On Friday, No.2 Stanford baseball defeated Binghamton 20-7 to win their first game of the NCAA tournament on The Farm. Tommy O’Rourke (3-5) was the winning pitcher for Stanford in a mid-relief role while Thomas Babalis (4-7) was the losing pitcher for Binghamton in a starting role. The 20 runs scored by Stanford is a program post-season record. Stanford also increased their winning streak to 17.
“The score did not indicate how difficult they were to shake, right?” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “I mean, even with a ten-run lead they loaded the bases a couple times and really caused some problems with some traffic on the bases, but Dixon, O’Rourke, and Pancer did a nice job of getting us into the middle and the end of the game and our offense kinda sustained and was a little relentless, which we’ve been talking a lot about. We can’t take innings off and you can’t have enough runs and that was kinda the most important part of the game was continuing to score. Big hits by Bowser and obviously Troy was the key to keeping us going.”
The Bearcats were first to strike, getting on the board in the top of the 1st inning. Cavan Tully hit a lead-off single up the middle to get things going. In the next at-bat, Logan Haskell hit a single up the middle as well, putting some pressure on Stanford starting pitcher Joey Dixon. After Nick Roselli hit a fly out to left field, Evin Sullivan singled up the middle to advance Haskell to second base and bring Tully home. That would be the only run the Bearcats scored in the top of the inning, making it a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the inning.
Stanford would not score in the bottom of the 1st inning as only Brett Barrera got on base with a single. In the top of the 2nd inning, it was pretty similar as Binghamton was scoreless, not getting a single player on base. It was still a 1-0 Binghamton lead going into the bottom of the 2nd inning.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Stanford turned on the jets. Kody Huff got things going with a double down the left field line.Drew Bowser then hit a double down the left field line to bring home Huff to tie up the game. Tommy Troy then hit a single to right center to bring Bowser home. Eddie Park then hit a single to center field to advance Troy to second base. Adam Crampton then hit a single to left field to advance Park to second base and bring home Troy.
The first out came as Brock Jones reached first base on a fielder’s choice while Crampton was out at second base and Park advanced to third base. Carter Graham then hit a single to center field to advance Jones to third base and bring Park home. Brett Barrera then hit a single to right field to advance Graham to second base and bring Jones home. Stanford wasn’t done yet as Braden Montgomery hit a single to center field to advance Barrera to second base and bring Graham home. In the next at-bat, Huff was walked to load up the bases.
With the bases loaded, Bowser hit a grand slam to make it a 10-1 lead. At this point, Binghamton came to the conclusion that it wasn’t Babalis’ day, pulling him off the mound and bringing in John Lumpinski. After Troy reached first base on a fielding error, Park would ground into a double play to end the inning. Binghamton’s inning from hell was over.
“I think they put up one, we had zero, and so I think just after that we tried to do our best to just keep it simple and just be us,” Bowser said of scoring 10 runs in one inning. “And I think in order to do that we were able to produce offense.”
“Historically over the season, ten run and eight run leads have not been as comfortable as I would like them to be, right?” Esquer added. “And they were inching closer with probably one big hit away from making it even closer than we would have liked, but we’ve been able to minimize those innings. And so yeah, ten run inning obviously gave us a little breathing room, but to say that was comfortable necessarily, probably not. Until Pancer I think got in there and kinda stabilized the game, where he was able to break them down a little bit, that’s maybe when we had a little bit of control of the game.”
Rather than throwing in the towel, Binghamton found some resolve and slowly chipped their way back into the game. In the top of the 3rd inning, Tully got things going with a single through the right side after which Haskell hit a single to advance Tully to second base. Roselli then hit a single to load up the bases. With the bases loaded, Sullivan grounded into a double play to bring home Tully. Reilly then grounded out to short stop to end the top of the inning. It was now a 10-2 game. The bottom of the 3rd inning was pretty quiet for the Cardinal as only Graham got on base by getting walked.
In the top of the 4th inning, Binghamton found a way to score another run. Devin Bade got hit by a pitch in the opening at-bat after which Andrew Tan singled through the left side to advance Bade to second base. Jake Evans then reached first base on a fielding error to load up the bases again. With the bases loaded, Colin Mason flied out to center field to bring home Bade. Tully then filed out after which Haskell reached first base on a fielder’s choice as Tan was out at third base to end the top of the inning. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Stanford had another quiet inning as Montgomery, Huff, and Bowser all failed to get on base. It was a 10-3 game at the end of the 4th.
The 5th inning was more exciting as both teams scored. In the top of the 5th, Roselli got things going for Binghamton with a single to left field. At this point, O’Rourke came in to pitch for Stanford. The first batter O’Rourke faced was Sullivan, who hit a single to right field, advancing Roselli to second base. Reilly then flied out to center field, advancing Roselli to third base. Bade then hit a single to right field, advancing Sullivan to second base and bringing Roselli home.
In the next at-bat, Tan got hit by a pitch to load up the bases once again. With the bases loaded, Evans singled to center field to advance all the runners, bringing Sullivan home. Mason then hit the ball to the pitcher, resulting in him getting out at first base, but bringing home Bade and advancing Tan to third base. Tully would then ground out to short stop, ending the top of the inning. It was now a 10-6 Stanford lead.
In the bottom of the 5th inning, Troy doubled to left field to get things going for the Cardinal in the opening at-bat. Then, Park singled to left field and advanced to second base on the throw, bringing home Troy. Crampton then followed that up with a triple down the right field line, bringing Park home. Jones then struck out swinging for the first out.
Graham would then ground out to short stop for the second out, bringing home Crampton. Barrera then hit a single to right field to get on base. Montgomery then hit a double to right center, bringing home Barrera. After Huff got walked, the inning would end with Bowser hitting into a fielder’s choice as Montgomery was out at third base unassisted. After scoring four runs in the bottom of the 5th, it was now a 14-6 Stanford lead.
“Obviously I think a little bit of our ability to get extra bases hits, right?” Esquer said of the key to their ability to bring runners home. “We’ve homered a couple times and doubled a few other times and had some big hits with runners on base. So I think we were able to do that, kinda hold’em to singles early on in the game and minimize the damage.”
In the top of the 6th inning, Stanford would not give up any runs, though O’Rourke was pulled off the mound and replaced by Brandt Pancer after hitting Haskell and giving up a single to Roselli. Pancer would come in and calm the waters, giving up no hits and walking no batters.
In the bottom of the 6th, Stanford added another run as Troy hit a solo homer to center field in the opening at-bat. That home run would end Lumpinski’s day as Kyle Eskildsen came in on the mound. Eskildsen did a nice job of not allowing any more runs despite Stanford putting a little pressure on him. 15-6 lead for Stanford at the end of the inning.
After Binghamton had a scoreless top of the 7th inning, Stanford made it an 18-6 lead in the bottom of the 7th inning thanks to a three-run homer from Troy that drove home Huff and Montgomery. At this point, the game was out of control. Stanford was a runaway train.
After Binghamton added a run in the top of the 8th inning to make it an 18-7 game, Stanford got to 20 runs thanks to a two-run homer from Joe Lomuscio that brought home Graham. 20-7 would end up being the final score as Stanford closed out Binghamton in the top of the 9th inning.
For Stanford, this game went just as they hoped it would go. The bats were on fire and the pitching did its job. They were able to get the win without burning through too many arms and they now have the luxury of using Alex Williams in their next game, which was the plan going in.
“We’ll go Williams tomorrow,” Esquer said. “Yeah, that’s our game plan all along is to maybe flip it and get Williams the winners bracket game. You know that’s gonna be a tough ball game whoever we draw whether it’s Texas State or Santa Barbara, it’s gonna be, we typically/historically have had some really rough regionals getting out of here whether it’s Fresno State two years ago or Irvine a year ago. So, we know what we’re in for. It’s not gonna be easy to get out, so Williams gives us the best chance on day two.”
Up next for Stanford is a game on Saturday against Texas State at Sunken Diamond. That game will begin at 7:00 PM PT.
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