Senior Chris Castellanos pitched a gem to help No. 18 Stanford baseball (27-12, 11-7 Pac-12) sweep No. 13 Arizona (27-15, 9-12) in a three-game series over the weekend at the Sunken Diamond.
The sweep marked the second consecutive series sweep for the Cardinal and their first over Arizona since 1999. Additionally, Stanford pushed its win streak to eight games — its longest since 2013.
Sophomore Kris Bubic set the tone in Game 1 by limiting the powerful Wildcat offense. He pitched a career-high seven innings and gave up two runs, one unearned, to go along with four punch-outs.
His dominant outing gave the Stanford offense a little leeway as it put up only three runs in the game.
Trailing 2-1 in the bottom of the seventh with one runner on first, freshman Maverick Handley drove a line drive into left-center field to score the runner and tie the game. Junior Matt Winaker sent a double short of the top of the wall to score Handley and put Stanford up 3-2.
Junior Colton Hock relieved Bubic after the seventh inning and blanked Arizona for his tenth save of the season. Hock is only the third pitcher in Stanford history to rack up 10 or more saves in a season.
Keeping with the strong pitching from the first game, junior Andrew Summerville pitched five strong innings and allowed two earned runs in Game 2.
With senior Tyler Thorne and Hock in relief, Stanford gave up only three runs to the Pac-12’s number one offense.
Winaker again had an impact in this game as he went 3-4 with two runs and two RBI. He would break the tie in the seventh by scoring off a single from sophomore Nico Hoerner to put Stanford up for the rest of the game.
Game 3 showcased the best pitching performance of the series as Castellanos tossed eight scoreless innings, which included a career-high 12 strikeouts, the first Cardinal to record 12 strikeouts since Mark Appel netted 13 in a 2013 game.
Hoerner and freshman Daniel Bakst combined for five hits and three RBI and Thorne relieved Castellanos in the ninth, giving up a solo home run but still managing the save to give Stanford a 3-1 victory and the series sweep.
The Cardinal will remain at home to play San Jose State on Tuesday. Stanford will then hit the road next weekend to face Arizona State in a three-game set.
Contact Jose Saldana at jsaldana ‘at’ stanford.edu.