On Tuesday at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Bay Area and KZSU radio, Stanford baseball will take on the Santa Clara Broncos at home. This will be first of two games the teams will play this season. The second game will be played on Tuesday, May 17th at Santa Clara. Stanford comes in at 2-1 overall while Santa Clara comes in at 1-2.
Last time out: Stanford defeated Cal State Fullerton 11-1 on Sunday at home, taking two out of three games in their weekend series. Stanford freshman Braden Montgomery hit two home runs and had 6 RBIs, accounting for more than half of Stanford’s run total.
RECAP: Bats come alive for Stanford in Sunday win over CSU-Fullerton
On Santa Clara: The Broncos are coming off a three-game series at USC, losing the first two games of the series before winning the final game 9-7. Santa Clara was picked to finish 9th in the WCC preseason coaches’ poll, so they’re expected to have a down year. That said, by picking up a win over a Pac-12 team picked to finish near the middle of the conference, that shows they’re not a team that you can totally overlook.
Senior infielder/outfielder Matt Jew is off to a hot start this season, sporting a .416 batting average and .833 slugging percentage against the Trojans in 12 at bats. He had 5 hits, 1 home run, and 3 RBIs. Another guy who had a strong series was redshirt freshman outfielder Michael Mugan, who in 7 at bats accumulated 4 hits and 4 RBIs for a .571 batting average and .714 slugging percentage.
Through their three games against USC, Santa Clara averaged 4.7 runs per game, for a .271 batting average and a .336 slugging percentage. USC averaged 5.3 runs per game for a .234 batting average and a .351 slugging percentage. Pitching-wise, Santa Clara totaled a 2.88 ERA and 8.64 strikeouts per nine innings.
Keys to the game: The first thing Stanford needs to do is pretty obvious: Get hits. They struggled the first two games of the series against Cal State Fullerton before their offense finally came alive. If they are able to get going offensively, they should be fine. To expand on this a bit further, it would be really nice for them if they could at least get a run or two by the 4th inning. Baseball is a game of momentum and flow and the longer you go without scoring a run, the harder it becomes to flip that switch.
The second thing Stanford needs to do is keep Matt Jew and Michael Mugan in check. Those two guys had a big series at USC and will look to heat up tonight. If Stanford’s pitching can give those guys trouble all night, Santa Clara will be hard pressed to generate enough offense.
Finally, it would be nice if Brock Jones could get rolling for Stanford. He’s been pretty quiet thus far: .250 batting average, 2 hits, 0 home runs, and 0 RBIs. In a one game situation like this, you need your stars to step up. If Jones has a big night, Stanford should win this game. If he’s quiet again, this one could get interesting.
Prediction: On paper, Stanford should win tonight. They’re picked first in the Pac-12 preseason coaches’ poll, they’re at home, etc. So, I’m going to pick them to win tonight, but I think it’ll be a closer game than what we saw on Sunday. Stanford 6 Santa Clara 2 is my prediction for tonight.
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