After rattling off an eight-game winning streak against the likes of Kansas, California, San Francisco and Texas, the Cardinal was brought back down to earth by Santa Clara on Tuesday night, 13-5. But Stanford does not have to wait long for a chance to build a new streak, as conference opponent Southern California visits Sunken Diamond for a weekend non-conference series, with the opening game to be played this evening.

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Mike Ramm

Sophomore Brent Milleville is tied for second on the Cardinal with eight RBI in 39 at bats, and also boasts a .370 on-base percentage. Milleville and the Cardinal will look to bounce back against USC after falling 13-5 against Santa Clara on Tuesday.

The Trojans (13-8) come into the series having swept Georgia in three games at Athens last weekend, before losing to UC-Riverside at home on Tuesday, 4-1. Nevertheless, USC will enter the weekend series at Stanford ranked No. 20/21 by Baseball America and Rivals.com, respectively. Sophomore first baseman and catcher Brent Milleville, though, is staying focused on his own performance rather than that of his opponents.

“I think I’ve been doing alright, but I can definitely be a little bit more consistent at the plate,” he said. “[Tuesday], I struck out with the bases loaded, and that’s never good. And I think there’s always stuff you can work on to get better. USC is definitely going to be a good team. I remember last year they hit the ball really well against us, so I guess it just kind of depends on how we hit the ball, too.”

Stranding baserunners was a big problem for the Cardinal against Santa Clara on Tuesday, as Stanford left a season-high 14 on the basepaths. The Cardinal also had a rough night defensively with two errors resulting in two unearned runs for the Broncos while Stanford’s pitching walked 10 and hit three. As head coach Mark Marquess explained, the Broncos beat the Cardinal at its own game by making the most of their opportunities.

“If you play like we played [Tuesday] night, there won’t be anybody on our schedule that we’ll beat,” the 29-year Stanford coach said. “You can’t just walk 10 and hit three and leave 14 guys on base — you’re not going to beat many people if you do that. Now, Santa Clara did what we’ve been doing. They had some timely hitting, and that’s a credit to them and their pitchers — when they needed to get a big out, they got it. That’s kind of how we’ve been playing against our opponents. But you’re not going to beat most people — anybody on our schedule — if you give them that many bases.”

Perhaps the most discouraging aspect of Tuesday’s loss for the Cardinal was how well the team had been playing up to that point, having not lost a game since Feb. 17. Milleville was confident, though, that the Cardinal can bounce back quickly against the Trojans.

“The game against Santa Clara was obviously pretty ugly, but it wasn’t anything that’s going to set us back too far,” he said. “I mean, we walked a lot of guys and made a few errors, but they got a lot of breaks, hit some balls that we didn’t get to (that we could have) or they had a few lucky bounces and that kind of thing. But that’s just how baseball goes; you’re always going to have games like that.”

Marquess does not anticipate the level of competition the Cardinal will face to ease up any time soon.

“[USC has] a lot of new players, but they’ve played very well,” Marquess said. “They went into the Southeast Conference and swept Georgia at their place, which is hard to do. So they’re playing very well, and they’ve played a very difficult schedule as we have. They’re probably not as strong on paper as Fullerton or Texas, but they’re a very good opponent.”

One major issue the Cardinal has yet to resolve this season is its pitching. Stanford’s team ERA currently sits at 5.41 while opponents have a 5.13 ERA against the Cardinal. Milleville believes that Stanford’s youth and inexperience have worked to the team’s disadvantage so far, but he expects to see a turnaround in the not-too-distant future.

“Definitely, from the amount of talent we have, the pitchers can be a lot better than they have been,” Milleville said. “And they will be. A lot of the younger guys, they’ll get really excited when they get in there and kind of forget their overall mechanics and that kind of stuff. I think that when they get a little bit more comfortable being in there every day, they’ll start throwing a lot better.”

The non-conference series against the Trojans is set to open at Sunken Diamond today at 5 p.m., continuing on Saturday and Sunday with games at 1 p.m. After this weekend’s series, the Cardinal will not compete again until Saturday, Mar. 24, when it faces Sacramento State.