This weekend, #5 Stanford baseball will begin their 2022 season against Cal State Fullerton in a three-game home series. Both teams come in at 0-0 overall. On Friday and Saturday, the opening pitch will be at 2:05 PM PT. On Sunday, the opening pitch will be at 1:05 PM PT. All three games will air on Stanford Live Stream-2 and KZSU radio.
Note: Ranking based on USA TODAY Sports baseball coaches poll.
On Cal State Fullerton: Last season the Titans went 20-35 overall and 13-23 in the Big West. They were picked to finish fifth in the 2022 Big West preseason coaches’ poll. Cal State Fullerton has had successful programs in the past, reaching the College World Series most recently in 2015 and 2017. With first-year head baseball coach Jason Dietrich at the helm, they are hoping to get back there in the near future.
Their top contact hitter is sophomore outfielder Caden Connor, who had a team-high 62 hits for 22 RBIs, a team-high .325 batting average., a team-high .417 on base percentage, and a .387 slugging percentage last season. Their top power hitter is senior catcher Austin Schell who along with then-junior infielder Josh Urps had a team-high 4 home runs (Urps transferred to Washington). It should be noted that Schell did this on just 90 at-bats in 37 games. So, per at-bat, Schell was by far and away the best home run hitter on the team. Schell also had a .278 batting average, a .350 on-base percentage, and a team-high .467 slugging percentage.
Pitching-wise, the Titans lost junior right-handed pitcher Tanner Bibee to the 2021 MLB Draft. Bibee was selected in the fifth round overall by the Cleveland Indians (now Cleveland Guardians). Bibee is a big loss as he was by far and away their best pitcher, posting a 7-6 record in 14 starts for a 3.61 ERA and 6.72 strikeouts per game. Their number two pitcher from last season, right-hander Kyle Luckham, transferred to Arizona State after a season in which he went 3-9 overall for a 5.25 ERA and 6.56 strikeouts per game. With those two guys gone, it’s a bit hard to figure out who the Titans are going to roll with on the mound. That’s certainly one of things to look for this season if you are a Titans fan.
Keys to the series: It’s clear that the Titans don’t have much of a pitching identity at the moment and Stanford needs to make the most of it. This is a series where junior outfielder Brock Jones could really go wild behind the plate and have a multi-home run series. If the Titans’ pitching is shaky and Stanford is taking full advantage of that, it should be a long series for the Titans.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is prevent the Titans from getting on base. The Titans don’t have a lot of power and so the only way they’re going to make things interesting is if they’re finding ways to get on base and make plays from there. Stanford has some pitching questions of their own with Brendan Beck now in the major leagues and right-handed pitcher Alex Williams taking over the opening starter role. So, this will be a good first test for Williams and the pitching staff to see if they can prevent the Titans from getting on base to the degree that they are used to.
Finally, Stanford needs to play a clean series. They’re the better team on paper and are coming in with a lot of expectations to get back to the College World Series and possibly make a run at the national title. When you are the more talented team, in any sport, the biggest equalizer can be mistakes. If Stanford plays a clean series, doesn’t have a lot of errors, and simply makes the right hits and reads, they should be fine. Playing cleaner than their opponents was a strength of theirs last year as they had 44 errors on the season in contrast to their opponents, who had 65.
Prediction: I do expect Stanford to win the series 3-0. They’re at home, they’re a top five/top ten team in the nation, and also picked first in the Pac-12. Just looking at how Cal State Fullerton did last season combined with where they are picked to finish in the Big West, it’s clear that Stanford is the heavy favorite coming in.
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