On Sunday, No.2 Stanford defeated Connecticut 8-2 to even up their super-regional series 1-1. Brandt Pancer (3-0) was the winning pitcher for Stanford in a relief role while Quinn Mathews (8) picked up the save. Austin Peterson (11-3) was the losing pitcher for UConn in a starting role.
“Thankful my guys didn’t want to stop playing together,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “I thought we played a good, gutty ball game and again Connecticut is, you’re never comfortable at any point in that game. I don’t care if it was eight-two for the last seven innings. It was, they’ve got a good lineup and you always gotta be aware. Brandt came in and did just an outstanding job of just kinda settling us down a little bit.
“Ty came out and he didn’t have the pitch that probably we needed him to have, which is his breaking ball had the shape that we thought would give them trouble and Brandt has that same type of slider and I thought he kinda stemmed the tide for us and got it to Ryan Bruno and then that’s kinda our formula is we gotta get the ball to Quinn Mathews at some point and have him be there when the game’s decided.
“Drew Bowser continues just to be red hot and I think he’s got 10 homers in the last 11 games and we’ll take one more game of hot tomorrow. But hey, just a gutty effort by our guys and so thankful I get a chance to coach these guys for one more game.”
Even though Stanford was playing at their home stadium, they were the designated road team in this game, which means they had to bat first. This seemed to be a good thing for Stanford as they picked up right where they left off from Saturday’s six-run 9th inning. After Brock Jones struck out in the opening at-bat, Carter Graham was walked to get on first base. Brett Barrera then hit a double to right center to advance Graham to third base.
After Braden Montgomery struck out looking for the second out, Kody Huff singled up the middle to bring home both Graham and Barrera. Drew Bowser then hit a single up the middle to advance Huff to third base before Tommy Troy ended the top of the inning by flying out down the left field line. 2-0 Stanford lead.
“You know, I think so,” Esquer said when asked if it helped his team to bat first. “I think getting out there and scoring, you know, Kody Huff had a clutch at-bat in the first inning, that base hit up the middle for two runs and I think scoring those two runs and getting out there kinda lets us relax even more and get our pitcher out there and we gave up one in the bottom half but still held a lead and then the big second inning was big for us and then we got to the point where we needed Brandt to come in and him putting up some zeroes there was huge.”
In the bottom of the 1st inning, UConn would respond by scoring one run. David Smith would strike out swinging for the first out. The next batter Erik Stock hit a double to center field. The next batter Casey Dana struck out swinging for the second out. It looked like Stanford might escape the inning without giving up a run. But then, Ben Huber singled to center field to bring home Stock. The next batter Bryan Padilla would be walked.
During the at-bat of Korey Morton, Stanford starting pitcher Ty Uber threw a wild pitch which advanced Huber to third base. It was at this point that Uber’s day was done as Pancer came in to replace him on the mound. Pancer came in and struck out Morton swinging to end the bottom of the inning, preserving a 2-1 Stanford lead.
“I know for me, I knew I had Uber’s back,” Pancer said. “I was gonna do my job, get him out of that, save his runs, and then I knew Ryan coming in after me, I knew he had me a hundred percent. I think that’s just kind of what we’ve done all year and I think that’s been huge for us is just having each other’s back, having that trust, having that family in the bullpen and with our starters where we can trust one another wherever, whenever to give the ball up to whoever it may be.
“Today was definitely a slider. That’s something that I’ve been working on for, I couldn’t even tell you how long and I finally started to figure it out here in the back end of the year and today it was definitely working for me. So yeah, that’s been a huge help for me is been able my fastball play up from there and really that’s all I really needed today. Was super helpful for me today.”
In the top of the 2nd inning, Stanford went bananas on offense. Eddie Park got walked to get the party started after which Adam Crampton singled to right center, advancing Park to third base. Jones then flied out to center field to bring home Park. During the next at-bat, with Graham back at the plate, Crampton stole second base after which he advanced to third base thanks to a throwing error from the catcher Matt Donlan. Graham then singled to right center to bring Crampton home.
In the next at-bat, Barrera singled to right field to advance Graham to second base. With both Barrera and Graham on base, Montgomery hit a home run to left center. This ended Austin Peterson’s day on the mound. The weird thing though is that while Peterson’s day was going to be done regardless, instead of head coach Jim Penders taking him out, the home plate umpire ejected him from the game, resulting in a four-game suspension.
Cole Chudoba came in to pitch for Peterson. The first batter Chudoba faced was Huff, who flied out to center field. The next batter was Bowser, who crushed it deep to left field for a home run. Troy would then hit a single up the middle before Park flied out to left field to end the top of the inning. It was now an 8-1 Stanford lead.
“I just think as a team we’re just getting really good pitches to hit,” Bowser said of their hitting tear. “We’re being patient, we’ve been working a lot in the cages whether it’s not taking BP and just pregame in the cages. Just meeting as an offense. I think as a whole we’re getting good pitches to hit.”
“I think they enjoy that batman mask to some degree,” Esquer added. “So, it’s just contagious and our guys, Steve Rodriguez, and Andre [Mercurio] do a great job preparing our hitters. But, we hit home runs. We don’t train for those, they’re kinda of a natural result of what those guys have been doing in the cages. Just square contact as hard as we can and we get some balls airborne and they go. Because we’ve got good, strong, athletic players.”
In the bottom of the 2nd inning, T.C. Simmons was walked after which Donlan struck out swinging for the first out. Zach Bushling then flied out to center field for the second out. The next batter was Smith, who hit a double to center field, bringing home Simmons. Stock then grounded out to short stop to end the inning. 8-2 Stanford lead.
In what was a rather unusual turn of events, no team would score the rest of the game. Stanford would walk out with an 8-2 victory. After a high scoring pair of innings, it was a pretty quiet game the rest of the way.
Chudoba would pitch all the way until the 8th inning where he was replaced by Jack Sullvian after walking Crampton and Jones. Sullivan secured the first two outs of the 9th inning as well before Braden Quinn had to come in to get the final out for UConn.
As for Stanford, Pancer pitched through the end of the 4th inning and started the bottom of the 5th inning but was replaced by Ryan Bruno after walking Bushling. Bruno would pitch the rest of the 5th inning and 6th inning before getting replaced by Quinn Mathews, who pitched the 7th inning all the way until the final out.
For Stanford, the only frustrating part of this game was the fact that they didn’t add more runs after the second inning and forced themselves to bring in Mathews to finish the game. Ideally, they would have added more runs and not had to use Mathews as much. Aside from that, it was really a good day for Stanford. They got the win and will live to fight another day.
“Well, it got a little frustrating,” Esquer said. “We left some runs out there. There was some free at-bats for some guys that we could have scored without and we weren’t able to do that. So our offense stalled a little bit in the middle innings and we had some opportunities. Quinn would have pitched a little regardless probably with a lead, but we might have been able to hold off an inning or so if we had been able to extend.”
This was also graduation weekend at Stanford. While they obviously had a game to play, the seniors on the team also got to walk with their classmates and experience the festivities of that before locking in on the game.
“Yeah, when I got here to the stadium, there was guys in caps and gowns,” Esquer said. “They were just heading over to the team meal, but they had their caps and gowns on and they walk into the dining hall and guys were giving them an ovation and hey, there’s a lot of regardless of the result tomorrow, this team has just been great to be around. When you get a chance to coach a bunch of guys that care for each other. It just makes coming to the park every day, because they’re accountable to practice hard, they’re accountable to working extra if they need to, and you have no regrets and you couldn’t ask any more out of this team and we’ve squeezed a lot out of this club and we got one more day and again if they come out and play like they can, whatever the result is, we’ll accept it and go on. And hopefully we’ll move on.”
As for UConn, they were obviously disappointed. Peterson’s ejection was a bummer and then just in general, to not be able to make any dent in Stanford’s lead beyond the second inning was frustrating. Still, they have an even series and a chance to go to the College World Series if they win Monday. So in that vein, they can’t have too many complaints.
As for Monday’s game, that will begin at 1:00 PM PT on ESPN2. Drew Dowd or Joey Dixon will be on the mound for Stanford to start. Every other pitcher also is a possible option to go thereafter. It’s an all-hands-on-deck situation.
“I think each of them can give us a little bit tomorrow,” Esquer said of the availability of the guys who pitched. “I think it’s going to be one of those, we’re kinda cornering the market in those staff days. But we’ve been doing that for a little while now and Thomas Eager’s done just a great job just kinda manipulating that staff and getting them in at the right time and we consult and all of us between myself, Steve Rodriguez, and Thomas, we’ve been fortunate, Thomas has been the main guy. He’s calling the pitches, he is just manipulating the way we attack their lineup and I give him a lot of credit on what we’ve done. Just all my years here, but these last two games especially.”
To connect with CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook and Twitter, click here.
To connect with Ben Parker on Facebook and Twitter, click here.
