Recap: Stanford Baseball gets series win over NC State on Senior Day
On Sunday, Stanford baseball defeated NC State by a final score of 9-5 to take the weekend series. Teddy Tokheim and JJ Moran each had one home run and three RBIs while Trevor Moore (7-2) was the winning pitcher in a relief role. Anderson Nance (3-2) was the losing pitcher for the Wolfpack in a relief role. Stanford improves to 25-23 overall and 12-15 in the ACC while NC State falls to 31-19 overall and 13-14 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: NC State at Stanford-Sunday, May 10th
“Yeah, you know, good response after yesterday’s loss,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “Yesterday was a tough loss. I think we gave them one. I think we gave up a win that we had, that we could have really took control of the weekend. So yesterday was big. We’re still a little bit of a funk early on. Our starting pitcher was pretty similar to the guy yesterday. Took us a minute and then to be honest, the guy that we beat there is one of the best pitchers in the league. I mean, he really is. He’s their best arm, probably the best arm on both staffs right now. So, he was tough to beat and it took us a minute, but those four runs, the bases loaded contact by Eric Jeon to give us a run and then JJ kind of topped it off with the home run. That was huge, obviously.”
Teddy Tokheim had another sensational day for the Cardinal, going 3-4 for with one home run and three RBIs. He hit an RBI single down the right field line in the bottom of the 3rd and then in the bottom of the 8th, he hit a two-run blast to deep left field, which was his 16th home run of the season. That came a day after a game in which he hit two home runs. To say he’s seeing the ball well right now is an understatement.
“They were flipping me a lot of sliders this whole weekend,” Tokheim said of his success against the Wolfpack. “And I tried to make the adjustment to lay off the ones outside and I got one over the heart of the plate and I was just trying to get Brock in from third…Yeah, I think I’m seeing it well. I think just those, like, little adjustments week to week with Kirb and Steve have been really helpful for me. I don’t know, sometimes when they hang sliders they look like home run pitches, but I’m definitely not trying to hit a home run every pitch.”
“Yeah, right? I mean, just an unbelievable freshman year that he’s having and a couple big at-bats and we were hoping for a sac fly and he just popped another one,” Esquer said of Tokheim. “He’s got 16 now? Is he tied with Rintaro? Yeah, him and Rintaro 16. That’s pretty special. That’s pretty good. He’s been dependable and you know, what you see in great hitters is their soft spots are really small. And he’s had maybe just a couple where he’s gone a little cold, but not for long.”
JJ Moran also had a strong day with his dinger and three RBIs. He had a big performance on Friday and continues to do his part in the lineup as well. His home run made it a 7-3 lead for the Cardinal in the bottom of the 7th, helping to give them a little cushion.
“Yeah, just, I mean all year long it’s been a clutch at-bat,” Esquer said of Moran’s offensive prowess. “He’s had a number of clutch hits throughout the year and you know, another one today to kinda top off and give us a little breathing room. A little margin for error, which was just a big at-bat, like I said, one of the best pitchers in the ACC.”
“I mean, he’s been working this whole year,” Tokheim said of Moran. “He’s been lining out a lot past weekends and I think today was just a byproduct of what he’s been doing, just keep hitting the ball hard and that’s what he’s going to keep doing.”
The starting pitcher for Stanford was righty Nick Dugan, who pitched 3.0 innings and gave up two runs upon entering the top of the 4th inning. All Stanford is looking for is good enough from him and he brought that overall in this game.
“You know, last two times out he’s given us enough,” Esquer said of Dugan. “You know, he just kind of gets us into the 3rd or 4th inning and you know, I think a week ago, we questioned whether we took him out too soon, but you know what? I think we give…We kind of jokingly call our pitching the stable. We got to go to the stable over there. We give some people some trouble. I think we went three different pitchers to get three outs in one inning. And so, that makes it, I know that makes it tough on some teams to handle, so it’s good for us.”
The back end of Stanford’s bullpen did a nice job with Trevor Moore getting the win, pitching 3.0 innings and getting two strikeouts while only giving up two earned runs. Mike Erspamer pitched 1.1 innings right before Moore and didn’t give up a run. The back end did their job and that’s something Stanford really needs more of going forward.
“Just pounding the zone,” Erspamer said of the key to his pitching. “Letting our defenders do their thing behind me. I mean, I have trust in them and they had trust in me up there to pound zones. So, I mean, that’s all I really try to do up there…It’s pretty cool how anybody can can kind of hop up there and you just know that they’re going to give it their all and put everything out there. I mean, I feel like I’ve never really been on a team where you know 100% that everybody is giving it their all every time. Like, our pitcher’s work ethic is unbelievable and I love being a part of it.”
“You know, I think Gomez pitched well, you know, pitched well this weekend,” Esquer said of the bullpen. “Kassius Thomas is someone we use a lot. Erspamer now and then Trevor Moore. So, we feel pretty confident we can get it to those four guys by the end of the game.”
For Stanford, this really is an important win. They get the series win and enter the final week of the regular season with a bit of momentum. This is just what they needed after a rough loss on Saturday.
“Yeah, home series against a really good team, you know and I think that gives us a chance to maybe climb the standings a little bit to get a little bit better seed if that’s possible,” Esquer said. “It’s gonna be a great series against Cal. Every game’s gonna mean a lot because it’ll mean a lot to both of us. So that’s exactly what people want from a Cal-Stanford series.”
“I mean, this is awesome,” Tokheim said of the win. “I think just winning the last home series of the year can give us momentum to carry into Saint Mary’s on Tuesday and then Cal on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then hopefully take that into the tournament and make some damage in that.”
Winning the series on Senior Day and Mother’s Day made the win all the more special for Stanford. When you have those extra motivations, that can either help you or hurt you. Today, those extra motivations seemed to really help Stanford get across the finish line.
“For sure, Senior Day, it’s awesome just being able to celebrate,” Erspamer said. “Like, having the seniors out here and just being able to win for them, win for our mothers on Mother’s Day and it was a cool get together today. It was awesome.”
Touching more on Tokheim, he’s now batting .358 for 16 home runs and 43 RBIs with a 1.147 OPS, a .723 slugging percentage, and a .425 on base percentage. With the way he’s playing, I think he’s earned the nickname Tokheim Steamroller for how he’s steamrolling the opposing pitching.
“I think just taking it one pitch at a time,” Tokheim said of his approach. “Not really thinking about like the whole season, but just kind of game by game, trusting the process, and I don’t know, just going out there and having fun…I think the culture we have on this team is awesome and today being senior day, I get to really appreciate every senior we have from kind of the culture they’ve built in the locker room. Esqy always says that the locker room is just as important as practice just because if you build a tight-knit group, you can kind of do special things on the field.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Saint Mary’s on Tuesday, May 12th. That‘ll begin at 4:05 PM PT on ACCNX. The game was originally scheduled for 6:05 PM, but it has been moved up two hours.
“We’re not going to take them lightly,” Esquer said of facing the Gaels. “Because we know that the opponent doesn’t matter. The game is a challenge for our team, so we got to come out and play a good baseball game to beat them. I know that they swing the bat very well and you know, any pitchers give us a little challenge. So it’s gonna be a good competitive game.”
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