Recap: Stanford Baseball gets Tuesday win over Saint Mary’s
On Tuesday, Stanford baseball defeated Saint Mary’s at home by a final score of 7-6. Lefty Sam Garewal (1-3) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while lefty Luis Martin Romero (2-2) was the losing pitcher for the Gaels in a starting role. Stanford right fielder Brock Sell was the top offensive performer for the Cardinal, going 2-3 for three RBIs. Stanford improves to 26-23 (12-15 ACC) while Saint Mary’s falls to 29-22 (14-10 WCC).
BOX SCORE: Saint Mary’s at Stanford-Tuesday, May 12th
“Yeah, you know, got a little closer at the end than we’d like it to be,” Stanford head coach David Esquer admitted. “We had opportunities to open it up and again, you know, not taking advantage of that can come back and bite you. It already bit us once on Saturday vs. NC State and came pretty close there at the end. You know, we had some opportunities to score, didn’t take advantage of them. The game just kind lulled it in the middle there for us. And you know, you look at their stats, they can hit. They’re hitting like .330 as a team. They’re a good offensive team.
“So I expected them to, you know, to be able to put up some runs, but hey we had enough and held them enough and a couple good pitching performances. Ketelsen and Steeves and Colt Peterson had a good solid outing for us and Kassius at the end got that one, that one critical last out, which is huge.”
Lefty Brock Ketelsen was the starting pitcher for the Cardinal, pitching 2.0 shutout innings before handing the ball off to Sam Garewal in the top of the 3rd inning. Stanford scored six runs in the bottom of the 2nd and 3rd inning combined, scoring three runs in each inning:
In the bottom of the 2nd, Eric Jeon hit a solo homer to deep left field after which JJ Moran doubled to left center. Jimmy Nati then grounded out to the pitcher to advance Moran to third base before Luke Lavin got walked. Brock Sell then hit a sac fly to left field, bringing home Moran. That made it 2-0. Later on with the bases loaded, Cort MacDonald got walked to bring home Lavin. Rintaro Sasaki would strike out looking to end the bottom of the inning.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Jeon got walked after which Moran doubled to deep left field to advance Jeon to third base. Nati then hit a single to third base, bringing home Jeon and advancing Moran to third base. Lavin then singled to right field to bring home Moran and advance Nati to third base while Lavin actually was called out trying to reach second base. Sell then doubled to bring home Nati. That made it 6-0. Stanford wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning as Teddy Tokheim fouled out behind home plate to end the bottom of the inning.
Garewal would keep it a 6-0 game through five innings. In the top of the 6th, Garewal gave up a double to Diego Castellanos after which Makoa Sniffen singled to center field to bring home Castellanos, making it 6-1.
“Yeah, three innings was big,” Esquer said of Garewal’s performance. “You know, we knew that we’d have to find a way to get to nine and really didn’t know which way it was going to be. We knew between Ketelsen and Garewal, if they can get us through five, that would be huge. And he got into the 6th and we weren’t going to stay too long just because the for recipe for disaster is expecting a lot more than what you initially thought and we thought hey get us to the fifth, sixth would have been a bonus, but we just made sure we didn’t expect too much.
“A little bit, for sure. For sure. A little bit [of why he pitched 0.1 innings on Sunday] was that we knew that we had some innings to fill on Tuesday. And so we knew that he’d have to play a big bulk of that.”
“I’d say it was like a seven out of 10 or something like that,” Garewal said of his outing. “I was pretty happy with how it was going and then in the 4th inning I came out, he just got that double. It was good. He fought off that slider and then just got behind on the next guy and he put a good single up the middle and Parker did his best to limit and I’m just happy it worked out. So I was pretty happy as long as win, pretty happy with it.”
Parker Warner then came in to replace Garewal on the mound. With one out, Warner gave up a two-run home run to Jacob Johnson, who launched the ball into deep left field. That made it a 6-3 game. Saint Mary’s would not score the rest of the inning. In the bottom of the 6th, Stanford didn’t score, keeping it a 6-3 game at the end of the 6th inning.
In the top of the 7th inning, Austin Steeves and Colt Peterson botch pitched for Stanford. Peterson came in for Steeves with one out and Tanner Griffith on second base. Peterson would get a ground out and then line out to end the top of the inning.
Stanford would add what ended up being a much-needed run in the bottom of the 7th:
Jeon would single to left field after which Moran was hit by a pitch. Thanks a to a wild pitch, Jeon advanced to third base and Moran advanced to second base. Nati then grounded out after which Lavin reached on a fielder’s choice as Jeon was out at home plate. Sell then singled to center field to bring home Moran while Lavin advanced to second base. Charlie Bates then grounded out to end the bottom of the inning. 7-3 lead for the Cardinal.
“Brock Sell, who has really heated up offensively, is playing well in the outfield,” Esquer said. “I think saw on the board he’s hitting right around .300 now, right? So, that’s a, that’s a great comeback by him because he started off slow and spent some time just watching for a while, but when his second opportunity came up he’s really taking advantage of it.”
“Yeah, I mean, it’s been good with the guys,” Sell said. “I mean, just glad I can go out there, help support the team. Whatever way I can. And I’m just thankful that I’ve been able to do it in a major way so far and I’m just looking forward to the next, this weekend against Cal.”
Peterson would pitch the top of the 8th inning, not allowing any runs to keep it a 7-3 game. After Stanford failed to score in the bottom of the 8th, the Gaels now had one inning to score four runs to extend the game. Unfortunately for the Gaels, they would come up one run short:
In the top of the 9th inning, Kassius Thomas came in to pitch in a non-save situation. Thomas would give up back to-back singles after which a mound visit occurred. Thomas would stay in the game, giving up a two-RBI double to Griffith to make it 7-5. Castellanos then singled to shallow left field, bringing home Griffith. It was now 7-6. Thomas would then force a fielder’s choice as Castellanos was out at second base for the first out. Then, Ian Armstrong grounded into a double play to second base to end the game. 7-6 Stanford survived.
“I thought, you know, banged out 13 hits and you know, I thought we hit some balls hard,” Esquer said of their run production. “And, you know, they were doing similar to us. Changing a lot of pitchers. Sometimes it can throw you off rhythm, but it look, we still, we still swung the bats well.”
With a huge series at Cal coming up later this week, it’s really good for Stanford that they found a way to win this game. They will go into Berkeley with more momentum and confidence. This game got a little too close for comfort but at the end of the day, a win is a win.
“Oh, it’s big time, you know?” Sell said of the win. “Like, it was cool beating NC State and we needed this win to set ourselves up for a good weekend against Cal next week and then eventually, into the ACC tournament…I mean, there’s definitely some stuff to work on. Like, we need to be better in the middle innings and score more runs there. We scored a run late and then we scored in the beginning. So the middle innings are very important for, you know, scoring those runs and increasing that lead more and more instead of just laying off and letting them come back like that.”
“I’m really excited,” Garewal said of facing the Golden Bears. “Especially since they swept us last year and kinda just excited to get back at them. Especially on their home field. I’d love to take that series from them and put a good end to the year before the ACC tournament.”
Up next for Stanford is their series at Cal. That will begin on Thursday at 7:05 PM PT on ACCNX.
“It’s going to be great,” Sell said of facing Cal. “I actually have a high school teammate who is on there. I played with one of the guys the short stop or 2nd baseman on their team for about eight, nine years. So, I have a couple friends on the team, but you know, it’s gonna be a big rivalry. So I’m looking forward to like, the talk in between innings and that kind of stuff. Like, just looking forward to the competitive environment we’re gonna have there…We’re hot right now and you know, look out.”
“You know, Cal’s very similar to I think Saint Mary’s. They’re free swinging, but a very good offensive team and they actually have very strong starting pitching, which is going to be a challenge,” Esquer said of facing the Bears. “We’re gonna have to get to their bullpen, but their starting pitchers have been really performing well and I think they’re a pretty free swinging team with the ability to put up some runs. So, it’s gonna be a big challenge for us for sure.”
Note: Cardinal Sports Report has you covered for all the latest news on Stanford athletics.
Try Cardinal Sports Report out for $1 and get your first year for 50% off!
Don’t miss out on this great offer!
Sign up here: https://www.on3.com/sites/cardinal-sports-report/join/
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Bluesky: @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), YouTube, & Bluesky: @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
Join the conversation on CardinalSportsReport.com
