On Wednesday, #2 Stanford baseball defeated Pacific 15-5 on the road in Stockton. Stanford graduate student left-handed pitcher Nicolas Lopez (1-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal while Michael Defelippi (0-1) was the losing pitcher for the Tigers. Stanford improves to 6-2 overall while Pacific falls to 1-6.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Pacific
This one was one-way traffic for the Cardinal from the very beginning. In the top of the 1st inning, Eddie Park was walked after which Tommy Troy singled through the right side to advance Troy to second base. Carter Graham then reached on a fielder’s choice as Troy was out at second base while Park advanced to third base. Braden Montgomery then hit a sacrifice fly to right field to bring home Park and advance Graham to second base. Malcolm Moore then blasted one over the right field fence to bring home Graham. Stanford wouldn’t score any more runs the rest of the inning, giving them a 3-0 lead entering the bottom of the 1st inning.
In the bottom of the 1st inning, Pacific wasn’t able to get any runs as freshman righty Nick Dugan did a good job on the mound for the Cardinal. Dugan got the first two batters out via ground out and strike out. Rylan Evans would single through the left side and then steal second base after which Jeremy Lea was walked. However, Andrew Guida would fly out to center field to end the bottom of the inning.
In the top of 2nd inning, Park got walked with one out after which Troy doubled to left field to bring home Park. Graham then grounded out to third base, advancing Troy to third base. Montgomery then hit a home run to right center, bringing home Troy. Moore would hit a double down the right field line, but Drew Bowser struck out swinging to end the top of the inning. 6-0 lead for Stanford.
In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Jacob Weiss was walked after which Peyton Miller singled down the right field line to advance Weiss to third base. Tony Otis then reached on a fielder’s choice while Miller was out at second base while Weiss scored. Otis would then get out at second base as he was caught stealing. Stanford would give up one more single, but a fly out ended the inning. 6-1 lead for Stanford.
Neither team would score in the 3rd inning, though there were a pair of pitching changes. Marcus Guar came in to pitch for Pacific, replacing Cooper Lanz in the top of 3rd inning. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Lopez came in to pitch for Stanford, replacing Dugan.
In the top of the 4th inning, Ryan Martinez came into pitch for Lanz, hoping to give Pacific a different look on the mound. That didn’t work out too well as Stanford’s offense came alive once again. Troy got things going with a triple down the left field line before scoring on a wild pitch. Graham then reached on a fielding error before Montgomery hit another home run, bringing Graham home. Moore would then double down the right field line before getting stranded on second base as the next three batters failed to advance him. As a result, Stanford led 9-1 entering the bottom of the 4th inning.
Pacific would not score in the bottom of the 4th inning as Lopez made relatively easy work of their lineup. He did give up a walk and a single, but aside from that it was smooth sailing. 9-1 lead for Stanford at the end of the 4th inning.
In the 5th inning, neither team scored, but there were a pair of pitching changes. For Pacific, Jackson Ertz came in to pitch for Martinez. As for Stanford, Ryan Bruno came in for Lopez.
In the top of the 6th inning, Stanford’s offense added two more runs after another pitching change for Pacific: Tyler Stout came in to pitch for Ertz. Montgomery got walked after which Moore doubled to center field to bring home Montgomery. Bowser then singled up the middle to advance Moore to third base. Alberto Rios then hit into a double play which brought home Moore. Saborn Campbell then grounded out to the pitcher to end the top of the inning. 11-1 lead for Stanford. In the bottom of the 6th inning, Pacific would not score, keeping it an 11-1 game going into the 7th inning.
At this point, it was clear how this game was going to go. Stanford was pummeling Pacific and there wasn’t much the Tigers could do. Both teams would score four more runs to make it a 15-5 final.
Just to wrap up how Stanford scored those final four runs, Stanford scored three runs in the top of the 8th as Henry Gargus hit a three-run dinger to bring home Graham and Moore. In the top of the 9th, Stanford added one more run as Jimmy Nati came in to pinch hit for Graham before hitting a sacrifice fly to bring home Temo Becerra.
As for Pacific, they added one run in the bottom of the 7th, two runs in the bottom of the 8th, and one run in the bottom of the 9th They were able to pad their stats a bit, but it didn’t matter. Stanford won this one wire-to-wire with virtually no resistance.
For Pacific, this loss is a bummer, but it can’t be a shock to them. They’re not a very good team and Stanford is one of the top teams in the country. They had to know an offensive explosion could happen and that’s exactly what happened. They just gotta learn from this and get better for WCC play.
As for Stanford, this was a nice win because it came easy and they got their bats to heat up. Offense hasn’t come easy at times this season and so to have a game where they were able to get going on offense is good for them. This is the kind of game they can definitely benefit from.
Up next for Stanford is a home stand against CSU Bakersfield. The first game will be on Friday at 2:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio.
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