One of the things I love about Stanford athletics, they truly do exemplify the term “student-athletes”. For example did you see how well-spoken Andrew Luck was compared to the rest of the Heisman candidates at the ceremony in New York last December? (Okay, my apologies to RG3, who is also well-versed in obviously being well-educated at a four-year institution). Yeah, these guys go to school to LEARN. And that’s why Stanford’s baseball program annually takes a 10-to-14 day break in late March in order for their student players to study and take exams.

The Cardinal are back to having fun on offense again, as tonight's 7-2 win over UCLA will attest.

Stanford head coach Mark Marquess knows that the annual break for exams can be a blessing or a curse. Two years ago, Marquess told me, “We either like it because it helps us get healthier and take care of some bumps and bruises, or we hate it because it breaks our momentum when we’re playing well.”

Looks like 2012  is a case of the latter because Stanford was 13-2 before going into the break, averaging 8.5 runs per game. In the next 17 games after the break, SU was just 9-8 and averaging 5.4 runs per game.

Well all that seems to be changing now.

The Big Maroon scored 44 runs in four wins over Arizona State and BYU last week, and then scored another seven runs on a really pitching-heavy UCLA team tonight. Yep, the Cardinal looked like the remorseless hitting machine I saw in Palo Alto the first few weeks of the season, cranking out those seven runs on 10 hits, including screaming yard calls from Tyler Gaffney and Stephen Piscotty.

In their last five games, the Trees have now hit .362 as a team with seven home runs. With their pitching-heavy squad, getting the offense to hit anywhere above .300 is going to be a huge boon. And to do this without Lonnie Kauppila and including fresh faces like Alex Blandino, Brett Michael Doran and Danny Diekroeger, that’s pretty stout stuff.

After taking a few weeks off from the Stanford bandwagon, it looks like I’ve latched my hooks onto their star-cruiser again. Color me re-impressed.

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WHAT I SAW AT JACKIE ROBINSON STADIUM TONIGHT.

I kept wondering which Cardinal team was going to show up tonight, the one that struggled for a couple of weeks, including getting swept in three games at Arizona, or the confident sluggers that pelted Arizona State so badly last week putting them back into the national top 10? Well, Stanford got a pair of home runs from Tyler Gaffney and Stephen Piscotty and also a 7.0 inning, 10-K effort from All American Mark Appel to quell the Bruins’ hot offense and keep their recent hot streak alive. Yep, I got my answer in pretty quick order.

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LINESCORE:

Stanford – 000 241 000 – 7  10  1

U.C.L.A. – 000 001 001 – 2   9   0

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PITCHING.

WP: Mark Appel, 6-1

LP: Adam Plutko, 5-3

Save: None

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TOP HITTERS.

SU:

- Tyler Gaffney, 2-for-5, HR

- Stephen Piscotty, 1-for-3, 3RBI, HR

- Kenny Diekroeger, 2-for-4

UCLA:

- Jeff Gelalich, 3-for-4

- Cody Regis, 2-for-4, RBI

- Pat Valaika, 2-for-4, RBI

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RECORDS.

- Stanford, 27-10, 9-7 Pac 12

- UCLA, 27-11, 11-8 Pac 12

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IN A NUTSHELL.

Both starting pitchers came out throwing heat and being effective. Adam Plutko went three-up, three-down in the first three innings. Yep, the dude had the Cardinal batters totally bitter and twisted through three innings. Then, the second batter of the 4th inning was Tyler Gaffney, who struck out looking in the first inning. But the football running back doesn’t know the word “quit” and hammered a Plutko offering over the right field wall, putting the Cardinal up for good in this game. What followed was a 2-run 4th inning and then a 4-run 5th inning. The game-clincher came in the 5th inning when Stephen Piscotty lifted a Plutko offering into the Veteran’s Administration botanical gardens, scoring three runs and putting the game effectively out of reach.

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IT WAS OVER WHEN..

- Piscotty’s dinger cleared the left field wall.

That 5th-inning, 3-run circuit clout put Stanford up 6-zot and with Mark Appel mowing down the Bruins like they were a high school team, this game was more than over. This is the kind of killer instinct that had been missing in the SU arsenal during that previously mentioned 9-8 stretch from mid-March to early April.

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KEY STAT.

- 1-for-13.

That’s what UCLA’s top three hitters of Beau Amaral, Tyler Heineman and Cody Keefer went in tonight’s game, giving no momentum to the Bruin offense. When you couple that with the 8-and-9 hitters going a collective 1-for-5 and we’re taking about a five-pack of Bruin batters who went 2-for-18 on the night. That’s a rally killer.

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GAME BALL GOES TO:.

- Me.

The Cardinal is now 4-0 in games I’ve attended, by a combined score of 36-11. So I’m thinking it’s time that the Stanford athletic department go ahead and give me a travel budget and money for housing (and I’m talking one of those nice condos in the Atherton area, not some studio apartment in the dangerous streets of Campbell). I’ll be willing to attend all remaining Stanford games on the Farm or on the road in weekends at Oregon State and Utah. Make it happen coach Marquess.

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PICS

Mark Appel gritted his teeth and was on his game again, getting 10Ks in 7.0 innings of work and hitting the mid-90s consistently with his heater.

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UCLA's Adam Plutko had a blistering start, going 3-up, 3-down in the first three innings.

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In his first at-bat, Tyler Gaffney was downright downtrodden over getting rung up looking.

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... but in his next at-bat, he simply relaxed, blew a bubble with his gum and went to work.

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Despite facing a no-hitter from Adam Plutko, Gaffney swung true.

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Right fielder Jeff Gelalich got some major Michael Jordan-like air, but couldn't come down with the Gaffney home run.

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... and that led to the Stanford running back's slow paced home run trot.

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Gaffney got a nice welcome from his Stanford teammates once he reached home base.

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The Stanford offense kept a steady amount of pressure on Plutko throughout the last few innings of his work.

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Seems like the Cardinal were a step ahead of the Bruins all game long, like here where Kenny Diekroeger and Pat Valaika both dove for 2nd base, with Diekroeger just getting to the base in a nick of time.

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A few batters later, the Stanford bench exploded after home plate umpire Steve Mattingly ruled Stephen Piscotty's left field screamer a home run.

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... and yes, that led to another picture of a Stanford player in a home run trot, amongst the shit-eating glares of the Bruin infielders.

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Hey, whaddya know, LSU alum Brian Wilson was at the game tonight.

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And in case you're wondering, yes, Mark Appel wore his stirrups outside his shoes once again. Wonder if he'll continue that ritual into pro ball?

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The cut-throat, eye-gounging battle for foul balls was as brutal and grisly as ever at Jackie Robinson Stadium. (Note the ball being dropped in the foreground, just below the yellow railing)

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And then there's UCLA assistant coach Jake Silverman, standing there with his helmet off, flaunting his flowing full head of hair. Taunting me, of course. The bastard.

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The setting at Jackie Robinson Stadium, amongst the surrounding eucalyptus trees and Santa Monica mountains in the background, makes for one of the best locales in college baseball. Oh, and did I mention it never gets boiling hot there either?

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OTHER STUFF.

Some extra things from around the country.

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THREE UP

The best of the day in college baseball.

1- PAT LIGHT, RHP, MONMOUTH

The Hawks ace struck out 15Ks and gave up just five hits in 8.0 innings of work as MU went on to win 6-5 over LIU.

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2- JOEY DeNATO, RHP, INDIANA

The Hoosier ace threw a career-high 12Ks in the 8-1 win over Michigan. Not only was that a career-high, it was also the school-record for strikeouts in conference game. DeNato has held his opponents to one earned run or less in seven of his 11 starts this season.

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3- COASTAL CAROLINA.

The Chanticleers officially have made the rest of the Big South Conference its bitch again. Tonight’s 4-2 win at Liberty gave CCU a 2-to-0 series lead in this key Big South showdown. The Chants are now 10-3 in BSC play, two full games ahead of the Flames, who fell to 10-7. Pitchers Herb Tyler and Ryan Connelly held Liberty to just four hits on the night.

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HONORABLE MENTIONS

- Utah Valley’s Jake Rickenbach.

The Wolverine 3rd baseman tied an NCAA record with 18 consecutive times of reaching base in today’s 6-3 and 12-2 doubleheader wins over New Jersey Tech. Rickenbach went 2-for-2 with a pair of walks in the first game, then walked his first two at-bats of game two. The streak ended in the 6th inning when he flew out to centerfield. During the streak, Rickenbach went 6-for-6 with an amazing 11 walks and one plunking. The Wolverines extended their win streak to a nation’s best 22 games. Oh and Rickenbach also hit safely for the 23rd straight game.

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- Texas State’s Travis Bellew.

The Bobcats ace struck out 12 Nicholls State Colonels in TXST’s 3-0 win in Thibodaux. Bellew’s complete-game shutout was his second of the season and third complete-game of the 2012 campaign. He also allowed just six hits and did not issue a walk.

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- Kaleb Jobe, Arkansas-Little Rock.

The 9-hole hitter for the Trojans had a one-shining-moment kind of moment in today’s 7-2 win over Louisiana. His 2nd-inning grand slam put UALR up for good and improved their overall record over the Mendoza Line at 21-20 overall and 8-11 in the Sun Belt.

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- Andrew Heaney, Oklahoma State.

The Cowboy ace held Kansas State to just four hits in 8.1 innings of work to improve to 6-1 on the season with the 5-0 win over the Purple Cats. The Pokes are now 24-17 and 9-7, moving into 4th place in the Big 12.

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- Arizona and East Tennessee State.

In tonight’s 24-7 football score over the Bucs, the two teams combined to set an NCAA record with seven triples. The UofA also became the eighth school to reach the 2,600 win plateau with the win. The last time two teams combined to hit seven triples in a game was when Houston and McNeese State accomplished the feat on March 25th, 1992.

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- USA! USA! USA!

South Alabama’s Brad Hook hit a three-run bomb in the bottom of the 9th inning to give the Jaguars a scintillating 9-7 jog-off win over Florida International at Stanky Field in Mobile.

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- North Carolina State.

The Wolf Pack withstood a complete-game, 10K outing from Marcus Stroman and pulled out a 4-0 win in Raleigh. Anthony Tzamtzis and Ethan Ogburn combined on a two-hitter for the Pack as they improve to 28-12 overall and 14-8 in the ACC. It also marked their fifth shutout of the season and second goose-egg this week. The Doctor of College Baseball was there and sent along a few images from the game:

Duke ace Marcus Stroman, the national leader in strikeouts, did his part. He can't help that his boney-armed batting mates behind him couldn't get any offense going.

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As the good Doctor pointed out to me in his files, NC State pitcher Anthony Tzamtzis would be a bitchin' word score in Scrabble.

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Stoutly-built Pack catcher Danny Canela got the game-winning RBI with this infield hit in the 1st inning.

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THREE DOWN

The worst of the day in college baseball.

1- ALABAMA.

After going 7.0 hitless innings behind Spencer Turnbull on Thursday night before the lightning halted things. Then today, with Turnbull safely on the bench, Jon Keller gave up a home run to Adam Matthews on the first pitch of the re-started game. And that was the only hit and run of the game for the Gamecocks. Bama lost 1-0 in the first game and then lost 10-9 in the second game.

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2- NEW MEXICO STATE

The well-lauded Aggies’ offense was shut down worse than a west-coast electrical power-grid overload sponsored by Enron. The Ags were held to three hits by Baylor’s three pitcher arsenal of Josh Turley, Crayton Bare and Joey Hainsfurther. Oh, and NMSU lost 5-0 in Waco.

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3- SAN DIEGO AND SAM HOUSTON STATE

These are two ranked mid-majors who really can’t afford any late-season meltdowns. Today, the Toreros lost at Portland 5-4 and the Bearkats lost at home to Corpus Christi 5-2. If they don’t sweep the next two games in their respective series, their RPI will REALLY take a hit… or two.

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DISHONORABLE MENTIONS

- Rhode Island.

The Rams gave up 14 hits, nine walks and three plunking in a 17-6 white-washing at Florida State. The Seminoles Jayce Boyd went 5-for-6 with four RBI and was a triple shy of hitting for the cycle.

Unfortunately, head coach Mike Martin, channeling his best Bear Bryant, also said afterward, “That is a good Rhode Island ball club.”

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- Texas Tech’s punchless bats.

The Red Raiders had a 91-game scoring streak going until tonight. The Missouri ace hurler Rob Zastryzny went the distance, giving up seven hits with five strikeouts and two walks as the Tigers took a 9-0 Friday opener in Lubbock.

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- Southeastern Louisiana.

Like USD and SHSU above, the Lions came into the weekend with an RPI of No. 52. Again, these guys can ill-afford any sort of faceplants if they’re going to earn some at-large consideration. Well, tonight SLU dropped a 5-1 decision at Northwestern State, forcing their record to fall to 28-15 and 13-9 in Southland play.

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Okay, three bells. Time to hit the pillow. More tomorrow… er, I mean, today.

G’night.