Baseball hosts NCAA Stanford Regional

Stanford heads into Thursday's regional matchup as No. 8 in the country and arguably the best in the West up to this point. If the team i able to win the Stanford Regionals, they will move on to the next round of NCAA's against the winner of the Long Island Regionals. (Bob Drebin/isiphotos.com)
Stanford heads into Thursday's regional matchup as No. 8 in the country and arguably the best in the West up to this point. If the team i able to win the Stanford Regionals, they will move on to the next round of NCAA's against the winner of the Long Island Regionals. (Bob Drebin/isiphotos.com)
By Ariana Rollins
May 31, 2017, 11:15 p.m.

For the first time since 2004, Stanford baseball stands at No. 8 in the country and is the No. 1 seed among the three other teams that it will host for a six-game double-elimination regional this Thursday through Monday. Stanford ended its regular season with an overall record of 40-14 and 21-9 in the Pac-12 after sweeping Washington State in this past weekend’s series.

As the No. 1 regional seed, Stanford will play No. 4-seeded Sacramento State (32-27, 12-12 WAC) on Thursday night at Sunken Diamond, while the Nos. 2 and 3 seeds, Cal State Fullerton and BYU, respectively, will play earlier in the afternoon. The losers of those matchups will play each other at 1 p.m. on Friday for Game 3. The winners of Thursday’s games will play in Game 4 at 6 p.m on Friday.

Stanford enters Thursday’s regional matchup not having faced Sacramento State since 2009, when the Cardinal won 6-4 at home. Under head coach Mark Marquess, the Cardinal are 23-13 against the Hornets. Sacramento State is also coming into Thursday’s game off a winning streak in the Western Athletic Conference tournament, where it outscored its four opponents 36-8.

After Thursday’s game, Stanford will face Cal State Fullerton or BYU. In this season’s series against Fullerton, the Cardinal won only one of the three games in the series. However, the Cardinal have also met the longtime rival Titans in the regionals before, most recently in 2011, when Stanford defeated the then-No. 8 Titans 1-0. Additionally, Stanford leads the overall series 59-46. Against BYU, Stanford is 3-1 under Marquess. The two teams last met in April 2012, when Stanford won 10-9.

The team that wins this weekend’s NCAA Regional at Sunken Diamond will advance to the Super Regional and will play the Long Beach Regional Champion. This is the 30th postseason appearance for Marquess, and should Stanford go all the way, it would be his third national title.

The NCAA Stanford Regional will be streamed live on ESPN3 with the first game (Cal State vs BYU) starting at 1 p.m and the second (Stanford vs Sacramento State) at 6 p.m. on Thursday.

 

Contact Ariana Rollins at arianar ‘at’ stanford.edu.



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