On Monday at 2:05 PM PT on ACCNX, No. 20 Stanford baseball will welcome San Jose State to Sunken Diamond. Stanford comes in at 15-6 overall and 5-4 in the ACC while San Jose State comes in at 15-8 overall and 4-2 in the Mountain West.
Last time out: Stanford fell to Cal on Sunday by a final score of 6-5. That made it a sweep for the Golden Bears, their first road sweep over the Cardinal in program history. Stanford fell from No. 14 in the nation to No. 20 in the D1Baseball rankings.
RECAP: No. 14 Stanford BSB gets swept by Cal at Sunken Diamond
Probable pitchers: Stanford freshman righty Parker Warner (0-1, 10.80 ERA) is the projected starting pitcher for the Cardinal, though head coach David Esquer said on Sunday they’re planning to give junior righty Nick Dugan (1-0, 13.50 ERA) some innings as well. So we’ll just have to see how exactly Stanford decides to use them both, but with Warner having three starts on the year and Dugan with zero, it is expected that Warner will get the start.
On San Jose State: The Spartans have had a solid season so far and come in with some momentum, winning five straight games including a three-game sweep over Air Force at home this past weekend. They’ve shown they can compete against power conference competition, taking two out of three against Utah in a series at home earlier this month.
The top contact hitter for the Spartans is senior outfielder Alex Fernandes, who is batting .411 for zero home runs, 11 RBIs, a .521 slugging percentage and a .537 on base percentage. The top power hitter is redshirt senior outfielder Jeriah Lewis, who is batting .247 for four home runs, 19 RBIs, a .457 slugging percentage, and a .360 on base percentage.
As a team, the Spartans are batting .275 for 13 home runs, 125 RBIs, 139 runs, a .391 slugging percentage, and a .360 on base percentage. Their opponents are batting .248 for 16 home runs, 94 RBIs, 112 runs, a .363 slugging percentage, and a .350 on base percentage. On the mound, the Spartans have a 4.36 ERA while their opponents have a 5.17 ERA.
Keys to the game: For Stanford, the first thing they need to do is they need their pitching to hold. In the first two games against Cal their pitching went off the rails, never giving the offense a chance to do its thing. These midweek games have historically been rough for Stanford due to the pitching going awry. That cannot continue if they want to win this game.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is they need to get some extra base hits. It feels like this past weekend, they were hitting singles aside from solo home runs. Stanford needs to get more extra base hits and build off those hits to generate runs in innings. If they can find that magic against San Jose State, that would be huge.
Finally, Stanford needs to tighten up their fielding. They didn’t field well against Cal, allowing the Bears to get some hits that they probably shouldn’t have gotten. People slipping in the outfield, etc. If Stanford can shore up their defense, that would be huge as they look to get this win.
Prediction: I could see today going either way. San Jose State is a solid team, coming in with some momentum while Stanford got swept by Cal over the weekend. I’ll tepidly pick Stanford to win by a final score of 8-7. They’re at home and should be motivated to get back in the win column.
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