Recap: Stanford Baseball walks it off in extra innings against UC Davis
On Monday, Stanford baseball defeated UC Davis at Sunken Diamond by a final score of 6-5 (12 innings). JJ Moran hit the walk-off single to bring home Eric Jeon in the bottom of the 12th inning while freshman lefty Andrew Shaw (1-0) picked up the first win of his career, pitching the final 1.1 innings. UC Davis righty Taylor Werth (1-2) was the losing pitcher for the Aggies in a relief role. Stanford improves to 22-19 overall (10-11 ACC) while UC Davis falls to 19-24 overall (9-10 Big West).
BOX SCORE: UC Davis at Stanford-Monday, April 27th
“Yeah, we earned a day off tomorrow for sure after tonight’s [win],” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after a third straight walk-off win. “You know, just one of the good things, a positive is learning how to win. And sometimes you don’t play great and sometimes the result is going to be the, you know, the measuring stick. That was a tough ball game. We were kind of swimming upstream all day, maybe a little battle fatigue after the weekend, but still they found a way to win in the end. And that’s huge.
“And I thought our pitching staff of Marsh, Steeves, Thomas, Reimers, and Shaw did an excellent job, giving us a chance to win. And we just, you know, we had chances and just couldn’t put guys across. But at the end, we did. Big hits by obviously Jeon and Moran were key.”
“Yeah, obviously we came out a little bit flat at the start and just a little fatigued from the weekend and just not letting us stop, letting that stop us,” Moran said of dealing with the emotions after beating Florida State. “Just continuing to do what we do and figure out a way to win, no matter what.”
Quinten Marsh got the start on the mound for the Cardinal and did a nice job through the first three innings, not allowing the Aggies to score, only giving up three singles. In the bottom of the 3rd, Stanford got on the board to go up 1-0. Jimmy Nati got hit by a pitch after which Nolan Stoll hit a single to third base to advance Nati to second base. Rintaro Sasaki then hit an infield fly for the first out. Thanks to a balk, Stoll would advance to second base while Nati advanced to third base. Cort MacDonald then grounded out to first base, bringing home Nati and advancing Stoll to third base. Eric Jeon then popped up to the infield to end the bottom of the 3rd.
In the top of the 4th inning, UC Davis would even up the game 1-1 with Marsh still on the mound. With two outs, Elijah McNeal singled to center field after which Korey Williams was walked. Braydon Wooldridge then singled to left center to bring home McNeal and advance Williams to third base. Marsh would be replaced on the mound by Austin Steeves, who would force a pop out to first base to end the top of the inning. In the bottom of the 4th, nobody got on base for Stanford, keeping it a 1-1 game.
Steeves would pitch the entire 5th inning for Stanford, only giving up a single. In the bottom of the 5th, Stanford would add one run to go up 2-1: Brady Reynolds would single to right field only for Nati to ground into a double play. Stoll then was walked after which Sasaki singled to center field, advancing Stoll to third base. MacDonald then singled to left center, bringing home Stoll and advancing Sasaki to second base. Jeon then flied out to right center to end the inning.
Neither team would score in the 6th inning, keeping it a 2-1 lead for Stanford. Steeves pitched for the Cardinal while UC Davis made a pitching change with Carter Speights coming in for Eli Solem. Speights was the third pitcher for the Aggies with Grayson Bonanno being the starter. Bonanno pitched the first 3.0 innings.
In the top of the 7th, UC Davis would tie the game up 2-2. Wooldridge would single to left center after which Eli Burnham got hit by a pitch. Kassius Thomas would then come in to pitch for Steeves. Joey Wright then grounded out to first base, advancing Woolridge to third base and Burnham to second base. Zach Story then popped up to shallow right field for the second out. Thanks to a wild pitch, Burnham advanced to third base while Woolridge scored. Thomas would walk Tyler Howard before forcing Kai Mault to fly out to end the top of the inning. In the bottom of the 7th, Speights would not allow any runs, keeping it 2-2 game.
In the top of the 8th inning, UC Davis would take the lead 3-2. Ryan Lee singled to left field after which McNeal reached on a fielder’s choice (bunt) to advance Lee to second base. Williams then hit a sacrifice bunt to advance both Lee and McNeal. Wooldridge then grounded out to second base to bring home Lee and advance McNeal to third base. Burnham then lined out to first base to end the top of the inning. In the bottom of the 8th, Stanford did not score any runs, making it 3-2 going into the 9th inning.
In the top of the 9th, Ben Reimers replaced Kassius Thomas on the mound. Reimers only gave up a single, keeping it a 3-2 game. In the bottom of the 9th, Stanford evened up the game. With one out, Reynolds doubled down the left field line after which Brock Sell came in to pinch run. Up next to the plate would be Philip Cheong, who had a .143 batting average. Known for his speed and not his bat, Cheong delivered a clutch hit down the left field line to bring home Sell to even up the game 3-3. Stanford would not score any more runs the rest of the inning, sending it into the 10th inning.
With the game going into extra innings, a runner would be placed on second base to start each half inning. In the top of the 10th, Mault was placed as the runner on second base for the Aggies. With one out, Mault would score from second base via wild pitch. That made it a 4-3 lead for the Aggies. Reimers would not allow any more runs the rest of the inning.
“It’s the first time we played it,” Esquer said of the format. “Coach Nicholson and Coach Eager decided that would be a good thing for us to play. I don’t know how much I love it. I like watching it. I don’t know how much I love playing it, but you know, hey a little experience with it in case it does come into, you know, on what you do and there’s the strategy on whether to bunt or not to bunt or hit away and you know, we went away from it there at the end and let Cort swing away, got a big hit. And then, you know, Eric Jeon got the base hit and then set it up for JJ’s hit.”
“It was definitely interesting,” Moran said of the format. “I didn’t know we were doing that until the 10th inning. So when they sent a guy out at second, I was little confused at first, but I thought it was pretty cool, actually. Adds a little bit of pressure on both teams right from the get-go and I thought that was really interesting, kinda fun.”
In the bottom of the 10th, Sasaki came out as Rashad Hayes came in to pinch run at second base. MacDonald would hit a sacrifice bunt to advance Hayes to third base. Jeon then got walked after which Teddy Tokheim struck out swinging. With two outs, Moran would hit an RBI single to bring home Hayes to tie it up 4-4. Charlie Bates then struck out swinging to end the bottom of the inning.
“Yeah, I think that just comes with a little bit with maturity,” Moran said of the clutch hitting. “Just as we’ve played more games, we’ve kind of learned how to manage these games and just be relentless regardless of what’s happening and regardless of what’s going our way and what’s not.”
In the 11th inning, neither team scored. Andrew Shaw came in to get the final out with a runner on third base. Shaw would force a fly out to end the top of the inning. A clutch pitch on a 1-0 count by Shaw.
“I just, you know, my mentality was that guy isn’t going to score by any means,” Shaw affirmed. “You know, I was going to make my pitches to make sure that he’s not scoring and to give my team the best chance to score and win the game. And I think, I threw a sinker first pitch that kind of ran on me a little too much and then I executed a changeup that got that fly ball…It was a good feeling, you know, knowing that I kind of, I was setting up my team for, in a good position to win and then, you know, I just did try to stay, you know, not too excited so I could stay mentally locked in to go back out there on the mound in the next inning.”
In the bottom of the 11th inning, Bates was placed on second base for the Cardinal only for him to not get advanced. Tatum Marsh came in to pinch hit and couldn’t execute the bunt to advance Bates to third base. After Cheong got intentionally walked (which I thought was crazy given his batting average), Luke Lavin would strike out swinging before Hayes fouled out behind home plate to end the inning.
“Yeah, absolutely, right?” Esquer admitted of their need to improve their bunting. “I mean there’s a couple. Cort got one down was good, but you know, Tatum in the clutch there, that was a tough one and didn’t get it down, but yeah, we could do better. But, you know, some of those young kids that came off the bench, Philip Cheong, had a you know, big hit, great throw from the outfield to keep that guy from scoring and you know, that was big for us.”
In the top of the 12th inning, Howard was placed on second base for the Aggies. Thanks to a sacrifice bunt from Mault, Howard advanced to third base. Lee then struck out swinging for the first out after which McNeal was walked intentionally. Jaxon Murphy then doubled to bring home Howard and advance McNeal to third base. Wooldridge then grounded out to first base to end the top of the inning. 5-4 the Aggies once again had the lead.
“Yeah, that was the first time I’ve had to deal with that,” Shaw said of pitching with a runner automatically placed on second base. “And I mean, it really didn’t change anything. Same thought process as always. I’m not going to allow any runs and I’m going to do everything I can to help my team out. I mean, it’s a little bit, you just have to be aware of the runner because especially with a bunt, that’s a bunt situation where they’re going to move him to third. So then most likely there’s going to be a runner on third. So it’s just knowing that I have a runner on third and that guy trying my best to make my pitches so that guy doesn’t score.”
In the bottom of the 12th, Stanford was able to walk it off. Hayes was placed on second base as the runner. MacDonald then singled to right field, advancing Hayes to third base. Jeon then singled to bring home Hayes and advance MacDonald to second base. That tied the game up 5-5. Tokheim then flied out to shallow right field for the first out. Up next to the plate would be Moran. Moran singled to right center on an 0-0 count, to bring home MacDonald from second base while Jeon advanced to third base. 6-5 the Cardinal pulled it, getting the win over the Aggies.
“Yeah, I had a lot of confidence going into that just based on the at-bats before,” Moran said of his walk-off hit. “I was ready for a fastball and just looking the other way and that’s exactly what I got. So I just shot it over the second baseman.”
For Stanford, this is a huge win. After sweeping No. 8 Florida State over the weekend, the last thing they wanted to do was have a letdown against UC Davis. To their credit, the Cardinal were able to dig deep and pull out this win. It wasn’t as easy of a win as they would have liked, but a win is a win. That’s all the matters. They move closer to the right side of the NCAA tournament bubble after getting their sixth straight win though they still have more work to do.
“Yeah, you know, some of those guys learning how to hit in the clutch,” Esquer said. “JJ Moran, Eric Jeon, they, you know, yesterday Rintaro, just the more guys you get to kind of relax in those moments when the game is on the line and it’s going to be big for us.”
“Yeah, I mean, I think that the pitchers have been doing an unbelievable job and have grown so much from where we started,” Shaw said. “I think we’re shocking a lot of people at the way we’re playing and you know, I’m just excited to keep the streak going. Florida State, that was a big series win, big series sweep, and you know, I think that we can definitely do that in the future and keep it going.”
While there was a lot of clutch hitting from many guys on the team, Moran was the hero of the extra innings. He stepped up big time and wasn’t afraid to deliver the goods when his team needed him to. Just an all-around great night from him.
“Yeah, just having the utmost confidence in each other and just as a team we’re a brotherhood and knowing that if you don’t get the job done, your brothers are going to get it done,” Moran said. “So, knowing that they’ve got your back, it relieves a lot of pressure for sure.”
As for Shaw, his pitching was just as clutch. He certainly earned his coffee to get the first win of his career. This is a performance that he should draw a lot of confidence from.
“Oh, it’s a great feeling,” Shaw said of getting his first career win. “Yeah, I’m just glad that we could get the win and it just so happened to be that it was me pitching in that situation. So yeah, it was a great feeling.”
“You know, those freshmen have been helping,” Esquer said. “Ketelsen wins three games last week and Shaw’s been helping us win games as well and Colt Peterson, you know, just those guys. Quinten Marsh today with the start and he, you know, had his probably, his best outing of the year. So those guys growing up a little bit has been big.”
Up next for Stanford is a road series at Notre Dame. That will begin on Friday, May 1st at 3:30 PM PT on ACCNX.
“You know what, I think Notre Dame is really capable,” Esquer said. “I think they’re, if we don’t play well, they’ll beat us. I think it’s just one of those typical ACC series that can go either way and you got to be ready to play well.”
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