On Sunday, No. 18 Stanford baseball defeated Duke 10-5, completing a three-game sweep of the Blue Devils. Stanford righty Toran O’Harran (1-0)was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while Duke righty Gabe Nard (1-1) was the losing pitcher for the Blue Devils in a relief role. Stanford freshman first baseman Rintaro Sasaki was the top performer for the Cardinal going 2-5 for one home run and three RBIs. Stanford improves to 15-3 overall and 5-1 in the ACC while Duke falls to 12-9 overall and 2-4 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Duke at Stanford-Sunday, March 16th
“Yeah, the game didn’t start how we wanted, right?” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “I mean, they scored on us early and I give our guys credit, we’ve learned, you know, a lot of different ways to win and things don’t have to go perfectly or go our way early and our guys just kind of find a way to hang in there and keep chipping away. So, I thought it showed good character, especially on a Sunday. We knew they were going to come out, you know, desperate to win and play us really hard and they did and our guys took a few punches early, but stayed with it.
“Some big hits. Obviously Rintaro and Jimmy Nati and Larson had a couple big hits. Temo Becerra, just guys coming through and the good thing about that is we get a different hero every night. We’re not relying on the same guys over and over and over again. Up and down our lineup everybody can help us out.”
Duke was the first team to strike in this game as they scored three runs in the top of the 1st inning thanks to an RBI single from Tyler Albright and a two-RBI triple from AJ Gracia. They would then add one more run in the top of the 2nd inning as Jake Berger doubled down the right field line to bring home Ben Rounds. That made it a 4-0 lead for the Blue Devils.
Stanford righty Joey Volchko was the starting pitcher for the Cardinal and the first two innings were not kind to him. He really needed to settle down and to his credit, he was able to do so, only giving up one more run the rest of the way in the top of the 4th inning as Wallace Clark hit an RBI double to bring home Ben Rounds. That made it a 5-5 game.
“Yeah, they did a good job,” Esquer said of how Duke hit against Volchko. “They did a good job, you know. They hit some good pitches, but they did hit those good pitches and they scored off of him early. Hey, he got us through four and I thought he kind of righted the ship a little bit more at the end, the last two innings were better than the first two and you know, he’s gonna have to be able to do that and not be perfect. And I think our team does a good job of not making it so that our guys have to pitch perfect or play perfect in order to be successful.”
As for how Stanford scored five runs, they did so in the bottom of the 3rd inning. Trevor Haskins hit a two-run homer to left field to bring home Tatum Marsh; Brady Reynolds hit an RBI double down the left field line; Temo Becerra hit a two-RBI triple down the right field line.
“Honestly, I don’t know,” Becerra said of what he saw on his triple. “I was just going up there trying to get a pitch to hit and he threw me something in the zone and I was being aggressive. So I got rewarded.”
Stanford then scored four runs in the bottom of the 4th inning as Rintaro Sasaki hit a three-run home run to right center after which Jimmy Nati hit a solo homer to left field. That made it a 9-5 lead for the Cardinal.
“Yeah, a couple hits as well and you know, probably would have had two home runs if the wind hadn’t been blowing, right?” Esquer said of Sasaki finding his home run groove. “But hey, he’s just coming into his own and we expected him just to keep getting better and grow into it. You know, to get that home run off his back, I think he’s relaxed a little bit more and is able to be himself.”
“We knew it was coming,” Becerra said of Sasaki’s home runs. “Sooner or later. But, I mean it’s nice to see him get going now. He’s got three home runs now. It’s pretty sick.”
In the top of the 5th inning, Toran O’Harran came in to pitch for Volchko. O’Harran would only give up one hit across three innings while Ty Uber took the reins in the 8th and 9th inning, giving up only one hit. Both guys did a great job of shutting down the Blue Devils.
Stanford would add one more run in the bottom of the 7th inning as Charlie Bates hit an RBI single to left center to bring home Brady Reynolds. That made it a 10-5 lead which ended up being the final score.
For Stanford, this is a huge win just in terms of getting the three-game sweep. Duke is a talented team and came in with some momentum after taking two out of three games against Cal. To sweep them in dominant fashion has to feel good and should give them a lot of confidence.
“We’re just trying to come out every single day like it’s one game at a time,” Becerra said. “Just trying to get that win. But nothing too much. Like, we’ve just been coming out trying to have fun and play hard. That’s it.”
Up next for Stanford is a three-game home series against Bay Area rival Cal as they continue ACC play. The first game will be on Friday at 6:05 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Well we gotta get through finals,” Esquer said looking ahead to Cal. “And that’s never fun. I always tease them I miss a lot of things about college, but I do not miss finals week. So they’ve got some studying to do and we’ll take a couple days off, but we gotta stay in contact with us so we can come out ready to play. Cal is a really good team and played extremely tough against the last two weekends in ACC opponents. So they’re capable and we’re gonna have to play well to win.”
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