Stanford baseball’s final home weekend series arrives with little margin for error.
After a tough trip to South Bend, Indiana, followed by a rebound win at Sunken Diamond on Wednesday, the Cardinal (23-22, 10-14 ACC) will host North Carolina State (30-17, 12-12 ACC) for its final home ACC series of the season. The three-game set begins Friday and concludes on Sunday.
The series comes as Stanford is trying to keep its NCAA Tournament hopes alive after missing the postseason in each of the past two seasons. The Cardinal had built momentum with a six-game winning streak before Notre Dame halted that run last weekend, sweeping Stanford and pushing the team further toward the edge of the postseason picture.
The Fighting Irish took Friday’s opener 6-2, erasing a 2-0 Stanford lead with six unanswered runs. The frustration continued to grow in Saturday’s 10-7 loss, where Stanford led 5-1 in the fourth inning and 6-5 in the eighth frame. Sunday’s finale turned into a slugfest, with Notre Dame producing a eight-run sixth inning to hand Stanford a 18-13 loss despite a monster two-homer game from freshman Teddy Tokheim.
Stanford responded Wednesday night against San Francisco, scoring seven runs over the game’s final two innings to grab the 12-5 win. Freshman catcher Nolan Stoll smashed his first career home run, while sophomore infielder JJ Moran, freshman outfielder Brock Sell and senior outfielder Cort MacDonald contributed several hits to power the late rally. Senior right-handed pitcher Trevor Moore steadied the game out of the bullpen, recording the final two outs in the seventh and pitched a scoreless eighth inning to improve his record to 6-2.
The losing streak is now over, but Stanford still needs a strong finish to the season. Stanford’s remaining schedule includes the NC State series, a Tuesday home game against Saint Mary’s and a regular season finale series on the road against Cal (25-23, 8-16 ACC). With a subpar conference record, Stanford will need to stack wins quickly if they want to reinsert themselves back into serious NCAA Tournament consideration. First pitch for Friday’s series opener is set for 6:05 p.m.