Recap: Stanford Baseball gets Thursday night win at Cal
On Thursday, Stanford baseball got a 7-6 win on the road at Cal to take game one of their three-game series. Cohen Gomez (4-1) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while Trevor Moore (5) was awarded the save. Jett Wright (2-2) was the losing pitcher for the Golden Bears in a starting role.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Cal-Thursday, May 14th
“Oh man, what an exciting game. Great ending,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “You know, we had two runners thrown out at the plate and we needed them both, right? And we, you know, we got to look past. We let them back into the game some, right? With the walks. Three walks that all scored, but Trev Mo has done a great job. He may have had the ball in his hand and at the end, had it not gone our way, and felt like maybe it was doing, but there was things that were adding up throughout the whole game that had led to the game being close at the end. But you know, what? He’s come through for us all year long and he did a great job just hanging in there best he can. And he couldn’t do it by himself, but he did it, right? That’s what I told him. You couldn’t do it by yourself because you needed Ketelsen and maybe Jimmy’s throw at home plate, but it worked out.”
Stanford got off to a strong start, scoring four runs in the top of the 1st inning on just one hit as Wright was having major control issues on the mound. Wright would not secure a single out as Jordy Lopez came in for relief. All four runs that Stanford scored in the top of the 1st inning came were earned to Wright though two of them came with Lopez on the mound. Two of the runs scored with Rintaro Sasaki and JJ Moran getting walked with the bases load, one came with Eric Jeon getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and one came via Luke Lavin hitting a fly out to bring home Sasaki.
Cal would add a run in the bottom of the 1st inning off Stanford starter Toran O’Harran as Cade Campbell reached on an error with runners on first and second base. That brought home Hideki Prather, who scored from second base. That would be the only run Cal scored in the 1st inning.
Both teams would trade runs in the 4th inning. With Lopez still on the mound for the Bears, Stanford added a run as Sasaki grounded out to bring home Charlie Bates. In the bottom of the 4th, with O’Harran still on the mound for Stanford, Brady Errecart reached first base via error to bring home Campbell. O’Harran would not finish the inning as Cohen Gomez had to come in to get the final out. 5-2 Stanford led at the end of the 4th inning.
Stanford would extend their lead 6-2 in the top of the 6th inning thanks to an RBI single from Sasaki to bring home Cort MacDonald. In the top of the 7th, Bates hit a sac fly to left field to bring home Jimmy Nati. 7-2 the Cardinal were in control.
In the bottom of the 7th, Mike Erspamer came in to pitch for the Cardinal and he had a rough outing, only getting through 0.2 innings. He got a pair of strikeouts, but also walked three batters, handing the ball to Trevor Moore with the bases loaded and one out. Cal would take advantage as Campbell hit a three-RBI double to make it 7-5 and then Carl Schmidt hit a double down the right field line to bring home Campbell. That made it 7-6. Lawson Olmstead then hit a single only for Nati to make a nice throw to home plate to get Schmidt out at home as Luke Lavin got the tag.
Neither team would score in the 8th or 9th inning, but that doesn’t mean it came without drama. The 8th inning was pretty uneventful. Jeon hit a double with one out for the Cardinal but would get left stranded. In the bottom of the 8th, Moore got three straight Cal batters out via fly out, strike out, and ground out to keep it a 7-6 game.
In the top of the 9th inning, Bates singled with two outs before Teddy Tokheim struck out swinging to end the top of the inning. Moore would have to preserve a one run lead for three more outs.
In the bottom of the 9th, Prather singled up the middle to give the Bears some life. Kenady then fouled out to the first base side foul territory as Sasaki made an amazing catch for the first out. Daniel Murrillo then got walked to advance Prather to second base. Campbell then lined out to short stop for the second out.
With one out to go, it came down to a battle between Trevor Moore and Carl Schmidt. On a 2-2 pitch, Schmidt hit the ball to left field for a single. With Prather rounding third base and coming home for the tying run, Brock Ketelsen made an amazing throw from left field to Lavin at home plate for the tag out. 7-6 the Cardinal survived as clutch defense got them across the finish line.
“I mean, obviously two outs, runner on second, you’re looking to end the game with a throw,” Ketelsen said. “I mean, obviously, you’re expecting them to send him. Big shout out to Cort in center. I was nervous out there and he was keeping me calm, cool, and collected and just letting me know that, you know, it’s a game and it’s fun out there…Never to win a game. It’s, yeah, I’ve never had a big situation like that. So, you know, the nerves were high, I’m glad I could make the throw and get us a win.”
“You know, it wasn’t necessarily the situation, it was more just like sorta how I’m feeling and just the feel that I had out there,” Moore said of his performance. “Different today. It’s a different day today for sure, but I had to pull it together a little bit more out there than I feel like I normally do. So it was more of a personal challenge, but in terms of the game, I mean, our guys played great behind me and great all day and great at the plate. So I have nothing but positive things to say about our squad today. We did a phenomenal job.”
For Stanford, this is a much-needed win. They’re still hoping to improve their seed for the ACC tournament, so they have that on the line. Plus, they also ended a five game losing streak to Cal. They want to win this series for pride given the rivalry and so to take game one feels really good.
“I don’t know that it helped me a whole lot,” Esquer said if his years at Cal help him when he plays on their field. “It did help me make the, you know, we brought Ketelsen in, who normally plays center field, but normally here at the corners is when you’re going to have a chance to throw people out. You know, center field is not the position. So you know, keeping our stronger arms at the corners I felt would help us at the end and you know what, I’m not gonna say that I’m smart, but somehow it worked out.”
“It’s a huge series for us as a team,” Ketelsen said of facing Cal. “I mean, Cal’s a great team and you know, they’re our rival. So we’re looking to win.”
While the three errors were not good, it was still encouraging for Stanford to win the game thanks to their defense stepping up. That throw by Ketelsen was phenomenal while Sasaki had what I feel was his best defensive play of the season. Those are the kind of plays that can define a series.
“It did, you know, all the guys that made an error, Rintaro made a nice catch, Charlie Bates made a catch up the middle,” Esquer said. “You know, they both came back where, you know, showed some resilience coming back and helping us win defensively at the end. But yeah, the three errors were problematic. A double play turned that we didn’t make that caused a run and you know, just little things. Again, those are those pieces that I said we’re gonna add up and you know, lead to our demise had things not worked out.”
“Oh my goodness,” Moore said of the throws out at home plate by Ketelsen and Nati. “I mean, Ketelsen and Jimmy, I know there are runners on first and second with two outs. I know I’m, you know, it’s spamming sliders to the guys at the plate and I left that one a little bit up. I mean, I think it was off the plate. The guy got a good bat on it and put it in the left field and Ketty came up and hosed a guy at home and that’s kind of a dream play at the bottom of the 9th, but it happened to me twice today. So yeah, it was awesome to watch. I didn’t plan that out at all, but that was great.”
Cal would go on to even up the series with a 4-3 win on Friday. Full recap of that will be linked here once it’s been posted. The rubber match of the series will be on Saturday at 3:30 PM PT on ACCNX. Stanford is now 27-24 overall and 13-16 in the ACC while Cal is now 28-25 overall and 11-18 in the ACC.
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