Recap: Stanford Baseball completes four game sweep of Utah Valley
On Monday, Stanford baseball completed a four-game sweep of Utah Valley with a 15-6 victory at Sunken Diamond that ended in eight innings. Lefty Austin Steeves (2-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while righty Quinn Holt (2-2) was the losing pitcher for the Wolverines in a starting role. Stanford improves to 11-12 on the season (1-5 ACC) while Utah Valley falls to 10-13 (0-0 WAC).
BOX SCORE: Utah Valley at Stanford-Monday, March 23rd
“Yeah, you know, good win, you know, we came out game four and you know, just thought we came out with good energy to win the fourth one,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “It’s hard to do that, hard to beat any team four times and so, I think that was a good sign for us. We had four games worth of energy and focus because we play three games here on out. So it was good.”
Lefty Quinten Marsh was the starting pitcher for the Cardinal and in the top of the 1st inning, he gave up two runs as Mason Strong hit an RBI double to bring home Kaden Carpenter after which Chipper Beck hit an RBI single to bring home Strong. Stanford failed to score in the bottom of the 1st inning, keeping it a 2-0 lead for Utah Valley.
In the top of the 2nd inning, Austin Steeves came in to replace Marsh and didn’t give up any runs despite loading up the bases with no outs. After a mound visit, Steeves would force a double play and then a pop up to second base to keep it a 2-0 game.
“Yeah, you know, the message was don’t let them score,” Esquer said with a smile about the mound visit. “You know? And just try to, you know, kind of calm him down and remind him why he’s there, right? You know, he got here by being a really successful high school pitcher with confidence and just need him to carry himself that way and pitch a little bit to the reason why he’s at, you know, with a Stanford uniform on the mound. And a lot of the pitchers are the same way. When they struggle a little bit, which is performance and confidence, but they got here for a reason. They got here because they’re successful and they need leaning on that a little bit.”
As for the bottom of the 2nd inning, Stanford exploded for eight runs as Eric Jeon went yard to make it 2-2 as Jimmy Nati came home; Rintaro Sasaki hit an RBI to make it 3-2; a wild pitch brough home Ethan Hott to make it 4-2; a passed ball brought home Sasaki and advanced Teddy Tokheim to third base to make it 5-2; and then Nati hit a three-run blast to left center to make it 8-2. Eric Jeon and Luke Lavin were unable to keep it going in their at-bats, ending the inning.
“Yeah, I kind of just blacked out,” Nati said of his home run. “Got my swing off, looking for a fast ball and got it early on in the count and yeah, like I said, blacked out. It was a good feeling and just got the boys going. But yeah, the offense was doing it today. So when that’s going, it’s contagious.”
“Yeah, good to get him back on the board and you know, just consistency, right?” Esquer said of Nati. “He’s got to be able to come out there day in and day out and bring that same swing and that, you know, same performance. He’ll get there. He’ll get there. It’s just a little back and forth for him, but he’s had more good days than bad recently.”
From there, Stanford cruised to victory. Tokheim hit a two-run home run to bring home Tatum Marsh in the bottom of the 3rd, making it 10-3. The next batter was Charlie Bates, who hit a solo homer to deep right field, making it 11-3.
“Man, it’s awesome,” Nati said of putting up so many runs. “You just want to keep getting up to bat and keep getting the swings off and just keep, yeah, putting runs up for the boys and it was a lot of fun this weekend. I don’t know how many runs. Close to 50-ish or 40+. So, yeah man, that was awesome.”
In the bottom of the 4th, Tatum Marsh hit an RBI single to first base to bring home Jeon after which Cort MacDonald hit a two-run home run to bring home Marsh. That made it 14-5. And then just for good measure, Stanford added their 15th run in the bottom of the 5th inning as Nati hit a ground-rule double down the left field line to bring home Bates. That made it 15-6.
Stanford went on to win 15-6 as neither team scored the rest of the way. The game ended in eight innings due to Utah Valley needing to catch their flight back to Orem. A nice ending to what was a good weekend for the Cardinal.
“Yeah, I mean, great weekend for the boys,” Nati said with a smile. “Four wins is huge and these wins today, like you said, coming in 3-0, these wins today are what get you into a regional. You can easily just roll over and let baseball take over and play tired. But we came out here, we wanted to get that fourth one and then, you know, just enjoy it and get ready for the Virginia Tech series.”
For Stanford, this was a great way to cap off the series. Going in, I predicted a split. Instead, they got a sweep. Getting a four-game sweep over any team is never easy and so this result has to give the Cardinal a real boost of confidence going forward. Including their pitching staff.
“You know, small wins, small wins,” Esquer said of the pitching. “It’s not, you know, not everybody had their best outing, but we just to collect enough guys that are starting to gain some confidence and then we’re gonna piece that together in 27 innings instead of 36 and hopefully give ourselves a better chance. We made all these changes, not necessarily we’re gonna go from a six to a zero, but hopefully in each game we’ll end up one run ahead at least.”
One guy who should be feeling confident is freshman lefty Andrew Shaw, who came in during the 7th inning to pitch for Stanford, giving up only one hit and not allowing any runs. He’s looking like a guy who has a chance to make a real impact on the mound as the season goes on. He’s grateful the support he’s getting from his teammates, especially his fellow lefties.
“Yeah, my changeup was really on today,” Shaw said. “Which was good because yesterday I kind of had some trouble with it, which was uncharacteristic from previous outings. So it was good to just kind of find a zone again with it…Yeah, it’s awesome. We’re all together in it, you know, Quinten starting two games one week. That was sick.
“You know, just everyone coming out here throwing strikes and we’re just all focused on just getting the job done. Helping out team and to do that as freshmen, as a group, I mean, that’s pretty awesome…I think it’s just good to, you know, give a different look. I feel like they just face righties after righties. So, to have a lefty where his pitches are moving opposite directions as a righty, I think that’s just the biggest thing. And to just have matchups, especially lefty lefty matchups, that’s a big plus.”
“Well, you know, and we used quite a few of them, right?” Esquer said of the lefty pitching. “You know, you got Shaw and you got Quinten Marsh, they’re sticking out there, Erspamer, they’re all young freshmen left-handers and we haven’t had that much depth, you know, from the left side, but we’re going to need them, you know, and Kettleson as well. So that’s four freshman lefties that we have. And to get them out there and get them to be able to get more confidence and just get a little momentum is going to be big.
“But Shaw did great. He had a great preseason and a great fall. He kinda came out of nowhere. I really didn’t know what we were going to get out of him, but he kept getting us out. So we needed to find out in real games whether he could keep getting the opponent out.”
An area that was an improvement for Stanford was winning the battle of the walks. They drew eight walks on Monday while Utah Valley drew five. Winning that battle by three is a step in the right direction for the Cardinal after struggling with that for much of the season.
“That’s been a struggle, that’s been a struggle, and that’s been you know, a key focus is to make them earn it,” Esquer said. “And I thought they swung the bats well. If you threw it in there, they hit it. So, I thought they, you know, they tested our pitching to make sure that they continue to throw strikes. But they were no slouch for sure. They were very competitive and never made you feel comfortable, really.”
Once more, Eric Jeon had a multi-RBI game with two. His hot weekend finished strong. It really is amazing what he’s bringing as a transfer from the Ivy League level, but if you ask his teammates, they’re not surprised by how well he’s doing.
“No, no, he works as hard as anyone does on the team,” Nati said of Jeon. “And got a great head on him really screwed on and yeah, he goes up there and you know that something exciting is going to happen. So, super proud of him and wasn’t coming easy for him at first and he wasn’t getting a lot of playing time and now he’s running with it. So, super proud of him and no one’s surprised. No one’s surprised.”
Up next for Stanford is a road trip to face Virginia Tech for a three-game series. That will begin on Friday, March 27th at 3:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, you know, it’s a long trip out there and they’re tough. They’re a tough ball club,” Esquer said of the Hokies. “They’re physical and they play everybody tough. I haven’t had a good hard look at their numbers yet, but I think we’re pretty similar teams. I think we’re, you know, a little bit higher on the ERA and pretty solid in the batting average. So it looks like there’s going to be, you know, who can out last each other’s pitching.”
“Yeah, I could go top to bottom in the lineup, like everyone is just doing their thing and it’s contagious like I said,” Nati affirmed. “So, keep it rolling for Virgina Tech. We’re in a good spot and been working hard. So it’s good to see it paying off.”
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