While Stanford softball had a crazy walk-off win on Friday night to beat Cal, Stanford baseball had a similar type of victory just across the way on Friday as well, defeating the Washington Huskies 3-1 in 16 marathon innings. Stanford junior right-handed pitcher Brandt Pancer (1-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while Washington redshirt sophomore right-handed pitcher Reilly McAdams (1-2) was the losing pitcher for the Huskies in a relief role. Stanford improves to 24-11 overall and 12-4 in the Pac-12 while Washington falls to 20-12 overall and 7-8 in the Pac-12.

BOX SCORE: Washington at Stanford, Friday April 21st

“Yeah, you’re out there for so long and such a great job from our pitching staff,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said of the win. “Just one of the days when you kinda gotta get through it offensively. Kinda get through it some and obviously big swing by Tommy. I think some of the pitchers were teasing us this was two heavyweight offenses going toe-to-toe on a Friday night and it was pretty funny to hear them say that. They’re trying to inspire us.”

Senior lefty Quinn Mathews was electric on the mound for the Cardinal as the Friday night starter. He pitched 9.0 innings, gave up just five hits, one run which was earned, and totaled 10 strikeouts. He went as deep as he could go and gave the Cardinal all he had. Without his amazing performance, the Cardinal would not have won this game.

Stanford scored the first run of the game in bottom of the 2nd inning as Eddie Park singled to center field to bring home Alberto Rios who was on second base and advance Owen Cobb to third base. There were two outs at this point and so it really was a clutch hit by Park to get the RBI. Carter Graham then flied out to right field to end the inning. 1-0 lead for the Cardinal at the end of the 2nd inning.

Washington later responded in the top of the 6th inning as Johnny Tincher doubled to left field with two outs to bring home Cam Clayton, who was on second base. Coby Morales then grounded out to second base to end the top of the inning. It was a 1-1 game.

From there, it would be like a game that nobody wanted to win. Both teams had chances to end the game much sooner than it did, but with each passing inning, the game remained tied 1-1.

“Good question,” Esquer said of why the runs didn’t come easy. “I think it’s just one of those times when your offense where you just swim upstream a little bit. You kinda get in your own way and two outs, no one can relax and you’re trying to get the hit, but almost trying too hard.”

“Baseball is just a crazy sport, man,” Troy added. “I feel like we really fought really well. Just came down to timely hitting and just wasn’t going our way and it wasn’t going their way, either. So, just ended up who was gonna hit in the right moment.”

The Cardinal bullpen really came through: Drew Dowd got three straight outs in the top of the 10th, 11th innings, and 12th innings. In the top of the 13th with the bases loaded and no outs, Ryan Bruno found a way to get the Cardinal out of the jam to keep it tied 1-1. In the top of the 15th inning, with the bases loaded and two outs, Brandt Pancer did the same thing, getting the Cardinal out of a jam to keep it tied entering the bottom of the 15th. Stanford would not score in the bottom of the 15th, setting up the 16th inning still tied 1-1.

“Oh man, they pitched out of some unbelievable jams,” Esquer said of the bullpen. “And these games are great. I thought this was good for us win or lose, but way better at winning it.”

“I am so unbelievably proud of them,” Troy added. “This is such a huge step forward for our team. Especially in the bullpen and stuff and those guys being able to come in in big moments like that and pitch and attack those hitters, especially in situations maybe we’re not so comfortable, maybe they might get a big hit here we end up losing the game. But man, those guys kept battling with us and kept us in the game and that was really huge.”

In the top of the 16th, Washington once again failed to score any runs, but Stanford finally broke the spell in the bottom of the 16th. With Owen Cobb on base, Tommy Troy hit a two-run blast to left center to win the game. 3-1 was the final score. It took 16 innings, but the Cardinal got it done.

“Well, he had a couple at bats where he didn’t get it done,” Esquer said of Troy. “And to see him come back and persevere and get it done is pretty awesome.”

“I mean honestly, we needed something sooner or later,” Troy said of his home run. “We were setting the table all game. I mean like at the end of the day we just needed a timely hit, a big hit, and I was happy to be able to provide that for the team.”

For Stanford, this is a monster win. This really helps them set the tone for the rest of the weekend and to win like this after a tough loss to Sacramento State on Tuesday really speaks to their resiliency and toughness. While the runs didn’t come easy, they eventually came, a testament to their perseverance and desire to keep sticking with it.

“You know for me at this point win or lose, I was happy,” Esquer said. “I think we gotta embrace going through these type of games to be the team we want to be and so I wasn’t fearful of losing. I thought the experience was gonna be good for us. Way better winning, but I thought our guys, our pitching staff really showed up for us and it was huge.”

“Obviously it’s difficult, but when you’re so determined to win and every single guy on the team, everyone was so invested every single pitch. I’m so proud of our team for staying locked in like that,” Troy added. “It’s not easy. It’s easy to roll over, but I’m so proud of our team.”

As for Tommy Troy, he was really fired up after the game. Hitting a walk-off home run is always fun. Especially when it comes in a game that went as deep as this one did.

“It is huge,” Troy said. “This is definitely big momentum going into the next two games. I feel like we’re all gonna be super confident and ready to go tomorrow…Capitalizing on the momentum we have. A mantra that we always talk about, momentum is fragile and we really got to take advantage of the momentum we have going into tomorrow.”

Up next for Stanford is game two of this series. That will begin at 2:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream-2 and KZSU radio.

“Hopefully we can come out and get a few more hits,” Esquer said with a smile. “But you know, I think hopefully we got some momentum from today and a great performance by Quinn Mathews and Bruno and Dowd. I mean, our pitching staff is coming along. We’re getting better and we’re getting better behind our starters. I think we got three good starters, but we also got pitchers who are getting better behind them. And we’re gonna come back. Our offense is gonna come back to life before it’s all said and done.”

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