On Friday, #11 Stanford baseball defeated Cal 6-2 to take the first game of their three-game weekend series on The Farm. Alex Williams (6-1) was the winning pitcher for Stanford, giving up zero earned runs in 8.1 innings pitched. Quinn Mathews pitched the final 0.2 innings in a non-save situation. Steven Zobac (2-3) was the losing pitcher for Cal. Stanford improves to 27-14 overall and 13-9 in the Pac-12 while Cal falls to 22-23 overall and 11-14 in the Pac-12.
“Well, my message was I was proud of them because I thought they prepared well for it,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “I thought they prepared, I thought their focus in the middle of the game was good, I thought they were competitive, and for the most part we played well. Made a couple mistakes there, but I think if we came out with that intent every day, I’d take my chances playing anybody.”
Cal was the first team to strike in this game, scoring in the top of the 1st inning. Nathan Martorella hit a single to right center for the Bears to get things going. After Dylan Beavers struck out looking, Hance Smith reached first base thanks to an error, advancing Martorella to third base. Caleb Lomavita then reached first base on a fielder’s choice as Smith was out at second base while Martorella came home to score. The top of the inning would end with Lomavita getting picked off at first base.
Stanford quickly responded in the bottom of the 1st inning to even things up. After Brock Jones grounded out to Zobac for the first out, Carter Graham blasted the ball over the right field fence to make it a 1-1 game. Brett Barrera and Braden Montgomery both failed to get on base afterwards, but Stanford at least tied things up and didn’t allow Cal to leave the 1st inning with a lead.
“So, a big part of that was Alex keeping his composure, being able to respond to that right away,” Huff said when asked about quickly tying up the game. “It’s not easy giving up a run or more in the first inning and I think that’s kind of our identity as a team a little bit is you know, if the other team throws a punch early, we gotta be able to wear that punch and throw one right back and I think we’re really starting to turn the page on that, being an aggressive team and going to get the ball a little bit. From pitch one, we were ready to swing it and I think we took it to them a little bit and we’re gonna keep that going this weekend for sure.”
After Williams made quick work of Cal’s lineup in the top of the 2nd inning, nobody getting on base, Stanford went back to work in the bottom of the 2nd. With two outs, Eddie Park singled to left field and advanced to second base on an error. Tommy Troy then hit a double down the left field line to bring home Park. Adam Crampton would strike out to end the inning, but Stanford now had a 2-1 lead at the end of the 2nd inning.
Aside from Martorella hitting a single to center field, nobody else from Cal was able to get on base in the top of the 3rd inning thanks to Williams’ stellar pitching. Beavers struck out looking for a second time to end the inning. When you’re striking out Beavers, you know you’re in the zone.
“I think what was working well was just filling it up,” Williams said. “I was filling up the zone really well especially with my fastball and I was able to throw pretty much all four pitches for strikes today, which was really cool to see. And at the end of the day these guys are good hitters, they made some at-bats tough on me, they refused to punch out sometimes, but I think just being able to fill up the zone and constantly just let my defense go to work is the key.”
In the bottom of the 3rd, Stanford once again looked to add more runs and they did. Jones singled to right field to get things going. After Graham lined out to center field, Barrera would get walked to advance Jones to second base. Montgomery would then fly out to center field to make it two outs. Up next at the plate was Kody Huff, who proceeded to hit a home run to left field to make it a 5-1 lead. Drew Bowser grounded out to end the inning in the following at-bat.
“Well you know what, we gotta pass the baton to everybody,” Esquer said. “We can’t count on one guy to kinda carry our offense. So, we talk about having a different hero every night and tonight was Kody Huff’s turn.”
“Yeah, I thought I was seeing it well,” Huff said of his hitting. “I was just trying to hit the ball hard. As hard as I could every at-bat when I was going up there. Just trying to be aggressive, put the ball in play early, and make things happen.”
The 4th inning went by quickly as neither team was able to get on base. Both pitchers did a good job of keeping the opposing batters in check. In the top of the 5th inning, it was more of the same as Williams once again secured three quick outs.
“Honestly, hey, attack each guy at a time,” Williams said of the key to pitching deep into games. “Like, Eager likes to tell us hey, beat this guy and then beat the next guy and then don’t even think about the seventh or eighth or ninth. You just gotta attack one guy at a time and then obviously once you get to the seventh and eighth, that’s when you start sniffing it a little bit like oh, I might be able to go the whole way. I’d definitely say the hardest ones are like the four through the six. Once you get to the seventh it’s just cruising after that.”
The bottom of the 5th inning looked like it might go the same way as Jones flied out to center field and Graham struck out swinging for two quick outs. However, things changed as Barrera singled to right center and advanced to second base on an error. With Barrera in scoring position, Montgomery singled to right field to bring Barrera home. Huff struck out swinging in the next at-bat to end the inning. It was now a 6-1 Stanford lead.
The next three innings would be quiet as neither team scored or really got close to doing so. The only guy to get on base during this stretch was Huff in the bottom of the 8th, who singled to right field with two outs. Cal did make a pitching change in the bottom of the 7th inning, taking out Zobac and bringing in Mitchell Scott.
“Yeah, I thought the whole defense as a unit, me and Alex were really working together on the same page,” Huff said. “I thought he really had his best stuff. He stayed aggressive in the zone, which was big. They’re a free swinging team and I thought he was really aggressive to his strengths and that helped us a lot.”
In the top of the 9th inning, Alex Williams went back on the mound for Stanford, hoping to pitch a complete game. He was able to get the first out of the inning, but Cal fouled off a lot of balls and extended his pitch count, making a complete game no longer possible. With Dom Souto on third base and Dylan Beavers on first base and only one out, that’s when Esquer decided to pull Williams and bring in Quinn Mathews to finish the job. Cal would add one more run in the top of the 9th, but Mathews was able to get the job done in the end with little trouble as 6-2 would be the final score.
“Great effort,” Esquer said of Williams. “That’s a tough lineup. That’s a very good offensive team. And you know, very similar to us offensively and I think they’re really good. I think it’s a hard lineup to navigate. Those two guys at the top Martorella and Beavers are as good as anybody in the league one two. So, I thought Alex did a great job.
“Well, he [Williams] wanted to go out for the ninth. We could have relieved going into the top of the ninth, but Alex wanted to go out there and then unfortunately they were fouling off a bunch of pitches, ran his pitch count up a little bit, so we knew he wasn’t going to finish. But, that’s ok, he did a great job for us.”
“Oh man, I was feeling pretty good,” Williams added. “Things were working, getting weak contact left and right and honestly, I’m not gonna lie, I really wanted to finish that game. I did. But, pitch count got too high and at the end of the day, I’d gladly hand it off to Quinn to finish it for me, so I think it was the best for the team and best for me personally as well.
“There’s certain situations, where on third, less than two outs, I’m definitely going for the punch out. But at the end of the day I’m really just trying to get early weak contact as much as possible. If I let my defense go to work and keep my pitch count down, it’ll allow me to go deeper into games and that’s what I was able to do today. Didn’t really worry about the punch out too much, I mean, high punch out means high pitch count and then you’re out of the game earlier. So, really just trying to get early weak contact.”
For Stanford this is a really nice win. To win the first game of a series is really nice as it takes off a lot of pressure going into Saturday. On top of that, it’s a rivalry game and it always feels good to beat your rival. Stanford has a nice blend of hitting and pitching in this game. The bats came alive when they needed to and the pitching of Williams and Mathews at the very end was fantastic. Mathews finished with seven strikeouts and while he didn’t pitch a complete game, it was still one of his most dominating performances of the season.
“It feels good, I’ve never actually gotten a win against these guys,” Williams said of beating Cal. “It was my first win against them. So it feels good. I guess, I don’t think the rivalry is too crazy. I think they don’t like us more than we don’t like them, but that’s ok. But it feels good to just get the weekend started off right and excited to get my first win against these guys for sure.”
“This was about just as calm and as in the moment as I’ve felt this year and it really helps having a nice crowd show out against an opponent like Cal,” Huff added. “I think that really helps us kinda see our supporters in the stands being loud and being behind us and I think that’s a big deal. I’ve heard it’s supposed to be a sold out crowd tomorrow night, so I’m really looking forward to that and I think kinda that home field is a really big deal for us and so I appreciate everyone coming out and I think that’ll be big for us this weekend. It’s a big rivalry series. I think no matter how good either of us are each year, the Cal series is really gonna be a dog fight for all three games. So, I expect the same this series. They’re a good team, we’re a good team. So, it'll be a good fight.”
As for Cal, this loss is disappointing. Usually for the Bears, if they leave it to Beavers, good things happen, but tonight he was not feeling it. He went 1-4 and struck out twice. While Williams deserves a good amount of credit for Beavers building up a dam of strikeouts, Beavers still has to find a way to step up in a game like this. When he’s off, it’s hard for Cal to generate the kind of offense that they need.
Up next is game two on Saturday. That game will begin at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Bay Area and KZSU radio. Stanford lefty Drew Dowd (5-0, 3.83 ERA) and Cal righty Joseph King (3-3, 3.88 ERA) is the projected matchup.
“We’re gonna have to pitch,” Esquer said of Saturday’s matchup. “We’re gonna have to pitch it well and stay competitive offensively because again like I said, that’s a formidable lineup offensively and they’ve got some good arms on the mound and good arms in the bullpen, so we’re gonna have to play a complete game again.”
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