No. 12 Stanford baseball (9-3) had a memorable weekend at Sunken Diamond, as the team won its series against Texas (7-6) 3-1 including back-to-back walk-off victories in the second and third games from junior outfielder Quinn Brodey.
Stanford dropped the series opener 4-0, which snapped its six-game win streak coming into the matchup. Sophomore pitcher Kris Bubic started on the mound and gave up just one unearned run on a fielding error after a Longhorns bunt attempt.
Bubic struck out nine batters in six innings and has 30 strikeouts in 18.2 innings on the season. He has allowed only one earned run in his two losses.
The Longhorns would go onto score on a 7th-inning home run and a couple of walks in the 9th. The Cardinal offense only mustered three hits off the Longhorns pitchers.
In Game 2, junior pitcher Andrew Summerville was tagged to start the game. He ended with career-highs in innings pitched (7), strikeouts (9) and total pitches (103).
The Longhorns rocked Summerville early in the game to take a 2-0 lead. Summerville established himself and retired 15 of the 16 batters he faced before being relieved by junior closer Colton Hock.
Junior infielder Mikey Diekroeger put Stanford on the board in the sixth with a one-out sacrifice fly with the bases loaded.
Stanford would tie the game in the seventh when sophomore infielder Nico Hoerner hit a one-out groundout with the bases loaded to pull the runner from third to score.
In the ninth, Brodey came up to bat with two outs and players on first and second. Brodey hit a 1-1 pitch that singled into the gap between the Longhorns shortstop and second baseman. The single allowed the runner from second to score and gave the Cardinal a walk-off victory over Texas.
Freshman pitcher Erik Miller started Game 3 and his night ended after 7 1/3 innings, three strikeouts, two walks and two earned runs.
As in Game 2, the Longhorns jumped on the Cardinal pitcher in the first inning. Texas scored on a double after a single by Texas freshman David Hamilton.
Miller would settle down and retire 16 of the next 17 batters after the first.
Texas doubled its lead in the 8th after a single off of Miller. Junior pitcher Keith Weisenburg relieved Miller and blanked the Longhorns to keep the game 2-0.
Stanford scored its first run in the eighth when freshman outfielder Kyle Stowers sent an RBI single down the right side to score the runner from second.
In the ninth, Hoerner went to third on a single from Brodey and then scored on a double play ball to tie the game and set up extra innings.
In an almost mirror-image of the previous game, Brodey came up to bat in the 10th with two outs and two on. On a 1-1 pitch, Brodey crushed the ball to center left and cleared the wall to, again, give the Cardinal a walk-off win.
Game 4 was the second game of Saturday’s doubleheader, as senior southpaw Chris Castellanos started for the Cardinal in the night game. He dominated the Longhorns, allowing only one earned run and racking up eight punch-outs in seven strong innings of work.
The Cardinal were the ones to strike first this time as a wild pitch in the 2nd sent Diekroeger home to take a 1-0 lead.
Stanford would take a 2-0 lead in the when, in the fifth, Brodey cracked an RBI single to center to score junior outfielder Matt Winaker.
The Longhorns would score on a triple in the sixth but would be shut down by Hock, who had a tremendous series, to clinch the series for Stanford with a 2-1 victory.
The Cardinal will now travel to Houston to take on Rice (4-8) in a four-game series starting on Thursday.
Contact Jose Saldana at jsaldana ‘at’ stanford.edu.