This weekend, Stanford baseball will welcome #16 Oregon to Sunken Diamond for a three game series. Stanford comes in at 15-19 overall and 7-8 in the Pac-12 while Oregon comes in at 26-10 overall and 10-5 in the Pac-12.
Game one will be on Friday at 6:05 PM PT. Game two will be on the Saturday at 2:05 PM PT. Game three will be on Sunday at 1:05 PM PT. All three games will air on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio.
Probable pitchers: On Friday, the starting pitching matchup is Stanford righty Matt Scott (2-6, 3.93 ERA, 74K) vs. Oregon redshirt junior righty RJ Gordon (5-2, 3.58 ERA, 48K).
On Saturday, the starting pitching matchup is Stanford freshman lefty Christian Lim (3-3, 2.98 ERA, 58K) vs. Oregon sophomore lefty Grayson Grinsell (4-2, 3.76 ERA, 53K).
On Sunday, Stanford’s starting pitcher is TBD while Oregon will start senior righty Kevin Seitter (4-1, 4.63 ERA, 47K).
Last time out: Stanford defeated Sacramento State 12-8 on Tuesday. Temo Becerra led the way for the Cardinal with four RBIs.
RECAP: Stanford BSB gets revenge against Sacramento State
On Oregon: The Ducks are having a strong season as their ranking and record suggests. They are coming off a 14-9 Tuesday win over Gonzaga that was played at home and before that, they took two out of three games against USC at home. They will be eying a comfortable series victory against Stanford and so the Cardinal better bring it.
The top contact hitter for the Ducks is junior outfielder Jeffery Heard, who is batting .331 for three home runs and 23 RBIs to go along with a .531 slugging percentage and a .408 on base percentage. The top power hitter is junior 1st baseman Jacob Walsh, who is batting .290 for 14 home runs and 41 RBIs to go along with a .672 slugging percentage and a .389 on base percentage.
As a team, the Ducks are batting .293 for 53 home runs, 265 runs, and 238 RBIs for a .490 slugging percentage and a .397 on base percentage while their opponents are batting .242 for 40 home runs, 191 runs, and 171 RBIs for a .408 slugging percentage and a .357 on base percentage.
Keys to the series: The first thing Stanford needs to do is give Matt Scott enough run support. That’s been an issue all season for them. At times, he’s been a little shaky, but he’s overall been solid. Stanford really needs to make sure they give their Friday night arm the run support that he deserves. Same for all the pitchers of course, but if they could win on Friday with Scott starting, that would give them a nice boost into Saturday and Sunday.
The second thing Stanford needs to do play clean baseball on defense. They can’t expect to win this series if they are committing errors and playing sloppy. The fielding in the infield in particular has been a challenge at times. They need to be playing well up front.
Finally, they just need to keep getting hits. The bats have been alive the last couple of games against Oregon State and Sacramento State. That needs to continue this weekend against a very good Ducks team.
Prediction: I’m gonna go out on a limb here and pick Stanford to take two out of three. They seem to be finding a bit of a groove as of late and then on top of that they are at home. I expect it to be close, but Stanford finding a way to win the series.
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