On Tuesday, #8 Stanford baseball fell to #22 Texas Tech by a final score of 11-2. Texas Tech junior right-handed pitcher Brandon Beckel (4-0) was the winning pitcher for the Red Raiders in a relief role while Stanford sophomore right-handed pitcher/outfielder Braden Montgomery (1-1) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role. Texas Tech improves to 23-11 overall while Stanford falls to 22-8 overall.

BOX SCORE: Texas Tech at Stanford-Tuesday, April 11th

“Yeah, kind of a stinker really,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “I don’t think we played very well at all. But some good stuff, you know. Braden Montgomery came out and threw the ball better. We got some guys out there. We just didn’t play a good game of baseball against a really good opponent. So we couldn’t play average and win. So, one of those we can learn some things from. But we needed to play better in order to win.”

Texas Tech struck first in this game, going up 1-0 in the top of the 1st inning. With one out, Ty Coleman was walked and then advanced to second base on a wild pitch. With two outs, Kevin Bazzell singled to center field and advanced to second base on the throw while Coleman scored. Gavin Kash then struck out looking to end the top of the inning.

In the bottom of the 1st, Eddie Park singled through the left side for Stanford but then was out at second base after Carter Graham advanced to first base via fielder’s choice. Tommy Troy then flied out to center field for the second out. Montgomery then singled through the right side, advancing Graham to third base only for Malcolm Moore to reach first base via fielder’s choice as Montgomery was out at second base to end the inning. Still a 1-0 lead for the Red Raiders.

In the top of the 2nd inning, Montgomery made quick work of the Red Raiders’ lineup as Zac Vooletich and Hudson White both popped up to short stop while Dylan Maxey struck out swinging.

“Hey, to make it through these innings, we were going down to the last possible guy,” Esquer said when asked why they started Montgomery. “But I thought you know, in the future we want to take a peek on whether he has the ability to start and so he’s been working towards that and getting him out there in the early part of the game seemed like probably the best time to do it.”

In the bottom of the 2nd, Cole Hinkelman got walked for the Cardinal with two outs after which Owen Cobb got walked, advancing Hinkelman to second base. Park then struck out to end the bottom of the inning. This kept it at 1-0.

In the top of the 3rd, Stanford went with a pitching change as Nicolas Lopez came in for Montgomery, who stayed in the game at the designated hitter spot. Tracer Lopez got things going for the Red Raiders in the top of the inning by hitting a single to short stop after which Nolen Hester hit a ground-rule double to left field, advancing Lopez to third base. Coleman then singled to right field, advancing Hester to third base and bringing home Lopez. Gage Harrelson then got walked, advancing Coleman to second base.

At this point, Lopez was done on the mound for Stanford as Ty Uber came in for relief. The first batter Uber faced was Bazzell, who flied out to second base. Then, Kash singled to right field, advancing Harrelson to second base and Coleman to third only for Coleman to come home thanks to an error while Hester also scored. Vooletich then grounded into a double play to end the top of the inning. It was now a 4-0 lead for the Red Raiders.

In the bottom of the 3rd, Troy hit a single to short stop for the Cardinal with one out and stole second base with Montgomery at the plate. Montgomery then got walked. This resulted in Ryan Free coming in to pitch for Zane Petty. Moore then singled to second based, advancing Montgomery to second base and Troy to third.

With the bases loaded, Drew Bowser reached on a fielder’s choice to second base as Moore was out at second base while Montgomery advanced to third base and Troy came home. With Alberto Rios at the plate, a throwing error occurred as Bowser stole second while Montgomery scored. Rios then was walked. Jake Sapien, who came in to pinch hit for Cole Hinkelman, struck out looking to end the bottom of the inning. It was now a 4-2 game.

From there, Stanford would not score any more runs the rest of the game while Texas Tech gradually extended their lead over the remainder of the game to win 11-2.

After a scoreless 4th inning from both teams, Texas Tech scored one run in the top of the 5th inning as Harrelson singled to right field to bring home Coleman. Drew Dowd also came in to get the final two outs of the inning for Stanford after Uber gave up that run. 5-2 was now the score.

In the bottom of the 5th, there was a pitching change for Texas Tech as Brandon Beckel came in for Ryan Free. Moore did single to right field for Stanford in the bottom of the inning, but was the only Cardinal to get on base as Rios grounded into a double play to end the inning.

Neither team scored in the 6th inning, though Stanford did make a pitching change with two outs as Toran O’Harran came in to get the final out.

In the top of the 7th, with Kash on first base and Bazzell on third and one out, Stanford made another pitching change as Brandt Pancer came in for O’Harran. White then singled up the middle, advancing Kash to second base and bringing Bazzell home. Austin Green then was walked, which loaded up the bases. With two outs, Hester doubled to right field, bringing home both White and Kash while Green advanced to third. Coleman then fouled out to the catcher to end the top of the inning. Three runs were scored. It was now an 8-2 game.

After another scoreless inning from Stanford in the bottom of the 7th, both teams failed to score in the 8th inning as well. There were pitching changes for both teams in the 8th inning though Trevor Moore pitched the entire top of the 8th inning for Stanford while Kyle Robinson pitched the entire bottom of the 8th for Texas Tech.

In the top of the 9th inning, Texas Tech scored three more runs to make it an 11-2 game. White hit a two-run homer to left field to bring home Vooletich while Harrelson singled to left field to bring home Green while Hester was out at second base trying to get to third base. Matt Schwartz was on the mound at that point, as he was tasked with getting the final out for the Cardinal, replacing Moore.

And then in the bottom of the 9th, Robinson made quick work of the Cardinal lineup as Trevor Haskins, Cort MacDonald, and Brett Blair all failed to get on base. 11-2 would be the final score. A dominant win for the Red Raiders.

“Yeah, I don’t know, such a great day to hit, too,” Esquer said of their poor hitting. “The wind blowing out, the field’s fast, and the sun is out and I probably give them some credit. Maybe they pitched a pretty good ball game and threw some good, they had guys had some good breaking balls, but I thought we could have attacked them better. I think we left some guys on the base early to make a game. I thought the game was winnable. I thought if they really were going to take it to us they could have put us away early and weren’t able to. I thought we could steal it at the end, but they were able to put it away in the seventh and in the ninth.

“No big two out RBIs. We had a couple opportunities. I think we had runners at first and third or maybe bases loaded two outs and didn’t punch anything across. So again, just not building any momentum in the game. We just weren’t able to do that at all.”

For Stanford, this loss is obviously disappointing. They were hoping to get a sweep here after defeating Texas Tech on Monday. The bullpen obviously is what let them down but at the same time, it’s not like their bats showed up, either. Just all in all a poor outing and one they hope they can learn from without dwelling on. The one positive from this of course is the fact that they at least got a split.

“Well, I don’t want them to make a bigger problem out of it than it really is,” Esquer said of what he told the team after the game. “It’s kinda one event that we can coach some things and do it better. We can’t make it a, there’s no red danger light going off just because we didn’t play one game very well. So, it wasn’t indicative of how we have been playing. When you play a good opponent, they don’t give you that margin for error to come out and play average. That’s what happened today. But that being said, we got some guys in there and we got some guys able to get some experience against a really good opponent to see if they can help us in the future.”

As for Texas Tech, after losing on Monday, to get the split is huge. Their bats went to work in this one and they also did a great job of holding a very talented Stanford offense to just two runs. There honestly isn’t much for them to be frustrated about with this other than the fact that they lost on Monday.

Up next for Stanford is a road trip to Oregon to face the Ducks. That will begin on Friday at 5:05 PM PT on Oregon Live Stream and KZSU radio.

“Yeah, Oregon’s going to be tough,” Esquer said. “Yeah, they’re gonna be tough. It’s a tough place to play and we just gotta gather ourselves back together and again not make this a bigger problem than it really is and we played a good opponent, won one out of two, and we’ll kinda move on from there.”

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