The Stanford baseball team (30-21, 13-11 Pac-10) closes out its regular season this weekend with perhaps its toughest opponent of the season: No. 3 Arizona State (45-7, 18-6).
The Cardinal and Sun Devils will play a three-game home series beginning today and running through Saturday.
Although Stanford has all but secured its spot in the NCAA Tournament field, which will be announced Monday, a sweep at the hands of Arizona State this weekend could make Cardinal players nervous during the selection show. Conversely, if Stanford is able to sweep the Sun Devils and get some help elsewhere, it could potentially host a regional.
The Card is also in position to spoil Arizona State’s chance of winning the Pac-10 Conference. If Stanford sweeps the Sun Devils and UCLA sweeps Washington State, the Bruins would be the conference champions.
Stanford comes into the weekend fresh off of a huge series win at Arizona (32-20, 11-13) last weekend. The Cardinal got a great start from sophomore lefty Brett Mooneyham on Friday, as he went 7.2 innings while allowing just one run. Mooneyham will start today in a showdown with the Sun Devils’ ace, junior Seth Blair. While Mooneyham is 3-5 with a 4.82 ERA on the year, his stats are not indicative of his pitching the last month and a half.
On Friday, Stanford will send sophomore Jordan Pries, who was the Cardinal’s best pitcher early in the season but has struggled as of late, to the mound against Arizona State junior Merrill Kelly. Kelly is 4-1 on the year with a 3.47 ERA — more impressive given that he pitches most of his games in the thin, dry Arizona air.
In Saturday’s game, freshman Dean McArdle will likely get his third weekend start against Arizona State sophomore Jake Borup in Stanford’s final game of the regular season.
The Sun Devils last visited the Farm in 2008, when the Cardinal took two of three games from then-No. 1 Arizona State. At that point, Pat Murphy was still Arizona State’s coach. Murphy has since resigned under cloudy circumstances, although first-year coach Tim Esmay seems to have picked up right where Murphy left off.
The Sun Devils as always have absolutely mashed the baseball.
Leading that potent offense is sophomore infielder Zack MacPhee. MacPhee is hitting .388 with eight home runs and 56 runs batted in, not to mention 17 steals.
Stanford, on the other hand, is led offensively by freshman third baseman Kenny Diekroeger. A highly touted recruit out of high school, Diekroeger has quickly adjusted to the college game. Diekroeger leads the team with a .366 batting average and is tied for the team lead in RBIs with 39.
Other factors to watch in this series are the catching situation and the return of freshman outfielder Tyler Gaffney to the Stanford lineup. Gaffney missed last Sunday’s game for personal reasons, but is expected to take his normal spot in right field today and hit in the lead spot.
At catcher, junior Ben Clowe, who started the final two games of the Arizona series last weekend, may once again replace regular starter junior Zach Jones, who has faltered in recent games.
Stanford begins its last series of the season against Arizona State at 5:30 p.m. today at Sunken Diamond.