On Tuesday, #11 Stanford baseball will welcome UC Davis to The Farm, looking to bounce back from a rough weekend in which they lost two of three games at Washington. The game will begin at 6:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio. Stanford comes in at 25-14 overall and 12-9 in the Pac-12 while UC Davis comes in at 4-23 overall and 3-15 in the Big West.
Last time out: On Sunday, Stanford blew a 9th inning lead at Washington to lose the series-deciding game. Stanford fell from #9 to #11 in the latest USA TODAY Baseball Coaches Poll as a result.
RECAP: #9 Stanford falls apart in the 9th to lose series at Washington
On UC Davis: As is evident by their record, the Aggies are a horrible team. No kind way to put this. Their overall record is abysmal and their Big West record is equally pathetic. They’re having a brutal year and have quite a mountain to climb if they’re going to shock the world at Sunken Diamond.
Their top contact hitter is freshman outfielder Mark Wolbert, who is hitting .344 on the year to go along with two home runs and 12 RBIs. Wolbert has a .531 slugging percentage and a .418 on base percentage. Their top power hitter is freshman infielder Nick Leehey, who is hitting .283 to go along with four home runs and 22 RBIs. Leehey has a .472 slugging percentage and a .366 on base percentage.
While their bats aren’t that great, it’s really their pitching that has been a struggle. UC Davis’ pitching staff has a 7.59 ERA. Among pitchers with 10+ innings pitched, Bryan Green has the best ERA on the team with a 4.59 ERA in 49.0 innings pitched. In short, this Aggies team struggles in basically every department. That’s why their record is so bad.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is get off to a good start pitching-wise. That’s been an issue for them on Tuesdays. If they can get off to a strong start and not allow UC Davis to be the first team to score, that should go a long way towards securing a victory.
Secondly, this is a game where Stanford’s bats alone should get the win. Even if their pitching is off, Stanford should still be able to put up a ton of runs on the Aggies and blow them out of the water. If their hitting is up to the level that it should be, Stanford should be fine.
Lastly, Stanford needs to play relaxed. When you are playing a team as inferior as UC Davis is, it can be easy to get nervous and feel like you have to win. If Stanford doesn’t let the pressure get to them and they just play their game, they should win this game with little trouble.
Prediction: Stanford is at home and they’re coming off a frustrating road swing at Washington. UC Davis is terrible and really shouldn’t be even close to making this game interesting. While Stanford has had some shaky Tuesdays, I expect this one to go rather smoothly for them. Stanford 10 UC Davis 3 is how I see this one shaking out.
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