After losing on Friday night by a final score of 4-3, #5 Stanford baseball fell to Oregon on Saturday by a final score of 16-13. Oregon sophomore left-handed pitcher Rio Britton (2-0) picked up the win while Stanford freshman right fielder/right-handed pitcher Braden Montgomery (0-1) picked up the loss. Oregon improves to 10-5 overall and 2-0 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 8-5 overall and 0-2 in the Pac-12.
“Well, that’s a tough, hey when things aren’t going great for ya or you’re kinda struggling with the game, you get a night where you pitch maybe enough and don’t hit enough and then you get a night where you hit enough and don’t pitch enough,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “So, that’s a tough win. They did a great job. I don’t think I’ve lost two games when we’ve probably struck out the opponent over thirty times, right? But it happened. It happened. We’re 0-2 and I think we punched them out over thirty times.
“So, hey, they have a tough lineup because they’ve had very timely hitting and they kinda hung in the game, right? They’re down nine [to] three and just kinda hung in there. We did not do a good job of being kinda constant and a little relentless with our offense. Which we have to do. And we paid the price. This was kind of an old six-Pac type of baseball game. When the old six-Pac used to be Stanford, Cal, USC, UCLA, you could get in some slugfests.”
After holding Oregon scoreless in the bottom of the 1st inning, Stanford erupted for four runs in the bottom of the 1st. Center fielder Brock Jones doubled to right field to get things going and then 3rd baseman Drew Bowser singled to left field, advancing Jones to third base. Designated hitter Brett Barrera then doubled to right field, driving in Jones and advancing Bowser to third base. 1st baseman Carter Graham would then hit a three-run home run to make it a 4-0 Stanford lead. After that, the bats went quiet for Stanford as catcher Kody Huff, Braden Montgomery, left fielder Eddie Park, and 2nd baseman Tommy Troy were unable to score any more runs.
In the top of the 2nd inning, Oregon responded with three runs with right fielder Anthony Hall leading things off by getting hit by a pitch. 3rd baseman Sam Novitske then singled down the left field line, advancing Hall to 3rd base. Sophomore catcher Jack Scanlon then hit a three-run home run to make it a 4-3 game. After that, Oregon’s bats went quiet the rest of the inning as well.
Stanford got right back to work in the bottom of the 2nd inning, scoring four more runs. Short stop Adam Crampton, Brock Jones, and Drew Bowser each got walked to load up the bases with no outs. Barrera would then reach first base on fielder’s choice as Crampton was out at home plate. Graham would then double to center field to drive in Bowser and Jones. Huff would then hit a single to drive in Barrera before Montgomery hit a single through the right side to drive in Graham. Park and Crampton were unable to keep the mojo going, making it an 8-3 Stanford lead at the end of the 2nd inning.
Stanford would hold Oregon scoreless in the top of the 3rd inning before adding one more run in the bottom of the 3rd. With two outs, Barrera on first base and Bowser on second base, Huff singled up the middle to drive in Bowser. That would be all she wrote for the 3rd inning for Stanford, but now they were up 9-3.
Oregon would quickly respond, scoring a run in the top of the 4th inning. With two outs and left fielder Tanner Smith at first base and Jack Scanlon at third base, Quinn Mathews threw a wild pitch, allowing Scanlon to score. Center fielder Colby Shade would ground out to end the inning. That would make it a 9-4 Stanford lead. Stanford would be unable to add more runs in the bottom of the 4th.
Oregon would add four runs in the top of the 5th inning as designated hitter Brennan Milone reached first base thanks to a fielding error before reaching second base on a passed ball after a strike out. Short stop Josh Kasevich would then get walked to put two men on base. Hall would then hit a double before reaching third base on an error, driving in Milone and Kasevich. Novitske would then hit a single to drive in Hall.
After that, Esquer pulled Mathews and had Joey Dixon come in, hoping a new pitcher would do better. Dixon would strike out Scanlon in his first at bat before giving up a triple to junior infielder Gavin Grant that drove in Novitske. Smith would then fly out to left field to end the inning. It was now a 9-8 Stanford lead entering the 6th inning.
In the 6th and 7th innings, neither team scored, making it a 9-8 Stanford lead entering the 8th inning. The 8th inning is where Oregon really did their damage, scoring six runs. After Smith hit a single, Esquer brought in Tommy O’Rourke for Ty Uber, hoping a pitching change would cool the Oregon bats. Smith would advance to second base on a sacrifice bunt and then get to third base thanks to a wild pitch.
“You’re trying to find the hot hand a little bit,” Esquer said of the pitching changes. “And they weren’t letting anybody be the hot hand. Unfortunately, we kinda allowed some of their back line pitching to be hot when guys that we maybe should have taken advantage and scored some runs. We weren’t able to do that. So, my hats off to them. But went a little quiet against some of their pitching deep in the bullpen and they didn’t go quiet against the front of our bullpen. Which again, I give them a lot of credit for the effort they had tonight.”
Another pitching change came for Stanford as Montgomery came in to pitch for O’Rourke with Joe Lomuscio coming in at right field. With Montgomery on the mound, 1st baseman Jacob Walsh hit a single, that drove in Smith and allowed Milone to reach second base. Kasevich would then hit a single to drive in Milone and advance Walsh to second.
Novitske would then reach first base on a fielder’s choice as Walsh would be out at home. With two outs, Stanford was down 10-9. Not where they wanted to be, but still within striking distance. However, things would soon unravel as Scanlon getting hit by a pitch with the bases loaded resulted in Kasevich scoring. Then, Grant hit a double and advanced to third base on an error, driving in Scanlon, Novitske, and Hall. The decision to have Montgomery pitch didn’t work out as Oregon now had a 14-9 lead. Smith would strike out looking to end the inning as Ryan Bruno now took the mound for Stanford, moving Montgomery back to right field and Lomuscio to the bench.
In the bottom of the 8th inning, Stanford didn’t score any more runs, making it a 14-9 Oregon lead heading into the top of the 9th inning. In the top of the 9th, Oregon added two more runs with Shade scoring an unearned run thanks to an error and Kasevich also scoring unearned. Stanford would trail 16-9 going into the bottom of the 9th inning.
In the bottom of the 9th inning, Bowser would hit a three-run home run to drive in Jones and Cobb, and Martinez would hit a solo shot all with no outs, so there was a flicker of hope as Stanford trailed 16-13. But that would be all she wrote as Stanford’s bats lost their juice after that, making it a 16-13 victory for Oregon.
“Day time this feels a little hotter,” Esquer said of the change from a low scoring game to a high scoring game. “It’s a little more offensive during the day and I think we saw that today.”
For Stanford, this is the second week in a row they dropped the first game of a series and this time they paid for it on Saturday as they now have lost the series. At this point, all they can do is get back to work on Sunday and hope to at least pick up one game and avoid the sweep.
“We gotta come out, it’s gonna be a tough game, right?” Esquer said of Sunday’s matchup. “If you allow yourself to be demoralized and you come out and play an early game with Daylight Savings Time, it could be a game that comes down to just will, right? And I think this is gonna test our will tomorrow.”
That game will start at 12:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio.
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