On the plane ride home after last season ended a step shy of the College World Series, the blueprints for the next baseball season were drawn up by Stanford coach Mark Marquess. The foundation was set, but the Cardinal had to find a replacement behind the plate. Miles above the ground, Marquess approached infielder Eric Smith about shifting positions to catcher.
The move paid immediate dividends in the season opener Friday night at Klein Field in Sunken Diamond as Smith not only displayed chemistry with ace Mark Appel, the converted catcher also hit an inside-the-park home run in No. 2 Stanford's 8-3 victory over No. 10 Vanderbilt.
"Maybe in Little League when there weren't any fences," Smith said was the last time he might have hit an inside-the-park shot. "I sure was tired after that one and then I had to go back and catch."
Stanford led 5-0 after three innings and Appel, the top draft prospect according to Baseball America, didn't allow a hit until a leadoff double in the top of the fifth. The 6-foot-2 right-hander was lifted after seven innings and 103 pitches. He allowed one run on two hits. walking two and striking out five.
"If he was missing, he was just missing by a little bit," said Smith, who found out he would start roughly 15 minutes before the game. "Everything was close to the plate, so you had to react to every pitch. He was getting his change-up over, his slider over. And when you get those three pitches, especially
throwing 95, 96, 97 miles per hour, it's tough to hit."
After a 1-2-3 top of the first, Stanford third baseman Stephen Piscotty turned on an inside fastball for a solo home run with two outs. Designated hitter Christian Griffiths, who missed last season with a shoulder injury, hit one farther into the trees on the first pitch he saw in the bottom of the second. The Cardinal hit 27 home runs in 57 games last season.
Stanford rallied for three runs in the third inning and second baseman Lonnie Kauppila came up with a web gem in the top of the fourth by taking a stab at a liner zooming over his head.
Vanderbilt starter Kevin Ziomek lasted just 3 1/3 innings, but reliever Brian Miller was able to escape a jam in the bottom of the fourth by stranding both inherited runners. Miller wasn't so lucky in the next frame as Smith skipped a shot to the right-center gap that rolled to the fence and became Stanford's first inside-the-park job since Cord Phelps in March of 2008.
"The good thing is he ran hard out of the box," Stanford coach Mark Marquess said. "Normally I don't think he hits the ball and thinks it's going to be a triple with his speed. He's not a blazer, but it was a good job by (third base) coach (Dean) Stotz sending him."
The Cardinal made it 7-1 in the bottom of the sixth, but it could have been more. With the bases loaded and two outs, Kauppila's infield single drove in Jake Stewart, but Brian Ragira (who went 3-for-4) was gunned down at the plate on a dubious call.
Left-fielder Tyler Gaffney, who scored eight touchdowns in the fall, extended his hitting streak to 23 games with a double over the third base bag on the first pitch he saw in the eighth and later scored on a sacrifice fly.
Stanford's attack consisted of 14 hits, five walks and three hit batters. All nine hitters recorded at least one hit except for right fielder Austin Wilson, who drew a pair of walks.
"It's going to be a fun year," Appel said. "We're going to put up some runs this year and hopefully the pitching will continue to be pretty good."
Vanderbilt used four singles to score a pair of runs in the ninth off Stanford's Dean McArdle.
The teams will complete their three-game series with 1 p.m. contests today and Sunday.
3 - 0 
