On Sunday, #4 Stanford baseball fell to Arizona on Senior Day by a final score of 21-20. Arizona senior right-handed pitcher Chris Barraza (4-2) was the winning pitcher for the Wildcats in a relief role while Stanford junior left-handed pitcher Ryan Bruno (2-1) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role. Arizona improves to 28-22 overall and 10-17 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 34-14 overall and 20-7 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Arizona at Stanford-Sunday, May 14
“Yeah, it was an old Six-Pac Sunday,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “Reminded me when I was playing and we had the old Six-Pac where it was just a lot of runs gonna be scored, deep in the bullpen, so it was just one of those games that just happened. We weren’t able to hold them and they weren’t able to stop us, either. Not until the very end. It came down to the last hitter of the game.”
As you can tell by the final score, this game was wild. A lot of twists and turns with both teams doing an amazing job of coming back from the dead. While this game did not display much in the way of pitching, the hitting was phenomenal.
In the top of the 1st inning, Arizona scored by way of Chase Davis hitting a three-run homer to right field, giving them a 3-0 lead. Stanford responded in the bottom of the 1st as Alberto Rios hit an RBI single down the left field line to bring home Tommy Troy after which Malcolm Moore doubled down the right field line to bring home Montgomery. It was a 3-2 game at the end of the 1st.
In the 2nd inning, neither team scored nor was there a pitching change. Nick Dugan remained on the mound for the Cardinal while Aiden May stayed on the mound for the Wildcats. It remained 3-2 at the end of the inning.
“He may be a guy down the line that may have to start a game,” Esquer said of Dugan. “Whether it’s an if-necessary game somewhere down the line, we’re trying to get Matt Scott going again and so, just trying to use him in a different role, see if we can kinda kick start him some. So, it was either him or just one of the other bullpen pieces, really.”
In the top of the 3rd inning, Arizona scored five runs. Kiko Romero hit an RBI single through the right side to bring home Nik McClaughry after which Emilio Corona hit an RBI single to bring home Davis. This ended Dugan’s day on the mound as Matt Scott came in to pitch. That didn’t make things better as Scott immediately gave up a three-run dinger to Mason White. Arizona led 8-2 entering the bottom of the 3rd.
In the bottom of the 3rd, Stanford added three runs. Alberto Rios hit a double to left field to bring home Braden Montgomery and Carter Graham for the first two runs after which Moore singled up the middle to bring home Rios. At the end of the 3rd inning, Arizona led 8-5.
In the top of the 4th, Arizona added one run as Romero flied out to right field for the second out of the inning to bring home McClaughry. This made it a 9-5 game entering the bottom of the 4th.
In the bottom of the 4th, Stanford added four runs. Graham singled to center field to bring home Troy to make it 9-6. After Graham’s RBI, May’s day on the mound was done for Arizona as Dawson Netz came in to pitch. After Montgomery reached first base via fielder’s choice as Graham was out at second base, Rios homered to left field to bring home Montgomery. In the next at-bat, Moore hit a solo shot to right center. As a result, the game was now tied 9-9.
In the top of the 5th inning, Arizona added seven runs, once again putting the Cardinal in a hole. Ty Uber made his return to the mound for the Cardinal after being out for about a month as Scott’s day was done. Tony Bullard hit an RBI single to right center to bring home White for the first run of the inning. After Uber loaded up the bases, Max Meier came in to pitch.
Meier immediately walked Davis to bring home a run after which Romero hit a grand slam to right field. After Corona hit a double to left center, White doubled to left center to bring home Corona. Bullard then struck out to end the top of the inning. 16-9 lead for Arizona.
Stanford would not score in the bottom of the 5th inning as Casey Hintz came in to pitch for Netz. Hintz secured three straight ground outs to keep it at 16-9.
In the top of the 6th, Stanford made another pitching change as Toran O’Harran came in to pitch for Meier. O’Harran did alright as he didn’t give up any runs in the inning. In the bottom of the 6th, Stanford added one run as Rios hit a solo blast to center field. It was now a 16-10 game.
In the top of the 7th inning, O’Harran once again held Arizona scoreless, keeping it at 16-10. In the bottom of the 7th, Stanford added another run as Eddie Park hit a solo homer to right field. It was now 16-11 at the end of the inning.
In the top of the 8th inning, Arizona added two more runs. With Nik McClaughry and Tommy Splaine on base, O’Harran’s day on the mound was done as Nicolas Lopez came in to pitch for him. Lopez immediately gave up a triple to Davis, who punched the ball down the right field line. This brought both runners home, making it an 18-11 game.
In the bottom of the 8th, Arizona made a pitching change after Graham hit a single and advanced to second base on a wild pitch after which Montgomery was walked. Hintz came out and was replaced by Trevor Long. After Rios grounded out to advance both runners, Moore was walked to load up the bases. Then, Drew Bowser hit a grand slam to left field, making it an 18-15 game. Stanford wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning, but they at least had a pulse.
“You just don’t want them to get out of themselves,” Esquer said of the key to the hitting. “We can’t hit a seven-run homer, right? So we utilize getting guys on base and then trying to build an inning and hey, if the situation called for it, just drive a ball. But, let’s not make three outs trying to hit a seven run homer.”
Ryan Bruno came in to pitch for Stanford in the top of the 9th and did his job by keeping the Wildcats scoreless. In the bottom of the 9th with Barraza now on the mound, Rios hit a three-run homer to left field, tying up the game at 18 apiece. After Moore grounded out to short stop, the game went into extra innings.
“Yeah, not really,” Esquer said when asked if there was any thought of bringing Bruno in sooner. “Not unless the game was close. If we could get away, we would have not used him. And so, just when the game got close, really. We tried to sneak a couple guys, get an inning out of them earlier in the game and that didn’t work out. And then the game separated, right? So in the 5th or so, I think they got the seven and so then we’re out of Dowd and Bruno range at that point, Pancer already had been used, so we were a little limited unless the game stayed close.”
In the top of the 10th inning, Arizona went up 21-18 after Corona hit a three-run home run to left field. The Wildcats just needed to hang on in the bottom of the inning with a three run lead.
Stanford got really close to coming back again as a triple by Tommy Troy with two outs brought home Eddie Park and Owen Cobb. This made it 21-20. However, Graham struck out swinging to end the game. The Wildcats escaped with a one run victory.
For Stanford this loss is disappointing given they scored 20 runs and still lost. The offense was phenomenal while the pitching was filled with holes like Swiss cheese. Had the pitching even been able to keep the Wildcats at 18 runs, the Cardinal would have escaped with a win.
“Well, we don’t want to make much out of it,” Esquer said. “It’s a game lost and that stings, but God, we did a great job of just continuing to fight back and just get off the mat. We made it really difficult for them to beat us. So, we just want to be hard to beat and not beat ourselves. And so, we’ll just try to take it in stride.”
On the bright side, Stanford still won the series and in the process became Pac-12 champions for a second straight season. They know they’ll be the top seed in the Pac-12 Tournament and so in that vein, they should still be feeling really good.
“We work really hard just to be who we are,” Esquer said. “And when we step on the field, we try to just be who we are continuously and not deviate from that. And so, they did a great job of that. Just continued to get up there and guys having good at-bats and fighting. Other than some at-bats our pitching wasn’t able to hold them, but it’s just one of those games. We can’t necessarily always point to the pitching because we lost some games where we only scored one or two runs, too.”
At this point, all that Stanford can do is move on from this game and get ready for a tough road series at Washington State. Game one will be on Thursday at 7:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Bay Area.
“It’s gonna be tough,” Esquer said of playing in Pullman. “They’re good there. They’re very good there. So, we’re gonna have to be on our game and we haven’t finished this thing out as far as giving ourselves the best chance to host a playoff game. So, we can’t go there and stumble and prove unworthy of hosting.”
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