Recap: Stanford Baseball hangs on to defeat NC State on Friday night
On Friday, Stanford baseball defeated NC State on their home field of Sunken Diamond by a final score of 6-5. Mike Erspamer (1-2) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while Trevor Moore (4) picked up the save. Ryder Garino (3-4) was the losing pitcher for the Wolfpack in a relief role. Stanford improves to 24-22 overall and 11-14 in the ACC while NC State falls to 30-18 overall and 12-13 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: NC State at Stanford-Friday, May 8th
“You know what, hey, that’s a good team. It’s a great Friday night win,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “You know, we won how we win, which is we kind of pieced together the pitching and make it tough on the opposition. I thought they all did a pretty good job and then some big at-bats. We were not having those at-bats and winning the at-bats early in the game, left runners at second and third in two-out situations. And then in that 8th inning, just had some really big hits obviously with Bates and MacDonald started off for us and Sell and JJ Moran. So, just some huge hits and some big spots to come back and win and then again, had enough at the end. A little different without a scoreboard, lights, and a PA announcer, but it’s still a good win.”
Lefty Andrew Shaw was the starting pitcher for the Cardinal as he gave up no runs in the top of the 1st inning, only allowing a single by Rett Johnson and a sacrifice bunt from Luke Nixon to advance Johnson to second base. Shaw would force back-to-back fly outs to end the top of the inning.
Lefty Cooper Consiglio was the starting pitcher for the Wolfpack and he would give up two runs in the bottom of the 1st inning as Stanford took a 2-0 lead. With two outs, Cort MacDonald and Rintaro Sasaki hit back-to-back singles after which they advanced to second and third base thanks to a wild pitch. Thanks to another wild pitch, Jimmy Nati was walked while MacDonald scored and Sasaki advanced to third base.
Charlie Bates then got hit by a pitch to load up the bases. Thanks to another wild pitch, Bates advanced to second base, Nati advanced to third base, and Sasaki scored. JJ Moran then struck out swinging to end the bottom of the 1st.
In the top of the 2nd inning, NC State got on the board as Sherman Johnson hit a solo shot to deep left field in the opening at-bat of the inning. That made it a 2-1 game. Shaw would not finish the inning as Parker Warner came in for relief after Brandon Novy struck out swinging for the first out of the inning. Warner would give up a single before getting back-to-back fly outs to end the top of the inning. Nobody got on base for Stanford in the bottom of the 2nd, keeping it a 2-1 game.
Neither team scored in the 3rd inning as the only player to get on base was Teddy Tokheim for Stanford, who hit a single to shallow left field. Neither team scored in the 4th inning, though both teams had better chances to score.
In the top of the 4th the bases got loaded with two outs before Warner secured a strike out against Brayden Fraasman to keep it a 2-1 game. In hindsight, that ended up being a big moment in the game. Had NC State scored in that moment, they very well may have ended up winning this game.
“I think I punched him out with the change up,” Warner said. “Change up felt good today and I was confident in that pitch, so just doing anything I could to strike that guy out with the change up.”
“Yeah, it was huge. It was huge,” Esquer said of Warner getting Stanford out of that jam. “And we had left second and third twice, probably, I think at that point. For him to answer back and kind of have them leave some runners on was big.”
In the bottom of the 4th, Moran was walked with one out before Luke Lavin singled to right field to advance Moran to second base. Brock Sell would ground out to advance both runners, giving Eric Jeon a real chance to expand the lead for the Cardinal. However, Jeon would strike out swinging to keep it a 2-1 game.
It would remain a 2-1 lead for Stanford at the end of the 5th inning. In the top of the 6th inning, with Kassius Thomas on the mound for the Cardinal, NC State scored one run. Christian Serrano would get walked before Drew Lanphere doubled down the left field line to bring home Serrano, making it a 2-2 game. Cohen Gomez then came in for Thomas to finish the job on the mound for the Cardinal in the 6th inning. Stanford wouldn’t score in the bottom of the 6th, keeping it a 2-2 game.
In the top of the 7th inning, with Mike Erspamer on the mound for Stanford, NC State added one more run as Ty Head hit a double down the left field line with one out before Sherman Johnson doubled to left center to bring home Head. That made it a 3-2 lead for the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning. In the bottom of the 7th, Stanford would not score, keeping it a 3-2 game.
In the top of the 8th, Stanford scored four runs as NC State cycled through three pitchers: Ryder Garino, Tristan Potts, and Sam Harris. Bates hit an RBI single to bring home MacDonald and advance Rashad Hayes to third base from first base. That tied the game 3-3.
Moran then doubled down the right field line to bring home Hayes and Bates, making it 5-3. Around this point, the power went out in the press box, resulting in the scoreboard and pitch clock going out as well. Sell then doubled to bring home Moran, advancing to third base via error. Jeon would strike out swinging to end the inning. 6-3 Stanford led entering the 9th inning.
“Yeah, honestly, I was seeing the ball well all night and just nothing was really landing for me,” Moran said. “Nothing was going well and I just sticking with it and then I got a good pitch to hit and just stayed through it…Yeah, something we talk about a lot is momentum is fragile and we got a little bit there and then we held onto it and kept building off that. So that was huge for us. Just keep going to the next.”
In the top of the 9th inning, Trevor Moore came in to get the save for the Cardinal. Moore would give up a single to Nixon before getting back-to-back strikeouts. Johnson then doubled to right center to bring home Nixon, making it 6-4. After a mound visit, Moore would give up an RBI to Mikey Ryan, who hit a single to shallow center field to bring home Johnson. Rashad Hayes was unable to secure the ball at 2nd base, allowing the Wolfpack to stay alive. Hayes would redeem himself the next at-bat as Serrano hit into a fielder’s choice as Hayes secured the out at 2nd base to end the game. 6-5 Stanford survived to take the opening game of the series.
“Yeah, you know what? Hey, you know, took a chance trying to end the game with a diving play there and the ball got by us,” Esquer said of that final inning. “It didn’t hurt us. Didn’t ultimately hurt us. Maybe you take a chance to end the game on a dive. And then, you know, just a well-placed hit and then all of a sudden we got the go-ahead run at the plate, right? And we got to get a big out. And Trevor Moore was up to it and able to do that for us, which he’s been good for us all year.”
“Yeah, that’s huge,” Moran said of getting a Friday night win. “That sets the standard for the whole weekend. Now we can come out tomorrow looking to win a series, not trying to salvage a series. So that’s huge for us.”
What made the outing a bit bumpier for Moore was not having access to a pitching clock due to the power outage. He still got called for time despite not having access to that, something that Esquer and especially pitching coach Thomas Eager really objected to.
“You know what, the timer clock wasn’t on and they called a pitch violation,” Esquer explained. “He has no way to know where they are. The guys behind him keeping the time and he’s not alerting him that maybe he’s got five seconds or you know, so, you know, one, which is like hey, we got to sync up with him so we can coach him through it. And you know, maybe that’s the answer, but really, you know, I don’t know how a student-athlete is supposed to be able to keep time, you know, on his own without someone letting him know.”
“The dugout lights went out and we thought someone like cut the lights in the dugout and then I realized the scoreboard was off and it was kind of like, I haven’t played without a scoreboard since, like, high school,” Moran said. “So, it’s been a while. It’s definitely different.”
For Stanford, this is a good win. They have now won two games in a row, doing a nice job of bouncing back from a tough weekend at Notre Dame. The offense came alive when it needed to and the pitching on the whole did a nice job. Erspamer got five strikeouts in 2.0 innings, Warner pitched 2.2 scoreless innings, and Moore was able to bend but not break. Overall a good performance for the Cardinal.
“Two innings, we needed a two inning outing out of somebody late,” Esquer said of Erspamer. “You know, we didn’t want to go to Moore in a deficit. We haven’t used him when we’re behind. Just to kind of hold the game close. So we needed Erspamer to do that for us and he had a big outing.”
“The fastball and change up were both pretty good,” Warner said of going 2.2 innings. “I think I’ve commanded the change up well and made good pitches when I had to…Yeah, I think we’ve done a good job of just doing our job. Like, not trying to do too much. Just getting one out, one out at a time, and passing the ball off to the next guy and we all trust each other and we’re all pulling for each other, so it’s a lot of fun to pitch and see a lot of guys succeed.
“Esqy talks about it a lot. It’s hard for a team to see a different guy every inning or every two innings rather than seeing the same starter for six or seven innings. So, it’s definitely, I think an advantage for us to throw different pitchers out there every inning or two.”
Up next for is game two on Saturday. That will begin at 2:05 PM PT on ACCNX. Stanford will look to clinch the series.
“You know, it’s nothing changes. Nothing changes,” Esquer said looking ahead to game two. “We’re gonna do the same thing. We’re gonna keep flipping guys in and you know, we’ll go with O’Harran and Garewal will probably get us going and then we’re gonna piece it together to see which lane we hit to either a win or try to keep it close.”
“Esqy preaches it, we gotta defend Sunken Diamond,” Warner said. “We can’t just let anyone come in here and beat us. I mean, it’s kind of a pride thing. Like, no one’s coming in here and just getting an easy win.”
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