After a strong showing yesterday at UC-Davis, Stanford’s baseball team will return to the Farm today to open a three-game series against UC-Santa Barbara. Hanging over the series is the possibility of rain throughout the weekend. The weather has already impacted the Cardinal this week—the game against the Aggies was originally scheduled for Wednesday, and was moved to yesterday due to rainy conditions.
No. 24 Stanford (5-3) started off its week on Tuesday with an exhibition game against Rikkyo University of Tokyo, Japan. Though the Card played many of its younger, less experienced players, it still came away with a 4-2 win. Sophomore Elliott Byers was the winning pitcher for Stanford, while Kenya Okabe took the loss for Rikkyo. The Japanese team is in the middle of a tour of California, where it will play a number of other schools.
Yesterday, the Cardinal got a day of good weather and traveled to UC-Davis for a single game against the Aggies (4-5). Despite falling behind early in the game, Stanford rallied to pull out the win, 10-6.
For the first five innings of the game, the Cardinal’s offense was anemic, scoring only two runs off Davis starter Matthew Lewis.
Meanwhile, freshman Garrett Hughes, the starting pitcher for the Card, was taken out of the game after giving up four earned runs in just 2.1 innings of work. After he was relieved in the third inning by sophomore Brian Busick, the Cardinal pitching staff locked down the Aggie offense, surrendering only two more runs in the eighth inning. Stanford used a total of seven pitchers.
Entering the sixth inning, Davis held a slim 4-2 lead over the Card. In the first at-bat of the inning, freshman center fielder Jake Stewart hit a triple to deep center, followed by a walk and a single by junior second baseman Colin Walsh and freshman left fielder Stephen Piscotty, respectively.
After loading the bases, a walk to junior shortstop Jake Schlander forced in a run. Following an out by junior pinch hitter Dave Giuliani, freshman third baseman Kenny Diekroeger launched a grand slam over the wall, giving Stanford four more runs and putting the Card ahead for good.
The Cardinal’s next challenge will be at home against UC-Santa Barbara (3-2). The series marks the first time the two schools have played each other since 1997.
The Gauchos will certainly pose a lesser challenge to Stanford than its first two weekend series. The Card opened its season two weeks ago with a three-game sweep of preseason-No. 6 Rice, before being swept in its next weekend series at No. 5 Texas.
“We didn’t play very well down in Texas,” said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. “We didn’t hit and we didn’t pitch very well.”
The Cardinal should have plenty of opportunities to rebound strongly against UCSB. Its toughest opponent of the year has been San Jose State, and it lost its series against the Spartans 2-1.
However, Marquess is not taking the Gauchos lightly.
“It’s very difficult to sweep anybody,” he said. “You don’t want to lose any games, and I’ll be disappointed if we lose any games, but we can. If we don’t play well, we’ll get beat—it’s a matter of how we play as compared to our opponents. No one’s going to be that easy to win a game against.”
On the offensive side, Stanford will look to Walsh to provide firepower at the heart of its lineup. Walsh leads the team in several statistical categories, including batting average, hits and runs batted in. Junior catcher Zach Jones will also be an integral part of the Cardinal’s lineup—he currently leads the team in home runs.
Defense is certainly an area where Stanford needs to improve. The Cardinal’s starting infield—comprised of Walsh, Diekroeger, Schlander and junior first baseman Jonathan Kaskow—has collectively committed eight errors this season, including three by Schlander. The left side of the infield has been especially poor, with an average fielding percentage of .933. As a team, the Card has committed 13 errors, compared to just five by its opponents.
Stanford’s starting trio of sophomore pitchers, Scott Snodgress, Jordan Pries and Brett Mooneyham, has also struggled, especially against Texas. All three currently have ERAs at or above 4.50, but those numbers should improve after facing a weaker UCSB lineup this weekend.
“I don’t think we really have any strengths right now,” Marquess said. “There are phases of our game where we’re very average or below average. Our defense, which we thought was our strength, hasn’t played very well. We’ve walked too many people and struck out too much. Really, I think we’re very fortunate to be 4-3.”
Barring weather delays, Stanford will begin its series against UC-Santa Barbara today at Sunken Diamond. First pitch will be at 5:30 p.m. Neither team has announced a starting pitcher.