Recap: Stanford Baseball wins rubber match at Louisville
On Sunday, Stanford baseball defeated Louisville on the road by a final score of 6-4 to take two out of three games, winning the series. Stanford righty Trevor Moore (5-1) was the winning pitcher in a relief role while Louisville lefty Aaron England (1-2) was the losing pitcher in a relief role. Stanford improves to 16-16 overall and 6-9 in the ACC while Louisville falls to 20-16 overall and 6-9 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Louisville at Stanford-Sunday, April 12th
Stanford was the first team to strike with Eric Jeon hitting an RBI single to left field with the bases loaded and one out to bring home Brady Reynolds and advance Cort MacDonald to third base and Tatum Marsh to second base. With two outs after Rintaro Sasaki flied out to right shallow field, Teddy Tokheim was walked, bringing home MacDonald. That made it 2-0. Charlie Bates flied out to center field to end the top of the inning.
Louisville would even things up 2-2 in the bottom of the 3rd inning as Stanford starting pitcher Nick Dugan was not able to finish the inning. Cohen Gomez had to come in for relief, giving up a two-RBI single to Tague Davis. Gomez was unable to finish the inning as Mike Erspamer had to get the final two outs, forcing a line out and ground out to keep it 2-2 at the end of the 3rd inning.
Louisville would add a run in the bottom of the 4th inning with Parker Warner now on the mound for Stanford. With one out, Lucas Moore was walked and then stole second base. Kade Elam singled up the middle to advance Moore to third base before Zach Davis reached on a fielder’s choice hit to second base, bringing home Moore with Elam out at second base. Griffin Crain then grounded out to second base to end the bottom of the 4th. 3-2 Louisville led.
In the bottom of the 5th, Louisville added one more run to make it 4-2 as Zion Rose came home via balk with Warner on the mound. Warner was able to get the final out to avoid a pitching change.
In the top of the 6th inning, Stanford added a run. Philip Cheong and Cort MacDonald hit back-to-back singles after which Marsh was walked to load up the bases. After Nolan Stoll struck out swinging, Jeon reached on a fielder’s choice as Cheong scored while MacDonald advanced to third base and Marsh was out at second base. That made it 4-3. Sasaki then struck out swinging to end the top of the inning.
Going into the 9th inning, it remained a 4-3 lead for Louisville. Jeon got walked to lead things off after which Sasaki singled through the right side to advance Jeon to third base. Tokheim then grounded into a double play. With only one out left, Stanford had no margin for error. Bates got walked to keep the inning alive after which JJ Moran went yard to left field to bring home Jeon and Bates. That made it a 6-4 lead for Stanford. Cheong then struck out swinging to end the top of the inning.
In the bottom of the 9th, Trevor Moore, who had been pitching since the 6th inning, closed the door on Louisville by forcing three straight ground outs to end the game. 6-4 Stanford got the win and took the series.
For Stanford, this is a huge win. They got dominated 10-0 on Saturday in a game that ended in seven innings after winning 12-2 on Friday. To bounce back like this and take the series has to give them a lot of confidence going into this final stretch of the season.
The next step for Stanford is to figure out how to be more consistent. They are at least having some good days and have been wining some series’. If they can be more consistent on the mound and get this pitching situation figured out, they could be a dangerous team in the ACC tournament given their bats.
Up next for Stanford is a home game against Santa Clara on Wednesday, April 15th at 6:05 PM PT on ESPN+. Stanford head coach David Esquer said the following about Santa Clara in advance of the game:
“Yeah, that’s after the Louisville series. Yeah, you know, Santa Clara, local, those Tuesdays. It’s going to be interesting to see how we can handle the Tuesday with how we’re pitching on the weekends. You know, we’re losing a lot of bodies, so it could leave us a little thin on a midweek, but you know, Santa Clara is always tough and plays us tough, so it’ll be a good match.”
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