On Friday, Stanford baseball defeated Washington State 5-3 as freshman outfielder Brady Reynolds hit a three-run homer to right field in the bottom of the 9th for the walk-off win. Stanford freshman righty Ben Reimers (2-1) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while Washington State righty Chase Grillo (0-2) was the losing pitcher for the Cougars in a relief role. Stanford improves to 12-15 overall and 5-5 in the Pac-12 while Washington State falls to 16-12 overall and 6-7 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Washington State at Stanford-Friday, April 5th
“Oh man, we needed that,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “Boy, it didn’t look like it was in the cards tonight. We left so many opportunities and again, a little true to form, we’ve been just struggling to score the runs and left guys on and out at third on a leadoff triple and second and third, didn’t score. Lead off guy at second base didn’t score, but we got picked up by the freshmen and hey, Ethan Hott as well with the big leadoff single and Larson gets on there and he doesn’t move and takes a hit by pitch and so, it was some good stuff there in the ninth.”
Neither team would score in the first three innings. Stanford starting pitcher Matt Scott and Washington State starting pitcher Grant Taylor both pitched well. After Scott kept Washington State at bay in the top of the 4th inning, Stanford was able to answer in the bottom of the inning. I should note, Washington State catcher Jacob Morrow got on base via a throwing error from short stop, but he would get out at second base as he was caught stealing.
“Yeah, I mean I think just being able to command the fastball,” Scott said of what was working for him. “In and out, up and down. Definitely helped and it created a lot more grace for my other pitches, too.”
In the bottom of the 4th, Malcolm Moore got hit by a pitch and then advanced to second base via a balk. With two outs, Charlie Saum singled down the left field line to bring home Moore. With Temo Becerra at the plate, Saum would be out at second base for the out. Stanford led 1-0 at the end of the 4th inning.
The next score would come in the top of the 6th inning. Washington State evened it up 1-1. Crew Parke got walked by Scott and then stole second base. With one out, Morrow reached first base on an error from third base while Parke advanced to third. With two outs, Casen Taggart hit a single to center field to bring home Parke and advance Morrow to third base. Joey Kramer then popped up to second base to end the top of the inning. Stanford would not respond in the bottom of the inning as nobody got on base. 1-1 was the score at the end of six innings.
“You just gotta focus on pitching,” Scott said of staying locked in without run support. “I don’t think it’s selfish doing that. I mean, you’re just kinda focusing on your job and no matter what the outcome is, you can’t let things affect you offensively or defensively.”
Neither team would score in the 7th inning, though both teams made a pitching change. Trevor Moore came in for Matt Scott in the top of the 7th while Duke Brotherton came in for Grant Taylor in the bottom of the 7th after Taylor gave up a walk.
“Well, he deserved better,” Esquer said of Scott. “His pitch count ran high just because of three mistakes we made. We didn’t catch a pop up, we didn’t catch a grounder, and we threw a ball away at first and that’s fifteen pitches, right? So he probably goes an inning shorter than he could have gone and it all inner relates, right? It’s all part of the game. It’s kinda the beauty of the game. Unfortunately, when a field player makes a mistake, the pitcher comes out. We don’t take the field player out.”
In the top of the 8th, Taggart and Kramer hit a pair of RBI singles for Washington State to give them a 3-1 lead. Moore would pitch the entire 8th inning for Stanford, getting the third out to keep it 3-1. As for the bottom of the 8th, Brotherton gave up a single to Cort MacDonald, but nobody else got on base for the Cardinal. It remained 3-1 at the end of the 8th inning.
In the top of the 9th inning, Ben Reimers came in to pitch for Stanford and did not give up any runs. He walked one batter and hit another but got three strike outs. It was a little hairy, but he got the job done.
In the bottom of the 9th, Stanford was down to their final three outs as they were down 3-1. Ethan Hott and Charlie Saum hit back-to-back singles after which Temo Becerra laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to advance Saum to second base and Hott to third. Brandon Larson then came in to pinch hit for Trevor Haskins while Saborn Campbell came in to pinch run for Saum. Brotherton’s day on the mound for Washington State was also done as Chase Grillo came in to pitch.
“Trevor’s had a little tougher time with some of those second and third situations,” Esquer said of the pinch hitting move. “I think one at Creighton and then earlier today and I just said you know, maybe just give him a chance to watch it instead of have to be out there.”
Thanks to a wild pitch from Grillo, Hott would score while Campbell advanced to third base. Larson then got hit by a pitch to advance to first base. At this point, it was a 3-2 lead for Washington State with only one out. Champ Hampton then came in to pinch run for Larson.
Up next to the plate for the Cardinal would be Brady Reynolds, who blasted a three-run homer that cleared the right field fence by a mile. The ball might have landed in Belardi Pool. Reynolds came rounding the bases and was greeted by his cheering teammates at home plate. A 5-3 walk-off win for the Cardinal.
“That was probably a moment I’ll remember forever,” Reynolds said with a smile. “It was so surreal rounding the bases. So, yeah. It was sick…Honestly, I was just trying to get the ball in the air and hit a sac fly to score the runner on third. And just put us in a good spot to probably go into extras and I knew we were going to win it if we went into extras. But I just saw a low fastball and it was a good pitch to hit. So, yeah.”
“I mean, it was electric,” Scott said of the reaction from the dugout. “It was electric. I mean we knew he would come in in the clutch. I mean when you get that many guys on, stuffs gonna go your way…It feels great. It feels great. Like I said, we come up short a lot. This outing especially, just a lot of great performances all-around.”
For Stanford, this is a huge win. They’ve had a rough stretch as of late, so to win this one, especially in the way that they did feels good for them. It really seemed to give them an emotional boost. This is kind of a throwback to the kind of wins they’ve had the last couple of seasons. Never out of it. While they are still a work in progress, this is the kind of win that is a sign of things to come. At least that’s what they hope.
“We are growing, we are growing,” Esquer said. “It’s glacial. Growth is, it’s slow. But we are growing and yet we fall back into some of our old youth bad habits of not performing at the right times or just changing all of the sudden when the game gets a little tighter.”
“Knowing that we have a really bright future,” Scott said of maintaining a positive attitude amidst a rebuilding season. “Our pitching staff, our hitters, they have a lot of talent. The future is really bright for everybody. So, just keeping that positivity and I mean, we’ve been in a lot of games. Like every single game we’ve lost have been really close. We’ve just kinda come up short. It’s focusing on those little things. That’s gonna make us a really good team and we are a really good team, but an even better team.”
As for Reynolds, he had a big smile on his face after the win. He was fired up. He had the money shirt on, which is given by the team to player of the game. The player who "got his dollars’ worth of baseball." He’s having a really strong freshman season and looks to be a bat that will be reliable for them in the years to come.
“Like saw with Texas Tech, we’re never out of it,” Reynolds said. “And I think that, just the mindset that nobody can beat us. Like we’re the right team and getting to that spot in the ninth. I honestly knew that we were gonna win. And just kinda that mindset of nobody can beat us. We’re the tougher team. Just keeping that, I think that helped us a lot.”
“It’s great,” Esquer said of watching a freshman have a moment like Reynolds did. “It’s great. Yeah, we needed a boost from somebody outside of our circle because I think the guys that we’ve been counting on have done a tough job.”
Up next for Stanford is game two on Saturday against Washington State. That will begin at 2:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio. Stanford freshman lefty Christian Lim will get the start.
“Well, we’re gonna have to play better,” Esquer said looking ahead to Saturday. “We’re gonna have to play better and we’re gonna have to give our pitchers a little more breathing room. I think we had seventeen/eighteen strikeouts tonight and we’re on the verge of losing with an eighteen strikeout performance. So, we’ve gotta be better. We’ve gotta be better in a lot of areas. But this game buys us a little time. It’s a little deodorant for a little bad play and like they say, winning sometimes covers up some of those things. But if those things keep occurring, we won’t win.”
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