On Friday, No. 18 Stanford baseball defeated Duke 5-1. Stanford junior righty Matt Scott (4-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role while Duke lefty Reid Easterly (2-1) was the losing pitcher for the Blue Devils in a relief role. Brandon Larson, Rintaro Sasaki, Charlie Saum, Charlie Bates, and Tatum Marsh each hit an RBI for the Cardinal. Saum’s RBI came via solo home run. Stanford improves to 13-3 overall and 3-1 in the ACC while Duke falls to 12-7 overall and 2-2 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Duke at Stanford-Friday, March 14th
“Yeah, we were a while to get going,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “We were a little underwater early offensively. We really were. We were swimming upstream and didn’t have our feet on the ground. I guess, you know, everyone talks about going east and playing. Maybe it was the re-entry west that kinda caught us this time, but great performance by Matt Scott, keeping us right there, right?
“We didn’t need much to get back into the ball game. Larson gets that big hit, Saum with the big swing, so that was, it was, Friday night baseball. Pitching and defense early on and then, you know, able to chip way and get some runs. Some big runs, you know, with Charlie Bates had a big hit and then obviously, you know, our freshmen at the bottom of the order can cause you some problems and Tatum Marsh gets that bunt down and then Rintaro gets a hit. So those freshmen came up big for us this year this game. It was a big win.”
Through two innings, it remained a scoreless game as Matt Scott was doing a good job of holding down the Blue Devils while Duke’s pitch by committee approach was working with Aidan Weaver and James Tallon pitching two scoreless innings so far.
In the top of the 3rd inning, Duke got on the scoreboard thanks to Jake Hyde hitting a triple to right center after which Wallace Clark hit a double to right field with two outs to bring home Hyde. The Blue Devils wouldn’t score any more runs the rest of the inning, making it 1-0 entering the bottom of the 3rd. In the bottom of the 3rd, nobody got on base for Stanford, keeping it a 1-0 game.
“Yeah, you really can’t. I mean, you can’t really focus on offense,” Scott said of staying strong until the offense got going. “It’s just kind of a one-way game. It’s just you versus their offense and you can’t really waver from that. You gotta stay with that approach regardless of the score.”
After a scoreless 4th inning for both teams, Stanford would get on the board in the bottom of the 5th inning after Matt Scott got three straight batters out in the top of the 5th. Temo Becerra would get walked with no outs and then with two outs, Trevor Haskins got walked, advancing Becerra to second base. At this point, Duke moved onto their fourth pitcher of the game as Reid Easterly came in for Gabe Nord.
The first batter Easterly faced was Brandon Larson, who hit a single to left center, bringing home Becerra and advancing Haskins to second base. Rintaro Sasaki then grounded out to end the bottom of the 5th. It was now tied 1-1.
“Big hit by Larson kind of just settled everyone down,” Esquer said. “You know, where was that feeling? Holy cow, you know, the reentry back into playing this week and are we gonna get no-hit on a Friday? But that wasn’t gonna happen and then again, Charlie Saum with the big swing really kind of let the air out a little bit in the dugout and then we started be able to chip away and build an inning and come through.”
In the top of the 6th inning, Matt Scott got three straight batters out, continuing his stellar pitching on the mound.
“Yeah, I mean, it was good,” Scott said of his outing. “You go out there just one inning at a time and it was a pretty close game throughout and you can’t really waver. You can’t really impress. You just gotta keep going out there and throwing up zeroes as much as you can. Give the offense a chance.”
“All his pitches are elite and he’s an elite arm, one of the best in the country,” Saum said of catching for Scott. “He goes out there, shows it every week, and whenever he’s pitching just like Matt Scott does, we’re gonna get a really good performance out of him.”
In the bottom of the 6th, Stanford scored four runs to give themselves a 5-1 lead. Charlie Saum hit a solo homer to left field to make it 2-1. Jimmy Nati then singled to right field after which Brady Reynolds was hit by a pitch. There was a review to confirm and the call was upheld that Reynolds was hit.
“It was a pretty good swing,” Saum said of his home run. “I’m just happy we could grab a lead with that one. Grab a little bit of momentum offensively and you know, the boys roll with it, so it was awesome.”
Then, Temo Becerra would be out at first base for the first out of the inning as Reynolds and Nati advanced to second and third base respectively. Charlie Bates then hit an RBI single to right field to bring home Nati and advance Reynolds to third base. That made it a 3-1 lead.
Tatum Marsh then executed a perfect RBI bunt, getting to first base while Bates advanced to second base and Reynolds came home. It was now a 4-1 lead for Stanford. With the bases loaded and two outs, Rintaro Sasaki hit an RBI single to second base to bring home Bates and advance Haskins and Marsh. Saum then popped up to end the inning. 5-1 Stanford led at the end of the 6th inning.
From there, Stanford would go on to win the game 5-1 as Trevor Moore pitched the 7th and 8th innings while Aidan Keenan pitched the 9th inning. Stanford was thinking of having Matt Scott pitch the 7th inning, but due to how long the 6th inning went, they decided to bring in Moore instead. That ended up being the right move.
“Oh a hundred percent,” Scott said when asked if he felt he could have pitched the 7th inning. “I mean, you gotta stay locked in no matter what. As soon as it was a long inning, review, pitching change, I mean, a lot of hits, it was probably the right decision, you know? I mean, it was the right decision, no matter what. We come in there and Trev Mo and AK shut it down, so it was good.
“I mean, our bullpen has been nails so far. It’s pretty cool to see, you know what I mean? We have a lot of guys back there that can pitch in any situation, so it’s a good problem to have.”
“He was gonna come back out for the seventh,” Esquer said of Scott. “We had intention and then but when the inning took so long with a pitching change and some runs in, then we were going to go right to Trevor Moore. We were gonna let him come out for the seventh and at least start the inning and then wait for Trevor to come in. But, when that inning kind of took long and it was a long sit for him, we just knew we were gonna go right to Trevor Moore then.
“The last two outings [for Moore] have been really good, you know. His outing at North Carolina and then this outing has just been great and you know, those four guys that we rely at the end, whether it’s Trevor Moore and Ty Uber and Aidan Keenan and Toran O’Harran. I mean, we feel like we can be a little interchangeable, right now it’s all those guys getting us to Aidan Keenan, but you know, we really don’t have a fear if any of those guys has the ball in the ninth inning if we need to, that they can finish a game if need be. We just have a luxury right now of getting the ball to Aidan because he’s got the hot hand. But those guys have been great at the end of the game.”
For Stanford, this is a good win. They’re in the driver’s seat to win the series and didn’t have a letdown game after an emotional series win at No. 4 North Carolina. That shows an ability to stay locked in and not lose focus.
“I thought it was a really mature win by us,” Esquer said. “Again, but not having our game early in the game and then kind of sticking with it and then get a little more comfortable by mid-game to the end of the game.”
“Staying tight, staying together, staying with the plan is key for us,” Saum said. “Everybody knows when we’re dialed in we’re gonna take care of business and just had to get back on the horse offensively those first five innings and we were good to go.”
Up next for Stanford is game two on Saturday 2:00 PM PT on ACCNX. Christian Lim (1-2, 7.13 ERA) is the projected starting pitcher for the Cardinal.
“I think it’s the off the field stuff, you know, everybody stays really tight,” Saum said of the key to Saturday. “Everybody’s really close knit and so, you know, I think that carries over onto the field and I think that’s in my four years here that’s kind of one of the most special parts of this team. I think this is the closest team we’ve had.”
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