Despite Monday’s 5-1 loss to San Francisco, the Stanford baseball team has experienced significant success in its recently busy schedule, winning eight of its last 12 games. The No. 19 Cardinal (12-7, 2-1 Pac-10) has enjoyed the luxury of competing at Sunken Diamond for the majority of its games, but this weekend, the team will travel to Westwood to face one of the nation’s hottest clubs, No. 2 UCLA (21-0, 0-0 Pac-10). The tough Easter Weekend series will kick off the month of April for the Cardinal and begin the upcoming hectic two-week stretch in which the team will play nine times in 13 days.
Yet it won’t be the first time this season that Stanford has faced a top-five program. In fact, UCLA will be the third top-rated team that the Card has taken on thus far. The team swept No. 5 Rice to open the year, but dropped three straight at No. 3 Texas two weeks later. Head coach Mark Marquess intentionally scheduled series with strong teams in the preseason in order to prepare his team to better contend with the high caliber teams in the Pac-10 conference, especially UCLA.
And this preparation was certainly necessary, because the Bruins are on a roll. The team currently flaunts a perfect record, though it has not so far competed in any league series. UCLA entered its game with Pepperdine on Tuesday with a .364 batting average, which is second-best in the Pac-10, as well as the nation’s best ERA of 2.30 and a .974 fielding percentage. This demonstrates the Bruins’ statistical superiority, compared with Stanford’s .298 average, 5.27 ERA, and .961 fielding.
Thus, UCLA’s offensive talent is a force to be reckoned with, as multiple players in the lineup are batting well above .400. This includes sophomore second baseman Tyler Rahmatulla, who leads the club with a .453 average, in addition to senior designated hitter Blair Dunlap, who is hitting .417. Rahmatulla has driven in 22 runs, and sophomore first baseman Dean Espy has a team-best 23 RBIs and should provide a definite challenge for the Cardinal pitchers.
UCLA has dominated from the mound as well, led by sophomore right-hander Dan Klein, who has yet to allow a run in 13 appearances and 16.0 innings. He is joined by junior left-hander Matt Grace, who has also denied opposing teams of any runs in his 10 appearances and 8.2 innings. In fact, opponents are batting a mere .188 against Bruins coach John Savage’s entire pitching staff. This weekend, however, Stanford will first have to deal with starting RHP Gerrit Cole (6-0, 2.63), RHP Trevor Bauer (6-0, 2.33) and LHP Rob Rasmussen (3-0, 2.64). Stanford’s weekend rotation has not yet been announced.
Fortunately for the Cardinal, offense has so far been a strong suit. Stanford racked double digits on the scoreboard in nine straight games prior to USC and won five games with clutch hitting, with four different players claiming victories in last at-bats. Junior Zach Jones had game-winning hits against Pepperdine and USC, freshman Kenny Diekroeger doubled to defeat Rice, junior Jonathan Kaskow knocked in the winning run versus UCSB and junior Jake Schlander had a walk-off solo homer in the 11th, also against UCSB.
Freshman Stephen Piscotty leads the club offensively with a .356 average, 19 runs, and 15 RBI. Piscotty maintained a 10-game hit streak until Sunday against USC and looks to regain his momentum against the Bruins this weekend.
The key for the Cardinal, which has defeated UCLA in 10 of the last 12 conference series since 1998, will be to drive in runs early and eliminate the defensive errors. A pattern has emerged this season in which the team trails early and is then forced to put together crucial big innings later on in order to get back into the game. Stanford has given up 28 first-inning runs this year and needs to execute nine solid innings in order to have success in Los Angeles for its second Pac-10 series of the season.
Stanford begins the series on Thursday, with the first pitch at 6 p.m. The games continue on Friday at 6 p.m. and Saturday at 2 p.m.