On Saturday, No.2 Stanford fell to Connecticut 13-12 in the first game of their super-regional on The Farm. Pat Gallagher (11-3) was the winning pitcher for UConn in a starting role while Alex Williams (8-3) was the losing pitcher for Stanford also in a starting role.
“I mean first of all, my hats off to Connecticut,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “They came out and punched us right square in the mouth like you should on the road when you’re facing the host. Kinda reminiscent of how we were at Texas Tech a year ago, right? We had to go in there and just not be afraid and kinda take it to them and they took it to our best guy and I give them a lot of credit. They’re well-prepared and aggressive and they looked great.
“But, I give a lot of credit to my team. We just kinda hung in there and kinda just do what we do, which is just kinda not give up and we’re tough to beat, you know. We are. Even when we don’t play well, we’re tough to beat and I’ve noticed that about our team. The whole year there’s been a couple times we just didn’t have our best games, but man the games turned out close and they have to fight like hell to beat us.
“So I’m proud of that and hopefully we can take some momentum here at the end of the game and kinda move forward and that’s the positive we’ve gotta take out of today is we fought like hell and gave them a heck of a battle there right to the last hitter and hopefully we can use that for some momentum tomorrow.”
UConn led from the jump in this game. In the top of the 1st inning, Casey Dana reached first base on a fielding error and advanced to second base with two outs. Ben Huber then hit a double down the left field line to bring Dana home, making it a 1-0 UConn lead. Bryan Padilla flied out to left field to end the top of the inning. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Stanford did not score as only Carter Graham got on base by getting walked.
In the top of the 2nd inning, UConn went nuts. Korey Morton got things going with a double to left field after which T.C. Simmons hit a double to right field to bring Morton home. Matt Donlan then hit a home run to left center to bring Simmons home. Zach Bushling would then fly out to left field for the first out.
That first out did not slow UConn down as David Smith hit a single to short stop after which Erik Stock hit a single to short stop to advance Smith to second base. Dana then hit a double to left center to bring home both Smith and Stock. It was at this point that Alex Williams’ day was done as Max Meier came in to pitch. Huber then grounded out to short stop, advancing Dana to third base. With two outs, Padilla then doubled to left field to bring Dana home after which Morton homered to left field to bring Padilla home. Simmons would then hit a single up the middle before Donlan finally ended the inning by striking out while looking. It was now a 9-0 UConn lead. They scored eight runs in the top of the 2nd inning.
In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Stanford went to work. Kody Huff hit a single through the left side in the opening at-bat after which Drew Bowser homered to right field. Tommy Troy then grounded out to third base for the first out of the inning. Eddie Park then hit a double to right center after which Adam Crampton lined out to left center for the second out. In the next at-bat, Brock Jones hit a home run to center field to bring Park home, making it a 9-4 game. Graham grounded out to short stop to end the inning.
In the 3rd inning, neither team scored, though UConn came close to adding on another run. Bushling hit a single to open the top of the inning and would advance to third base thanks to a sacrifice bunt from Smith and a fly out from Stock. However, Dana would foul out to right field to end the top of the inning. As for the bottom of the 3rd, it was less eventful as none of Stanford’s batters got on base.
In the top of the 4th inning, UConn added two more runs. Huber hit a single to second base in the opening at-bat. With two outs and Huber still on first base, Simmons tripled to center field, bringing Huber home. Donlan then drove in Simmons with a single to left center. At this point, Stanford pulled Meier off the mound and brought in Tommy O’Rourke, who would get the final out in the next at-bat as Bushling grounded out to second base. 11-4 UConn lead.
In the bottom of the 4th, Stanford would not score, though there was some action. Bowser struck out swinging for what would have been the first out save it were a wild pitch that was thrown to him. As a result, he advanced to first base as UConn was not able to get the ball to first base in time to get him out. Troy then struck out swinging for the first out. Park then hit a single through the right side to advance Bowser to second base. Crampton would then reach first base on a fielder’s choice as Park was out at second base while Bowser was out at home plate as he made a poor attempt to round third and come home. That base running error kept it an 11-4 game.
Neither team would score in the 5th or 6th inning, which means it was still an 11-4 game entering the 7th inning. Gallagher pitched all the way through the end of the 6th inning while O’Rourke pitched the entire 5th inning and faced the first two batters of the 6th inning before being pulled and replaced by Nathan Fleischli. O’Rourke would walk Padilla before throwing a wild pitch to advance him to second base. It was at this point that Fleischli came in and got three outs to prevent UConn from adding more runs.
In the top of the 7th inning, UConn’s offense came alive again with Fleischli on the mound for the entire inning. Bushling doubled to left center after which Smith doubled to center field to bring Bushling home. Stock then singled through the right side to advance Smith to third base. Dana then flied out to center field to bring Smith home. Huber than flied out to right field after which Padilla struck out swinging. 13-4 UConn lead.
In the bottom of the 7th inning, Stanford found a way to add two runs of their own. Crampton hit a double to lead things off, but was waved to advance to third base, where he was called out. In next at-bat, Jones hit a home run to left center. At this point, Gallagher was done for the day as Garrett Coe came in to pitch. After Graham popped up to first base for the second out, Brett Barrera hit a solo homer to center field. Braden Montgomery would then strike out swinging to end the inning. 13-6 UConn lead.
“Crampton kinda stutter-stepped around second base and didn’t give us the best look if he had been running all the way through,” Esquer recalled. “Sometimes it’s, you know, better to kinda lay up and play conservative. The reality is we haven’t been down thirteen to five. I was like hey I don’t think we know how to play down thirteen to five because we’re never down thirteen to five and we probably should have just laid up rather than shoot for the green on those two plays.
“Again, both mistakes [Bowser out at home] were aggressive, I can’t fault our guys for staying aggressive, but again it’s sometimes with the deficit like that, you play a little more conservative and you gotta be sure. But like I said, this isn’t the time of year to beat your kids up for aggressive mistakes.”
In the 8th inning, neither team scored. Cody Jensen came in to pitch for Fleischli and held down the fort in the top of the inning while Coe did his job in the bottom of the inning. This means it was a 13-6 game going into the 9th inning.
In the top of the 9th, Jensen made quick work of UConn’s lineup, getting three straight outs: Smith struck out looking, Stock grounded out to second base, and Dana popped up to first base. This set up a situation Stanford has been in before. Down with only three outs left. The difference though is they were down by seven runs.
Stanford got off to a great start in the bottom of the 9th inning as Crampton was walked by Coe. This ended Coe’s night as Devin Kirby came in to replace Coe on the mound. In the next at-bat, Jones hit a homer to center field to bring home Crampton. It was now a 13-8 game. Kirby would then walk Graham before then getting pulled for Justin Willis.
Barrera struck out swinging for the first out as Willis was off to a good start. However, in the next at-bat, Montgomery homered to right field to bring Graham home. 13-10 game. Trevor Haskins then struck out swinging for the second out. With two outs, Bowser hit a homer to right center to make it a 13-11 game after which Troy homered to left center to make it a 13-12 game. Park was then walked, putting Crampton in a situation where he could win the game or tie it. Crampton unfortunately would strike out swinging to end the game. 13-12 would be the final score. Stanford’s amazing comeback attempt was just short.
“I think it’s easy when you get, like Esqy said, when you get down thirteen five and the game’s kinda out of hand a little bit to kinda just go out there and be loose and just play stress free for the most part,” Jones said. “Just because your back’s already against the wall. You can kinda just got out there and let it eat for the most part and I think that’s something that we do really well is we don’t panic. We don’t hit the panic button right away. We kinda just let the game progress and we always think that we got more opportunities later on and obviously we just got a little bit short tonight.”
For Stanford this loss is a mixed bag of disappointment and encouragement. Disappointment in that they got down by so much and that Williams had another off night. Encouragement in that they showed a lot of fight and almost pulled off another miraculous comeback, hitting eight home runs.
“It would have been positive regardless,” Esquer said of his message to the team after the game. “This isn’t the time to panic and kinda beat the kids up over maybe not playing well or bringing their best game out. Sometimes it takes a little while to kinda in this atmosphere kinda find your game and you hope that you eventually do and that was kinda my, not plead with them, but instruction to them was hey, let’s forget the score and let’s just find our comfort zone in the game and we’ll take whatever the result happens because sometimes it takes a while to, sometimes guys put different pressures or they think the game’s a little bit different when it’s not and we’ll have to come out tomorrow and play better right from the start.”
For UConn, it’s a mixed bag of relief and discouragement. Relief in that they pulled out the win. At the end of the day, that’s all that matters. Discouragement in that they got out-played in the second half of the game. After going up 9-0, Stanford outscored them 12-4, scoring six runs in the bottom of the 9th. UConn isn’t exactly going into Sunday’s game with a lot of momentum.
“Heck of a baseball game,” UConn head coach Jim Penders said after the game. “I don’t know if people stayed up on the East Coast to watch it, but they’ll be up a little while longer if they did and I don’t understand the game of lacrosse, I could see why you’d want to coach lacrosse, but I don’t know how you’d want to play it after watching a game like that and how exciting it was or watch it and it was a heck of a baseball game. Just unbelievable offenses on both sides, we hung on and they’re not gonna go away. We know that.
“They’re a heck of a ball club and they got four or five major leaguers in that lineup, future major leaguers in that lineup, and we knew that no lead was safe, so glad our guys kept coming with the bats. Pat Gallagher did a really good job settling down after that second inning where he got behind a bunch of guys early and settled up and posted a bunch of zeroes, which in retrospect was a heck of an accomplishment against that offense. So, we have a ton of respect for Stanford coach Esquer and the way that they go about things and we know we’re going to get their best punch tomorrow.”
Speaking of Sunday’s game, that will be at 4:00 PM PT on ESPN2 and KZSU radio. If UConn wins, they’ll advance to the College World Series. If Stanford wins, there will be a series deciding game three on Monday.
As for how the pitching will look for Stanford going the rest of the way, Esquer did share his thoughts on that after the game:
“We probably, we got Williams out of there as soon as it didn’t look like it was going to be his day before he went too long. We’d like to have him available if we can get it to a Monday game. Not to start, but to pitch some innings. It’s gonna be in the next two games where we gotta get in a position where Quinn Mathews is on the mound to win or lose. I mean, that’s kinda been our philosophy here at this second half of the season that Quinn’s gonna be the decision maker at some point and that’s a lot of pressure to put on him, but I think he’s nine and one with seven saves.
“So he’s been in there on the positive for like 16 or 17 decisions. So, probably don’t have the luxury of waiting too long. It would be great if he pitched one inning tomorrow and then pitched eight innings the next day with two wins, but we’ve gotta find the right time to get him in there so he’s on the mound when the game’s decided.”
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