On Sunday, #8 Stanford baseball defeated UCLA 10-7. Stanford junior outfielder Alberto Rios hit a grand slam to left center in the bottom of the 8th inning to give the Cardinal a 10-7 lead after trailing 7-6. Stanford junior left-handed pitcher Ryan Bruno (2-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while UCLA freshman right-handed pitcher Cody Delvecchio was the losing pitcher for the Bruins in a relief role. Stanford improves to 28-13 overall and 15-6 in the Pac-12 while UCLA falls to 24-15-1 overall and 10-9-1 in the Pac-12.

BOX SCORE: UCLA at Stanford-Sunday, April 30

“Well, I’ve seen obviously a lot of big moments here at Sunken Diamond, but that was one of the neatest moments,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “Just have it all. As hard as the weekend was for us and Coach Savage making it hard on us all weekend and to kinda claw and scratch back and I think we’ve been down by four three Sundays in a row maybe and found a way to win.

“But our guys, that locker room won that one. There was no inspirational speech or no special coaching to it. That was just kinda will right there. You know, they’ve gotta dig down deep to find that in themselves and somebody like Alberto who kinda represents just the guts of our program. A guy who came in and was a bullpen catcher for a couple years and just kept getting better and found his way where we had to pay attention to him. And got a little playing time and then obviously this year he’s got a lot of playing time.”

In the 1st inning, neither team scored as both starting pitchers got off to a strong start. Stanford starter Joey Dixon only gave up a single with two outs to Kyle Karros while UCLA starter Ethan Flanagan didn’t give up a hit or a walk.

In the top of the 2nd inning, UCLA got on the board. Malakhi Knight got on base via a throwing error by Owen Cobb and advanced to second base as a result. With one out, Jarrod Hocking singled to left field and was out at second base while Knight came home to make it a 1-0 lead for the Bruins. JonJon Vaughns then singled through the left side after which Carson Yates was walked, advancing Vaughns to second base. Daylen Reyes then got walked to load up the bases. With the bases loaded, Duce Gourson hit a single to second base, bringing home Vaughns and advancing all runners. Karros then struck out looking to end the top of the inning. 2-0 lead for UCLA.

In the bottom of the 2nd, Stanford responded. Braden Montgomery got hit by a pitch after which Alberto Rios singled to left field, advancing Montgomery to second base. Malcolm Moore then reached first base on a fielder’s choice as Rios was out at second base while Montgomery advanced to third base. Drew Bowser then singled to left field, advancing Moore to second base and bringing home Montgomery. Jake Sapien then was walked, advancing Bowser to second base and Moore to third. Cobb then flied out to center field, bringing home Moore. It was now tied 2-2.

Flanagan then threw a wild pitch, advancing Sapien to second base and Bowser to third. Eddie Park then singled to left field to advance Sapien to third base and bring Bowser home. The inning then ended as Park was out at second base while Tommy Troy reached first base on a fielder’s choice. 3-2 lead for Stanford.

In the top of the 3rd inning, UCLA scored one run. With two outs, Darius Perry hit a solo shot to left center, making it a 3-3 game. Hocking then struck out swinging to end the top of the inning. In the bottom of the 3rd, Carter Graham singled to short stop and Rios was walked with one out, but both runners were left stranded. It remained a 3-3 game at the end of the 3rd inning.

In the top of the 4th inning, UCLA added two runs. Yates was walked with one out after which Reyes reached first base on an error by Cobb at short stop while Yates advanced to second. Gourson then doubled to left center, bringing home Yates and advancing Reyes to third base. Karros then flied out to center field to bring home Reyes. Holman then struck out swinging to end the top of the inning. UCLA now had a 5-3 lead.

In the bottom of the 4th, Stanford scored zero runs. Cobb singled up the middle with one out and was advanced to second base as Park grounded out, but he was left stranded. It remained a 5-3 UCLA lead at the end of the inning.

In the top of the 5th, UCLA added two more runs. With one out, Perry singled up the middle after which Hocking singled to left field, advancing Perry to second base. This ended Dixon’s day on the mound as Drew Dowd came in to pitch.

“You know, hey, he’s given us some pretty solid starts,” Esquer said of Dixon. “I think he had like what, seven or eight strikeouts in three innings?! But then he gets touched up a couple times and we didn’t help him. I think some of those runs were unearned. Yeah, three of the runs were unearned. So we coulda helped him a lot more. But he’s come out every Sunday. His stuff was pretty good. And I thought he was making some good pitches and he had nine strike outs.

“We just didn’t help him enough on defense and against a team like UCLA, I thought they played very well offensively and made it tough on our pitching and they had some guys come up. Gourson. I mean, that guy looks like a major league baseball player, right? He’s unafraid and Perry’s always been good against us and Karros is base hit. He just is. So, I think that they weren’t gonna make it easy on us.”

Toussaint Bythewood then singled through the left side to load up the bases after which Yates got hit by a pitch to bring home Perry. Reyes then lined out to center field to bring home Hocking. Gourson then popped up to first base to end the top of the inning. 7-3 lead for UCLA.

In the bottom of the 5th, Stanford responded. Graham got walked after which Montgomery reached on a fielder’s choice as Graham was out at second base. Rios then got hit by a pitch, advancing Montgomery to second base. This ended Flanagan’s day on the mound as Jake Saum came in to pitch. Moore then singled to short stop, which loaded up the bases. This ended Saum’s day on the mound as Nate Leibold came in to pitch.

Leibold then threw a wild pitch, bringing home Montgomery and advancing Moore to second base and Rios to third. Bowser then singled to left field, advancing Moore to third base and bringing home Rios. Leibold then settled in from there, striking out Sapien and Cobb to end the inning. He did however throw a wild pitch during Cobb’s at-bat which advanced Bowser to second base, so it was a bit of an adventure to get those strikeouts. It was now a 7-5 UCLA lead.

In the top of the 6th, Dowd did a nice job on the mound as he didn’t allow any runs. After walking Karros, he got two strikeouts and forced a pop up to end the top of the inning. It remained a 7-5 game.

In the bottom of the 6th, Stanford added one run. Park doubled down the left field line after which Troy was out at first base while Park advanced to second base. Graham then singled up the middle to bring home Park. This ended Leibold’s day on the mound as Chris Aldrich came in to pitch. Montgomery then grounded into a double play to end the inning. 7-6 UCLA lead.

In the 7th inning, neither team scored and there were no pitching changes. Stanford did come close to scoring in the bottom of the inning as Moore was on second base and Rios on third with two outs. However, Cobb struck out swinging to end the bottom of the inning. It was still a 7-6 game.

In the top of the 8th inning, Ryan Bruno came in to pitch for Dowd. Bruno would strike out Gourson, walk Karros, and then get Holman to foul out to third base for the second out. Karros would then steal second base, but Knight struck out swinging to end the top of the inning.

In the bottom of the 8th, Cody Delvecchio came in to pitch for Aldrich. Stanford got off to a strong start as Park got walked after which Troy singled to third base, advancing Park to third. Graham then fouled out to first base for this first out after which Montgomery was walked. Up next to the plate would be Rios, who hit a grand slam to left center, making it a 10-7 lead for the Cardinal. Stanford would not score any more runs the rest of the inning, but with that grand slam, momentum was now on their side as they entered the 9th inning.

“I mean yeah, it was my first one ever and that was pretty cool in a pretty cool moment,” Rios said of his grand slam. “Definitely just an awesome moment to experience it here against kinda like my hometown team a little bit and it was just crazy kinda blacked out a little bit during the moment, but definitely a surreal, special moment. I’ll never forget it.

“I was trying to see a good ball I could hit, kinda elevate it. He threw a lot of fastballs, faced him before, so I was just trying to get something over the heart of the plate and trying to get a good swing on it and luckily I got barrel and caught a little out in front and it went, which was awesome.”

In the top of the 9th, Bruno looked to close out the game, which he did. He would walk Byethewood with two outs and have him advance to second base with Yates at the plate, but Yates struck out swinging to end the game. 10-7 victory for the Cardinal.

“He’s been that good a lot,” Esquer said of Bruno. “Yeah, he does. He’s been that good. But he’s been that good more consistently now and he started off the year rough. Just like for a lot of our guys. Baseball’s hard and you don’t get a chance just to hit the ground running. You just don’t. The other team is trying and they’re trying to keep you off your game and so for a lot of guys, they just have to kinda see it through, right? It’s a journey and the season just keeps going. And he was one that didn’t start off like he would like, he had to really battle and just keep improving.

“I know he and Coach Eager went to work and they knew that it was something that, they just weren’t going to just hope that it happens magically. He just had to get himself under control and just not press. You play with a lot of guys like we have that may have professional futures and they expect to perform at that level all the time and it’s just not that way. It’s the peaks and valleys of the season that kinda, can get to them.”

“Yeah, I think as I mentioned, obviously we’ve had some struggles as a team to kinda put things together,” Bruno said. “But I think for me, the number one thing is confidence. I kinda gotta fire myself up there to really perform well and I think it’s been one of those things where it’s like I get the ball rolling and I’m able to really have much more success in the zone and I think for me, never back down from attacking the strike zone and going at them with my full stuff because I think when I back down and try to tinker and make adjustments, that’s not me. That’s not my personality on the mound. So, I just always gotta stay on top of the hitters and attack to the best of my ability and I think that’ll put us in the best chance to win.”

For Stanford, this is a huge win. They trailed 7-6 and found a way to come back to win 10-7. They could have given in and let UCLA win this game. Instead, they dug deep and pulled out the series-deciding victory.

“Yeah, you know, hey, I think a lot of that, we do stand on the shoulders of our past years, right?” Esquer said of the key to their 8-1 record on Sundays. “There’s an expectation that I think just raises the floor of our program and I think that carries us a little bit. They know what is expected of them, they know, they’ve been around a program that was, there’s been a couple years you say were you great at pitching, were you great at hitting, we were just kinda good at winning. And, I think that’s kinda carried over, but we’d like to develop our pitching and our hitting to be able to sustain that.”

“I was telling one of our coaches, today can be a really easy game where we just let baseball happen,” Rios added. “We can just let the game be so hard that it’s just overwhelming. But we just had a lot of fight in us. We were behind most of the game, but we just kept going persisting, persisting, and we ended up getting into their bullpen a little bit and scratched a few runs and luckily got a barrel to it, which was awesome.”

As for Rios, he was fired up after hitting the grand slam, which was the first he’s ever hit. He’s worked really hard to get to where he is after being on the bench his first two years on The Farm. He’s really a testament to the importance of staying patient and waiting for your turn. In an era where a lot of college athletes leave if they aren’t getting enough playing time, Rios has instead chosen to hone his craft and carve out a role for himself on an elite team.

“It’s a huge adjustment,” Esquer said of Rios moving from catcher to outfield. “I don’t think he’s ever played the outfield before! But we had to get his bat into the lineup somehow and that seemed to be a spot that we could and he’s adapted well and he plays a solid left field and everything we’ve asked of him since he’s been here. We asked him to change from infielder to catcher and he did that. We’ve asked him to change from catcher to outfield and he’s done that. And again, he’s a guy that kinda slips under the radar because he doesn’t come with all the resume and a lot of the scouts didn’t start coming here to see him play and then he plays unafraid and he’s not scared and probably gonna earn himself a chance to play.”

“I was pretty fired up,” Bruno said of his reaction to Rios’ grand slam. “I think for him, I mean he’s been a guy that’s been really consistent for us and I think for him, he’s such a good teammate. He’s such a good guy. I mean, it just starts in the locker room with him and off the field. He’s probably one of the nicest guys I’ve ever met and I think just for him, it’s like he’s always been a leader in our clubhouse and he’s waited his turn and now it’s really coming to fruition, which I’m stoked for him.”

As for UCLA, this loss stings. They had the lead for most of the game and could have walked out with a huge series victory on the road. Instead, they now have to regroup and get back to work at UC Irvine on Tuesday before heading back home to face a crestfallen Cal team that is down in the dumps. If they are able to sweep Cal next weekend and beat UC Irvine, they’ll be feeling a lot better and should be able to put this series behind them.

“I think they just play really good baseball,” Rios said of UCLA. “Overall. They pitch well, they hit well, they defend well, they just play the game really well and I feel like when you play against the game against a really good competitor and really good people, I mean, you’re gonna get the best out of everyone. So that’s exactly how it was this weekend.”

Up next for Stanford is a road series at Arizona State. That will begin on Friday at 6:30 PM PT on Pac-12 Insider and KZSU radio.

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