 10 Vandy that ended in a sweep, while three pitchers went at least six innings during the series. Stanford trailed 4-0 after two innings at Pacific on Wednesday during their one game series there, but eventually won 9-7 on Tuesday in 11 innings.

For more on the Cardinal head over to Rule of Tree.

The Pacific Tigers were looking like they might throw an early wrench in the Stanford Cardinal baseball's team great start, but thanks to a Stephen Piscotty wo-run homer in the top of 11th the No. 2-ranked Cardinal (4-0) earned a 9-7 victory over the Tigers (0-4) after trailing by four early and losing their lead in the bottom of the ninth.

John Haberman tied the game in the bottom of the ninth with an RBI single after David Schmidt (1-0) blew the save for the Cardinal, despite the bullpen held the Tigers scoreless for four innings following a 4-0 Pacific lead after two.

Schmidt instead got the win with 2.2 innings of relief as Sam Lindquist came on in the bottom of the 11th for his first career save. John Prato Matthews (0-2) took the loss for Pacific, pitching the final 4.0 innings.

Tyler Gaffney reached base safely five times, going 3-for-4 with two hit by pitches along with three runs, while Piscotty drove in three RBI. He broke up the shutout in the third with an RBI single and was also part of a four-run fifth inning to take the lead 5-4 at the time.

The Cardinal play host to the Texas Longhorns this weekend, with the three-game series starting on Friday.

For more on the Cardinal, head over to Rule of Tree.

The No. 2 Stanford Cardinal baseball team played host to the No. 10 Vanderbilt Commodores to begin their 2012 campaign. The Cardinal made easy work of them in three straight games, earning themselves a three game sweep led by ace Mark Appel and a well-rounded offensive attack.

Mark Appel led the Cardinal to an 8-3 victory on Friday night behind home runs from Stephen Piscotty, Christian Griffiths and Eric Smith, while Appel pitched 7 full innings, giving up just one run on two hits with five strikeouts and two walks.

The Cardinal continued on Saturday as Brian Ragira had his second-straight three-hit day, while Kenny Diekroegerand Eric Smith had two hits a piece to pace the Card's 9-5 win. Stephen Piscotty drove in seven runs while Christian Griffiths added four RBIs on Sunday as No. 2-ranked Stanford finished out the series with a 18-5 victory, sending the Commodores back to Tennessee with their tail between their legs.

Stanford heads to Pacific on Tuesday for a game in Stockton at 1:30 p.m., before returning home for a three-game series with Texas starting on Friday at 5:30 p.m.

For more on the Cardinal, head over to Rule of Tree.

Stanford ace Mark Appel opened his 2012 NCAA baseball season with a strong effort as the Stanford Cardinal had little trouble dispatching the Vanderbilt Commodores in their regular season opener Friday evening. Appel threw seven innings of two-hit, one-run ball as Stanford won 8-3. Appel enters the season as arguably the top prospect in the country and will look to build up his stock to secure the number one pick in this summer's MLB Amateur Draft.

Some scouts are questioning Appel's ability to miss bats a bit more frequently as opposed to pitching to contact. He did not strike out a ton of hitters on Friday, but he had little trouble with a Vanderbilt offense that returned solid hitters like Tony Kemp, Riley Reynolds, and Connor Harrel, among others. It is worth noting that Appel hit 93-97 mph in a 1-2-3 first inning.

The Cardinal jumped all over Kevin Ziomek, scoring five runs over 3 1/3 innings. Stephen Piscotty and Christian Griffiths got the scoring going quickly with solo home runs in the first and second inning, respectively. The Cardinal added three runs in the third on a walk, hit batter, single, fielder's choice and a pair of errors mixed together as Vanderbilt struggled to play clean baseball.

At that point the game was well in hand, although Stanford added three more insurance runs in the fifth, sixth and eighth innings. The Commodores added a pair of runs in the ninth but it was too little, too late. The two schools will return to action Saturday at 1:00pm PT at Sunken Diamond.