The Stanford Cardinal got off to a strong start in the 2011 NCAA baseball tournament regional round, handling the Kansas State Wildcats with relative ease in a 10-3 victory. Stanford advances into the winner’s bracket of the Fullerton region and will face the winner of Cal State Fullerton and Illinois on Saturday at 8pm. The Titans and Illini square off Friday night at 8:00pm pacific on ESPNU and espn3.com.
The Cardinal got a strong team effort as six different players drove in at least one run. Kenny Diekroger got the scoring going with an RBI double in the second inning. Brian Ragira and Lonnie Kauppila added a pair of RBIs in the third inning. The Wildcats got on the board in the fourth inning as they manufactured a run on a pair of groundouts. However, Stanford took control in the fifth as they put up three runs in the fifth, two in the sixth, and two more in the seventh.
Cardinal starter Mark Appel threw a complete game, giving up three runs on seven hits. He gave up no walks and struck out eight in a strong performance. Kent Urban grabbed three hits and Dan Klein had two hits off Appel, but K-State couldn’t get much more off him.