On Friday, Stanford baseball won their season opener at home against Cal State Fullerton by a final score of 1-0. Freshman right-handed pitcher Ty Uber picked up the win for Stanford while freshman right-handed pitcher/outfielder Braden Montgomery picked up the save. Cal State Fullerton right-handed pitcher Cameron Repetti was given the loss. Stanford improves to 1-0 on the season while Cal State Fullerton falls to 0-1.
“Great effort by our pitching staff,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “And we pitched out of a little trouble there at the end. O’Rourke had a couple big pitches and then Montgomery was outstanding in his first appearance. Freshman at the back end of the game, you don’t draw it up that he’d have a 1-0 lead to try to hold onto. But he was up for it. He was up for it. Hey, great game and you just don’t know how your offense is going to come out of the chute. And so, I thought we were a little reckless a little offensively just swinging at everything and just making outs. So, we can offense better, but today we had to play defense and we had to pitch.”
Stanford got on the board early on in this game, leading 1-0 at the end of the 2nd inning. 2nd baseman Tommy Troy got on base by way of fielder’s choice and proceeded to score via an error, making it an unearned run. Stanford had a pair of hits, hoping to get more offense going.
At the end of the 3rd inning, Stanford still led 1-0 as they were unable to build on the run scored from the previous inning. Left fielder Eddie Park grounded out, Tommy Troy hit a fly out, and centerfielder Brock Jones grounded out to end the inning.
At the top of the 4th inning, Esquer already went into his bullpen, bringing in Ty Uber to relieve Alex Williams who got the start. Uber would give up a hit, but no runs. It was a solid outing for him out of the bullpen. Heading into the bottom of the 4th inning, Stanford would look to heat up behind the plate as catcher Kody Huff was to lead off the inning.
“It was pre-planned,” Esquer said of having Williams pitch three innings. “He’s a little behind. He was down for a week. So he’s behind on pitch count. And so we knew that he’d go 45. We wanted to keep him on Friday and so we just kinda knew that we were going to have to piggyback some guys behind him. We knew Uber and Dixon would be behind him for sure and then just whatever the situation dictated would be how we’d use the rest of the pen.”
The bottom of the 4th didn’t go the way Stanford was hoping as Kody Huff grounded out to 3rd, 3rd baseman Drew Bowser struck out looking, and 1st baseman Carter Graham grounded out to 3rd. It was still a 1-0 lead for the Cardinal.
Uber would pitch another scoreless inning in the top of the 5th inning for Stanford as Fullerton didn’t get on base. However, they did come dangerously close to hitting a home run as catcher Cole Urman blasted the ball deep into right field. Had the ball sailed another five feet, it would have likely been gone. Stanford’s offensive woes continued in the bottom of the 5th inning. Designated hitter Vincent Martinez grounded out to 3rd, right fielder Owen Cobb fouled into an out, and short stop Adam Crampton struck out.
At the top of the 6th inning, it was now sophomore right-handed pitcher Joey Dixon coming to the mound for Stanford. He gave up a hit but was able to force a double play to end the inning. Stanford still had a 1-0 lead entering the bottom of the 6th inning. Stanford would once again fail to score in the bottom of the 6th inning. Things looked promising after Troy stole second base, but no cigar.
“I think they did a great job,” Huff said of the pitching staff. “I think we’ve made a lot of good progress in the fall and winter. There’s some young guys stepping up in some big roles for us. Guys like Joey Dixon, Ty Uber, Braden Montgomery, ready to take that next step behind our seasoned veteran Alex Williams. And I think they did a great job today. There was no shortness of competing and I think at the end of the day we just gotta grind it out. Even though it was a 1-0 win it goes down as a win.”
During the 7th inning stretch, Stanford maintained their 1-0 lead as Fullerton was unable to generate any offense. Their designated hitter Brendan Bobo walked, but aside from that, no action. Stanford’s pitching was hanging tough. Sticking with the theme of the afternoon, Stanford’s bats continued to be cold as ice. Graham hit a fly out, Martinez hit a fly out, and Cobb grounded out.
“I think we were a little over-confident,” Esquer said of why his team struggled to get hits. “I think we put a lot of balls in play. They weren’t necessarily good pitches to hit, but they were pitches we could hit. And we just never got any rhythm offensively. So, I thought they did a good job really taking advantage of our aggressiveness, right? They got us to swing at pitches that probably were going to create more outs rather than were mistakes.
“And so, we can offense better. Like I said, I think our guys, I was teasing them a little. Like maybe we were over-prepared to hit any pitch. Because I feel like they felt like they could hit anything that came out of the pitcher’s hand. But the guy did a nice job, he moved it around, he used our aggressiveness against us, and we didn’t strike out very much. We just hit into a bunch of outs.”
Entering the top of the 8th inning Stanford led 1-0 as graduate student outfielder Joe Lomuscio came in at right field for Cobb. With two outs down and one to go, right-handed pitcher Tommy O’Rourke came in for Dixon, hoping to close out the inning. The bases would eventually get loaded, but to O’Rourke’s credit, he was able to get the one out he needed before allowing any runs, striking out right fielder Nate Nankil. That was clutch. The bottom of the 8th didn’t break pattern at all as Stanford once again failed to score. Crampton grounded out, Park grounded out, and Troy struck out. 1-0 Stanford led at the end of the 8th inning.
“I’ve been working really hard building those relationships with those guys,” Huff said of managing different pitchers in a game. “Kinda figuring out what makes them go. So, if I need to take a mound visit or something like that, kinda figuring out everyone’s personality. What makes them go, what checks them in, things like that. So, like I said, been working hard to develop my relationship with the staff. I feel just as much as part of the staff as all the pitchers and I think that’s huge to our success and so I just made sure to let them know all day today that I had their back and I think it really helped them have confidence to throw whatever pitch I called and they were able to execute it.
“I think it’s a big confidence booster. I think we kinda got that dogfight out of the way we like to call it. Sometimes where the bats don’t come alive and that’s alright. I think it’s important to learn how to win different ways. Obviously we pitched and played great defense behind our guys today and I mean, a win’s a win. We’ll take it."
Stanford would have one final pitching change as freshman Braden Montgomery came in to close at the top of the 9th inning. After not being able to add to their 1-0 lead, it all came down to this. Montgomery brought the heat early and was able to get two outs with little trouble on back-to-back strikeouts. To get the third out, things got a little dramatic as 2nd baseman JJ Cruz hit the ball into the outfield. Fortunately for Stanford, Joe Lomuscio was able to make a clutch catch to secure the victory and save for Montgomery.
“All close wins for us are always exhilarating,” Montgomery said. “But the close is really, it’s really special getting the ball in your hands in the last inning. Me versus opposing hitters. Just go at it.”
For Stanford, this game didn’t go as they envisioned from an offensive standpoint, but they were really pleased with how the pitching performed. They gave up no runs and on top of that, their star freshman Braden Montgomery was able to come in and get the save with confidence. For a team that has some pitching questions coming into this season, this wasn’t a bad way to get their first win of the season.
“He’s one of our three best arms,” Esquer said of Montgomery. “Coach Marquess taught me right from the start that one of your three best arms has gotta be on the back end of the bullpen. So it doesn’t do you any good to not have quality in the back end. And so, he’s the guy for right now. We got a great legacy. We’ve got two All-America closers in the past four or five years with Little and Grech and those are big shoes to fill and he’s young. But, I think he’s got a slow heartbeat. I think he’s been the guy and played in the big moment his whole career. And so we’ll see, we’re going to try to help him out a little bit more.”
Touching more on Montgomery, he was really happy after the game. To get a save in his first ever Stanford game is a sign of things to come and a testament to his work ethic and preparation.
“It was definitely exciting trying to channel all the emotions going into the first ever relief,” Montgomery said. “I just kinda went back on my preparation and it’s like. I know I’m prepared for the moment. So I just kinda let everything go. Let it eat. Let all the emotions go. Just went out there and play.”
“I’m not surprised at all,” Huff said of Montgomery’s performance. “He’s a freak athlete. Credit to him. He does things that are insane I’ve never seen before. I had all the confidence in the world in him coming in. The biggest thing for him was just stay calm and trust himself. He’s a really good kid. I have a lot of confidence in him moving forward and I think our team is real excited to see what he can do for us this year. Both pitching and hitting hopefully.”
As for the other hero of the game, Joe Lomuscio, David Esquer felt he could make an impact as a defensive specialist. To have his defense be what sealed the game felt really good and validated the decision to bring him on the team.
“Great play, the kids love him,” Esquer said of Lomuscio. “They trust him and he’s just a good player. He’ll help us. He’ll help us in other ways as well. But yeah, we seem to look like geniuses sticking him in there right there at the end.”
Up next for Stanford is game two of this three game series against Cal State Fullerton. That game will begin on Saturday at 2:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream 2 and KZSU radio.
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