After sweeping the Cal Bears to close the regular season last weekend, the Stanford baseball team finished the year with a winning conference record and secured its place in the postseason. The Cardinal will travel to Cal State-Fullerton this weekend to open the NCAA Baseball Championship as the No. 2 seed in the Fullerton Regional.
The No. 24 Cardinal (32-20, 14-12 Pac-10) blew through the last weekend series of the Pac-10 season by riding some excellent pitching to grab 3-2 and 4-2 wins over No. 23 Cal (31-20, 13-13) before the third and final game of the series was cancelled due to rain with the Cardinal leading 7-1 in the fourth inning.
On Friday, sophomore righthander Mark Appel pitched 7.1 innings while giving up just two runs and no walks to outduel Cal starter Erik Johnson, who struck out 11 Cardinal batters in seven innings of work. Appel handed the ball to junior closer Chris Reed to finish the Stanford victory.
Once again, Reed was excellent. The lefty weaved his way through the last 1.2 innings to collect his seventh save of the season.
Sophomore left fielder Tyler Gaffney paced the Cardinal offense on Friday, going 2-for-4 and knocking in a pair of runs.
The pitching was the story again in the first game of a scheduled doubleheader on Saturday, when junior righty Jordan Pries tossed 7.1 innings while allowing just two unearned runs before getting into a spot of trouble in the eighth, when he was forced to hand the ball to Reed.
Reed came in with a 4-2 lead, but after a wild pitch, runners stood at second and third. Reed induced a ground ball to first base, and senior catcher Zach Jones received the throw and smartly blocked the plate to prevent a run from scoring and get the second out of the inning. Reed induced a fly ball to end the eighth, then a double play to end the ninth. He picked up his eighth save of the year and preserved Pries’ win.
Gaffney was 2-for-4 again on Saturday, knocking in another run and extending his current hitting streak to 17. Freshman right fielder Austin Wilson matched Cal’s offensive output all on his own, driving home two runs on three hits.
Overall, Stanford is 27-1 when leading after seven innings this season, mostly thanks to Reed’s left arm. His pitching has garnered the attention of many major league scouts, who turned out in droves to watch this weekend’s series.
The Cardinal stormed out of the gates in the second game of the doubleheader and was leading 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth inning, after bashing around Cal pitchers Dixon Anderson and Kevin Miller for nine hits and five walks, before the game was called due to rain.
With the two victories, the Cardinal finished at fifth place in the powerful Pac-10 with a 14-12 conference record and will head to Fullerton for the second year in a row to start the postseason. No. 1 regional seed Cal State-Fullerton had a phenomenal 40-15 record this year to capture the Big West Conference title and the right to host the four-team, double-elimination regional for the tenth time in the last 11 years. The Titans welcome in the Cardinal as the No. 2 seed, Kansas State (36-23) as the No. 3 seed and Illinois (28-25) as the No. 4 seed.
Stanford and Cal State-Fullerton have a long history, with the Cardinal holding the all-time series record, 53-42. To add to the rivalry, this is the third time in the past four years that the teams could square off in the postseason, as the Titans eliminated Stanford from the postseason last year with a 6-5 victory in the Fullerton regional. Stanford eliminated Fullerton with two wins in the 2008 Super Regional on the Titans’ home field.
But before Stanford can take on one of its fiercest nemeses, it must pass through Kansas State, which received an at-large bid to the tournament after it lost the Big 12 Championship in extra innings to Texas A&M. The Wildcats earned their third consecutive regional bid and are led by brothers Jason and Jared King, who combined for 18 home runs this year. Jason leads the team with a .608 slugging percentage, followed by younger brother Jared and his .547 slugging percentage.
But Kansas State doesn’t tout a terrifying pitching staff, as every player who has started a game for the Cats this year has an ERA above 4.26–fact that seems to bode well for a Stanford team that bats .298 as a team, with Gaffney’s hitting streak, sophomore third baseman Stephen Piscotty batting a team-high .361 and Zach Jones boasting a .323 batting average in his last 36 games after he started the season hitting just .130 through 16 games.
The Cardinal opens up the double-elimination regional tournament at Goodwin Field in Fullerton at 4 p.m. on Friday against the Kansas State Wildcats.