The No. 19 Stanford baseball team (12-7) played host to visiting San Francisco (13-13) Monday night at the Sunken Diamond. The team was looking to continue the clutch hitting and solid pitching that had given it the 2-1 weekend series victory over USC (12-12). Instead Stanford looked like a team playing its fourth day in a row, getting into trouble early, making errors defensively and stranding runners on the bases. The Cardinal offense was limited to just four hits in the 5-1 loss.

The Cardinal found itself in trouble early. Freshman starter Chris Jenkins got chased for the loss after just two batters, giving up a walk to San Francisco’s leadoff batter before throwing away the ball on a sacrifice bunt. Junior reliever Danny Sandbrink replaced Jenkins but fared no better, giving up a two-run double to Derek Poppert followed by a home run to Stephen Yarrow. Sandbrink gave up another double before Stanford finally recorded its first out by retiring the sixth batter on a sacrifice bunt. Sandbrink got the next two outs, but by then the damage had been done. Stanford found itself in a 4-0 hole after just a half an inning.

Asked about the possibility that part of his team’s play might be due to fatigue, Cardinal head coach Mark Marquess refused to let his players off the hook.

“I might be tired. But they shouldn’t be. Twenty year olds don’t get tired, do they?” he said.

San Francisco starting pitcher Jordan Remer looked to continue his fine season, having given up only one earned run over nine innings in four appearances. Stanford went three up, three down in the first, grounding into a double play to end the inning.

Sandbrink settled down, retiring all three batters in a row to end the top of the second, but Stanford once again went down in order to end the second.

Defensive play continued to hurt the Cardinal in the third, as Poppert stretched a single to three bases on an uncharacteristic error by Stanford center fielder Jake Stewart. It was his first in 18 starts. Yarrow cashed in the run for his third RBI of the game.

It would prove to be San Francisco’s last run of the game, as the Cardinal relievers went into lockdown mode. Scott Snodgress, Dean McArdle, Chris Reed, Mark Appel and Garrett Hughes combined to pitch six innings of shutout ball, allowing just two hits while collecting 10 strikeouts. It was a promising sign for a team that has struggled with pitching at times this season.

In particular, the freshman McArdle turned in an excellent performance, the best of his young career with the Card. McArdle racked up a career-high six strikeouts while allowing just one hit and one walk in three scoreless innings.

“I felt good,” McArdle said after the game. “I hadn’t thrown for a few days. After I got through the first inning, I settled down.”

Remer finally surrendered his first hit with two outs in the third inning, a single past the sprawling San Francisco second baseman off the bat of Stewart.

The Cardinal threatened to score for the first time in the top of the fourth. Remer began to lose control, walking the first two Cardinal batters on nine pitches, but got freshman Stephen Piscotty to ground into a double play on a full count. Stanford’s solid plate discipline continued as senior Adam Gaylord drew the third walk of the inning. Freshman Kenny Diekroeger singled in freshman Tyler Gaffney for his 13th RBI of the season, chasing Remer off the mound in the process. Stanford almost scored three more runs as sophomore designated hitter Christian Griffiths hit a pitch from San Francisco reliever Haden Hinkle deep to left field, but it fell just short of the wall and was caught, ending the inning.

Junior Colin Walsh and Gaffney drew back-to-back two-out walks for Stanford in the fifth. The next batter, junior catcher Ben Clowe, hit the ball hard, but right at left fielder Jared Denham to end the inning.

Later on, Kaskow collected Stanford’s third hit and first extra base-hit in the bottom of the seventh with a standup double. Stanford once again picked up back-to-back two-out walks from Walsh and Gaffney to load the bases. The free pass was Gaffney’s fourth of the game. But once again, San Francisco escaped the jam as Clowe popped up to first base.

Piscotty led off the bottom of the eighth with a single to left, Stanford’s fourth hit of the night, but the next three batters were quietly retired.

“We left a lot of people on base,” mused Marquees.

In the end, the Cardinal couldn’t make up for its slow start and 10 men left on base, dropping the game 5-1.

Up next for the Cardinal is a three-game road series against No. 2 UCLA starting Thursday.