This weekend, #9 Stanford baseball will take on the Washington Huskies up in Seattle. Stanford comes in at 24-12 overall and 11-7 in the Pac-12 while Washington comes in at 16-22 overall and 6-15 in the Pac-12. Friday’s game will be at 6:05 PM PT; Saturday’s game will be at 2:05 PM PT; and Sunday’s game will be at 1:05 PM PT. All three games will air on Washington Live Stream-2 and KZSU radio.
The probable pitching matchups are as follows: Stanford senior right-hander Alex Williams (5-1, 2.29 ERA) vs. Washington sophomore right-hander Jared Engman (2-5, 5.83 ERA) on Friday; Stanford sophomore left-hander Drew Dowd (4-0, 4.06 ERA) vs. Washington sophomore right-hander Calvin Kirchoff (2-2, 4.62 ERA) on Saturday; and TBD on Sunday.
Last time out: On Sunday, Stanford defeated San Diego State 6-4 to take three out of four games in their San Diego trip. As a result, Stanford improved from #12 to #9 in the latest USA TODAY Baseball Coaches Poll.
RECAP: #12 Stanford pulls ahead late to beat San Diego State
On Washington: The Huskies have been on off to a rough start this season and that shouldn’t come as a surprise since they were picked to finish 10th out of 11 teams in the Pac-12 pre-season poll. They’ve lost seven games in a row, getting swept by both Oregon and Oregon State while also following that up with a 2-6 road loss at nearby Seattle.
The top contact hitter on this Huskies team is redshirt sophomore catcher Johnny Tincher, who is batting .317 for four home runs, 20 RBIs, a .482 slugging percentage, and a .400 on base percentage. The top power hitter is redshirt sophomore infielder Will Simpson, who is batting .279 to go along with eight home runs, 30 RBIs, a .519 slugging percentage, and a .356 on base percentage. Outside of those two guys, the Huskies don’t have any other real stellar bats.
As a pitching staff, the Huskies have a 4.46 ERA compared to their opponents, whose pitching staffs have a 3.91 ERA against them on the year. The bottom line is this Huskies team struggles to get hits and put up runs while their pitching staff, while not bad, is not elite, either. Hence their struggles.
Prediction: Stanford has swept some schools at home this year (Arizona State & Washington State) but has not swept anybody on the road. This weekend could be their first road sweep of the year considering the losing streak Washington is coming in on combined with how well they have been playing as of late. I’m going to say Stanford finds a way to get the road sweep this weekend. This really is about as easy of a road sweep opportunity as they come and I think Stanford knows it. It’ll be interesting to see if they can get the job done.
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