In a tough weekend road series against No. 10 Oregon State (28-12, 10-8 Pac-12), the Stanford baseball team (20-18, 8-10) competed against a stacked Beavers squad but was ultimately unable to earn a series win, dropping Sunday’s rubber game with a struggling bullpen performance.
Despite entering the weekend series against the Beavers on a five-game losing slide, the Cardinal played a competitive series and showed their offensive potential against a very solid Oregon State pitching staff. In the second game of the series, the Cardinal exploded for six runs, including a three-run first inning, while knocking 11 hits during the game, to support 6.1 shutout innings from lefty Chris Castellanos in a sparkling start that granted Stanford a 6-0 win.
However, the Cardinal’s offensive production on the weekend couldn’t rectify the shortcomings of the Stanford bullpen. During the first game of the series, even though Stanford took a 2-1 lead into the bottom of the ninth, sophomore right-hander Colton Hock gave up a bases-loaded walk-off walk, losing the game 3-2 and earning his fourth loss on the year.
In Sunday’s tiebreaker, the Stanford pitchers continually had no answer for a swinging Oregon State team. Not one Stanford pitcher lasted 3 innings, and sophomore lefty Andrew Summerville lasted only a third of an inning in his start after giving up 5 hits to begin the game, as the Cardinal were bested 11-4.
In the other dugout, junior catcher Logan Ice led the Beavers’ lineup with a big weekend from the plate. Ice went 4-for-9 on the weekend while also scoring 3 runs and driving in another. With this strong series performance, Ice now owns a .358 batting average after having started 35 of the Beavers’ 40 games this season.
On the mound for the Beavers, reliever Bryce Fehmel continued his exceptional freshman campaign against the Cardinal, pitching in both Friday’s and Sunday’s victories. On Friday, Fehmel earned his seventh win on the season and gave up 1 earned run on 5.1 innings pitched.
While this series loss marks the third straight conference series loss for the Cardinal, the team’s ability to remain competitive in a tough road series against nationally ranked Oregon State shows its increasing strength on both sides of the ball. If not for the ninth-inning meltdown by the Stanford bullpen, this series could very much have belonged to a heavily underestimated Cardinal squad.
With the two wins, Oregon State remains only one game behind second-place Washington in the Pac-12 standings, while the Cardinal now move to 8-10 in conference play, still only four games behind Pac-12 leader Utah.
The Cardinal will now return back to Palo Alto for a non-conference duel against the University of San Francisco before hosting the No. 24 California Golden Bears for the only three-game series the two northern California rivals share this season. Stanford and Cal have already split their home-and-home non-conference meetings.
For Stanford to improve and win its first series since the first weekend of April, the Cardinal bullpen must provide the key stops. While Stanford still owns the best ERA in the conference, recent runs of poor Stanford pitching have let down an offense that has lacked the ability for its staff to hold late leads.
Furthermore, Stanford needs to start hitting on a more consistent level than it is averaging currently. With more than half of the season finished, junior Alex Dunlap remains the only consistent Cardinal starter to average over .300 at the plate. In order to establish themselves on the next tier of competition, and maybe even earn a national ranking, the Cardinal lineup, especially in the heart of the order, must start getting on base more regularly.
Against such a stacked Cal lineup, Stanford must once again challenge the Golden Bears’ pitching rotation early. In the Cardinal’s away victory against the Bears, Stanford batters attacked ace Jerian Kendall, unnerving the pitcher and ultimately prohibiting the Cal starters from establishing control of the matchup.
Stanford will open up a five-game homestand on Tuesday against the Dons at 5:30 p.m.
Contact Lorenzo Rosas at enzor9 ‘at’ stanford.edu.