On Monday, #24 Stanford baseball fell to #9 Arizona 10-3 on the road in Tucson to complete a three game series that Arizona swept. Arizona junior right-handed pitcher Quinn Flanagan (3-1) picked up the win for the Wildcats while freshman right-handed pitcher Ty Uber (1-1) was awarded the loss for the Cardinal. Arizona improves to 16-4 overall and 5-1 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 9-8 overall and 1-5 in the Pac-12.
Similar to the first two games of the series, Stanford got off to a strong start and an early lead. In the top of the 2nd inning, Stanford was the first team to strike as designated hitter Braden Montgomery hit a double down the right field line to get in scoring position with two outs. Short stop Adam Crampton then singled to right field to drive in Montgomery. Austin Kretzschmar flied out to end the top of the inning. 1-0 Stanford lead.
Arizona responded in the bottom of the 4th inning to tie the game up as 1st baseman Noah Turley got walked with two outs before a triple from center fielder Mac Bingham drove him home. 2nd baseman Tyler Casagrande was unable to bring in Bingham, making it a 1-1 game at the end of the 4th inning.
Stanford would score two runs in the top of the 5th inning as center fielder Brock Jones hit a triple down the right field line to drive home Crampton who was on second base after hitting a single and advancing thanks to Kretzschmar grounding out to third base. 1st baseman Brett Barrera would then double down the right field line to drive in Jones. 3rd baseman Drew Bowser would ground out to end the inning after right fielder Carter Graham got intentionally walked. 3-1 Stanford lead.
In the bottom of the 6th inning, Arizona would tie things up after left fielder Chase Davis hit a two run home run to drive in right fielder Tanner O’Tremba, who was walked in the opening at-bat. Arizona wouldn’t add any more runs in the bottom of the 6th making it a 3-3 game entering the 7th inning.
Stanford would be unable to score in the top of the 7th even though Kretzschmar got things going with a double. In the bottom of the 7th, that’s when things came off the rails for Stanford. They went with a pitching change, bringing in Ty Uber for Drew Dowd and that proved to be costly as the bases got loaded under Uber. Ryan Bruno then came in for Uber, hoping to get out of a jam and actually had Chase Davis at an 0-2 count with two outs. In the next pitch, Davis crushed it for a grand slam. 7-3 Arizona lead.
Then, Braden Montgomery came in to pitch after Bruno had back-to-back walks. Montgomery gave up a hit to Bingham, who drove in Tony Bullard. Then, Montgomery walked Casagrande to load up to the bases. With the bases loaded, Montgomery would then walk 3rd baseman Garen Caulfield which brought Turley home. 9-3 Arizona lead. Nik McClaughry would ground out to end the bottom of the 7th.
In the end, Arizona would add one more run in the bottom of the 8th to pad their stats and make it a 10-3 victory. The damage had been done for Stanford in the 7th inning in which they gave up six runs. Had Davis not hit that grand slam off Bruno, this game might have gone differently.
By getting swept, Stanford is in danger of falling outside the top 25 all together as they came into the game ranked #24, falling 13 spots thanks to the first two losses of the series. They really need to get into a groove and show they are the kind of team that everyone thought they could be at the beginning of the season. The biggest issue right now seems to be the bullpen. That needs to settle in and not fall apart late.
Also, Arizona deserves a ton of credit. They were ranked #9 coming into the game and backed up that ranking by completing the sweep. They had timely hitting, their bullpen held strong, and their starting pitching was good enough. Arizona should feel really good about how they played and have to be considered the favorites to win the Pac-12 at the moment.
Up next for Stanford is a home series against Washington State. The first game of that series will be on Friday at 6:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio.
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