It was a mixed weekend for the No. 19 Stanford baseball team. The Cardinal (13-9) lost two of three at No. 2 UCLA (23-1), but the team did hand the Bruins their first loss of the season, 8-4 on Friday.
Unfortunately for the Cardinal, what ended up being a series loss could have just as easily been a series victory or a series sweep.
The series began on Thursday with a 6-5, 10-inning Bruins victory. UCLA overcame Stanford leads three times and finally won the game on first baseman Dean Espy’s walk-off RBI single.
The Cardinal had a chance to take the lead in the top of the ninth inning, but freshman outfielder Tyler Gaffney fell down rounding third base on junior shortstop Jake Schlander’s one-out single and was tagged out as he attempted to leap over catcher Steve Rodriguez’s tag. Junior left fielder Ben Clowe followed with a strikeout, ending the Cardinal rally.
Stanford jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the top of the first inning off UCLA ace sophomore Gerrit Cole, and took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth when junior outfielder Dave Giuliani singled with two outs, stole second and scored on junior second baseman Colin Walsh’s RBI single.
The lead was short-lived, however. In the bottom of the fifth, the Bruins got to Stanford sophomore starter Brian Busick, who was making his first start of the season. The big hit of the inning came off the bat of UCLA’s first baseman Justin Uribe, a one-out RBI. The Bruins picked up their second run of the inning when freshman reliever Mark Appel threw a wild pitch that allowed second baseman Tyler Rahmatulla to score from third base and give UCLA the lead.
Stanford tied the game in the top of the sixth and took a 5-3 lead in the top of the seventh, only for the bullpen to relinquish the lead in the bottom half of the same inning, setting the stage for the extra-inning Bruin victory.
On Friday, the Cardinal evened the series behind a complete victory from sophomore Jordan Pries. Pries gave up eight hits, walked four and struck out four while allowing just three earned runs in his second complete game victory of the season.
The Cardinal offense broke the game open in the top of the fifth, scoring seven runs, thanks in large part to a Bruin error and a passed ball, which gave the Cardinal six unearned runs. The biggest hit of the inning came off the bat of freshman left fielder Stephen Piscotty, a two-out, two-RBI double.
Junior catcher Zach Jones continued his hot hitting in the game. Jones had two hits, including his fourth home run of the season in the ninth inning.
In the rubber match on Saturday, the Cardinal couldn’t overcome an early 5-1 deficit, as its ferocious rally came up short in the 7-5 loss.
Sophomore starter Brett Mooneyham continued the wild pitching that has haunted him in the early season. Despite striking out five Bruins in his first two innings, Mooneyham lasted just three innings, giving up five runs on six hits and walking five. Mooneyham is now 0-4 on the year with a 7.82 earned run average and 32 walks in 25.1 innings pitched.
Freshman third baseman Kenny Diekroeger was a hitting star for the Cardinal on Saturday, hitting a fifth inning two-run home run, his third of the season.
Diekroeger, who was a second-round draft pick by the Tampa Bay Rays, appears to be living up to the hype as a top recruit coming into college. He is hitting .307 and is third on the team with 15 RBIs.
With the losses, Stanford is now 3-3 in Pacific-10 conference play.
This week the Cardinal will play a nonconference matchup at Cal today at 2 p.m. before hosting Saint Mary’s on Wednesday. The Cardinal will then return to Pac-10 competition next weekend when it hosts the upstart Oregon Ducks.