After a well-fought weekend, No. 17 Stanford baseball (19-12, 5-7 Pac-12) finished with one win and two losses in a three-game series against UCLA (16-16, 9-6). The Cardinal came back strong on Friday after a scoreless first matchup but lost in extra innings on Saturday to close out their play against the Bruins.
Despite only allowing six hits the entire game thanks to 6.1 innings by sophomore Kris Bubic and the final 2.2 by senior Tyler Thorne, Stanford couldn’t muster any offense in a 2-0 loss on Thursday at the Sunken Diamond. Although a close game, the Cardinal never got a runner past second, leading to the scoreless finish. This continued Stanford’s streak of losing the first game in all of its Pac-12 series this season.
“The first game we got shut out by their ace pitcher,” said junior Beau Branton. “He pitched extremely well, and sometimes you just have to tip your cap.”
Nevertheless, Stanford came back in a big way on Friday night, winning 5-3 against the Bruins. Andrew Daschbach hit an RBI in the fourth inning, followed by starting a rally in the decisive sixth and eventually scoring the winning run on a double play, making this game his first career multi-hit game.
Daschbach spoke humbly about his performance, focusing on a time-honored Cardinal mindset: “You always need to have the next man up mentality.” He then added, “I was just able to capitalize, and we came away with a big win to even the series tonight.”
The final game of the series was on Saturday, which was Honoring our Heroes Day in the Sunken Diamond. Despite valiant efforts by the team, the game ended after ten innings with Stanford losing 7-6, marking the end to an increasingly high-scoring series.
Up until the sixth, Stanford hadn’t scored and was losing 4-0, until an RBI single from senior Jack Klein put one on the board. This was followed by three hits from juniors Matt Winaker and Quinn Brodey and freshman Daniel Bakst, bringing the score to 4-3. UCLA increased its lead by one, but Winaker blasted a three-run home run in the eighth, putting Stanford in the lead with one inning left in the game. Despite Winaker’s heroics, UCLA scored in the ninth and the tenth to win the game 7-6.
Winaker finished the day with two runs and three RBI, a double, walk and a home run. Although it was a loss, the series was fought hard and showed the strength and resilience of this team.
“We know how important winning every series is, and losing to a team that is not in the top 25 will hurt our postseason chances,” continued Branton. “But we’re optimistic for this week when we’ll take on Cal on Tuesday at home and Oregon in Eugene over the weekend.”
Stanford will play Cal at home for the last time under head coach Mark Marquess. The game starts at 5:30 p.m. at the Sunken Diamond.
Contact Ariana Rollins at arianar ‘at’ stanford.edu.