This weekend, #5 Stanford baseball (3-1) will head to the Lone Star State for a four-game swing. The first three games will be part of the Karbach Round Rock Classic in Round Rock, Texas in which they’ll face Louisiana (3-1), #4 Arkansas (2-1), and Indiana (0-3) on Friday (10:00 AM PT), Saturday (2:00 PM PT), and Sunday (9:00 AM PT) respectively. On Monday, they’ll take on UTSA (2-1) in a true road game in San Antonio, Texas to wrap up the trip at 11:00 AM PT. All games of the Round Rock Classic will air on FloBaseball. At the moment, nothing is listed for how to watch the game at UTSA.
Last time out: Stanford defeated Santa Clara 5-0 on Tuesday. Freshman Ty Uber picked up his first career win in his first career start. Junior center fielder Brock Jones had 2 hits for 3 RBIs including a triple. Alex Reelfs of Santa Clara picked up the loss.
RECAP: #5 Stanford takes care of business against Santa Clara
On the opponents: Louisiana’s top three hitters from last year aren’t on the team this year, so they are going to need others to step up for them. Their top returning hitter is senior outfielder Connor Kimple, who hit .277 for 5 home runs and 26 RBIs to go along with a .353 on base percentage and a .435 slugging percentage. When looking at their pitching staff, it’s hard to figure out who’s gonna carry the load for them there. Sophomore right-handed pitcher Bo Bonds is off to a hot start with a win coming in relief against UC Irvine. After senior right-handed pitcher Jeff Wilson gave up three runs, Bonds pitched 3.1 scoreless innings along with five strikeouts, allowing Louisiana to hang on for a 5-3 victory.
Arkansas is the only top-25 team Stanford will face on this trip, so they’re on paper the most challenging opponent in this trip. The Razorbacks did drop their season opener at home to Illinois State 3-2 but bounced back to win the next two games of the series 5-1 and 4-2. Senior outfielder Brady Slavens is hitting .400 so far for 1 RBI and a .500 on base percentage and a .400 slugging percentage while junior infielder Robert Moore is hitting .364 for 1 home run, 3 RBIs, a .462 on base percentage and a team-high .909 slugging percentage. Freshman left-handed pitcher Hagen Smith is off to a great start with a 1-0 record and a 0.00 ERA in six innings pitched.
Indiana is off to a rough start, getting swept by Clemson on the road. Redshirt sophomore outfielder Bobby Whalen and freshman catcher Brock Tibbitts are both batting .429 so far this year as well as a .571 slugging percentage. Tibbits has 2 RBIs in 7 at bats while Whalen has 1 RBI in 14 at bats. Neither guy has a home run this year, so they’ve been hitting much more for contact, doing a nice job of getting on base. Indiana has done a decent job with power, hitting three home runs in each of their three games.
The top pitcher so far for the Hoosiers is senior right handed pitcher Braydon Tucker out of Brazil, a city in Indiana. Not the country. In the loss he picked up, Tucker had an admirable outing with a 3.38 ERA. The other two pitchers who picked up a loss for Indiana had ERAs of 13.50 and 15.00.
As for UTSA, graduate student outfielder Ian Bailey is hitting .500 for 5 RBIs and 1 home run to go along with a .467 on base percentage and a .917 slugging percentage. Senior outfielder Chase Keng is hitting .417 for 5 RBIs and 1 home run as well. His on base percentage is .533 while his slugging percentage is .750. Their top pitcher so far is senior right-handed pitcher Jacob Jimenez, who pitched five scoreless innings in his win over Tarleton State. UTSA went 2-1 in that series.
Keys to the road trip: For Stanford, the first key to having a successful road trip is to get steady pitching throughout. Head coach David Esquer said earlier this week that pitching and defense are going to be the keys to their success this year. Something that will need to be a constant for them. If Stanford’s pitching staff delivers the goods, if everyone is able to do their part, and nobody gets rattled, they should be fine.
Obviously, Stanford is still figuring some things out. How to make the most of Braden Montgomery’s closing abilities, where does Quinn Mathews fit, etc. But overall, the pitching has been solid as Stanford has a 3.00 collective ERA on the season so far. It’s just a matter of everyone settling into their role and feeling comfortable with it.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is get a big weekend out of Brock Jones. He’s their star outfielder and when you go on the road, your stars need to perform at a high level. It’s not a case where only he needs to step up. It’s a team sport and he’s going to need to get support, but if he can set the tone and get going, others should feed off that.
Finally, Stanford needs to get off to a good start in each of their games. They’re at a bit of a disadvantage with the games being played at very early times relative to their body clocks and it’ll also be pretty cold. These are games where it could be easy for Stanford to fall behind early and not get off to great starts. If they can establish a nice flow early and get their bats going, I like their chances to have a good trip.
Prediction: This is going to be a challenging trip for Stanford. Arkansas is an elite team and will be a tough opponent for Stanford to beat alone. On top of that, winning the other three games will be a challenge as well. Honestly, if Stanford can go 2-2 on this trip, that’d be totally fine. 3-1 or better would be excellent. Given it’s early in the year and it’s their first road test, I’m going to say Stanford goes 2-2 this weekend. I see Arkansas beating them while they take two out of the other three games.
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