On Saturday, No.2 Stanford fell to Texas State 5-2 in their home regional of the NCAA tournament, setting up a do or die Sunday. Levi Wells (9-1) was the winning pitcher for Texas State in a starting role while Alex Williams (7-3) was the losing pitcher for Stanford in a starting role. Tristan Stivors (18) picked up the save for Texas State. This game snapped Stanford’s 17-game winning streak.
“It’s a typical Stanford regional game, right?” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “Over the last three years whether it’s Fullerton, Fresno, or Irvine. The winner’s bracket game is gonna be a tough one and getting out of the regional is gonna be tough. So it’s really nothing different than we’ve faced in the past. So, Texas State played a good ball game, they kinda beat as at our own ball game, I think they hit three homers and we didn’t hit one today and we kinda said at the start of the day that maybe the team that homers the most is gonna be the winner and that’s how it turned out.
“I thought…I was happy our relievers kinda held the line there at the end and gave us a chance and we just couldn’t come up with that hit. It was inches, right? Montgomery’s ball off the wall, that’s just a few inches and Huff slices one down the line with two guys on and that’s a couple inches. So, just short. Probably the theme of the game. We were just a little short the whole way around and we got our work cut out for us for sure.”
Due to the quirks of it being the Saturday of a regional, Stanford played as the “road” team even though they were playing in their home venue at Sunken Diamond. As a result, Stanford was the first team to bat.
In the top of the 1st inning, Stanford was unable to get anyone on base as Brock Jones struck out swinging, Carter Graham popped up to second base, and Brett Barrera grounded out to the pitcher. In the bottom of the 1st inning, Texas State got on the board thanks to Jose Gonzalez hitting a solo home run over the right field fence. As a result, Texas State would lead 1-0 at the end of the 1st inning.
In the top of the 2nd inning, Stanford found a way to get on the board and even up the game. Braden Montgomery got walked to get things going after which Kody Huff flied out to right field for the first out. Drew Bowser would then reach first base on a fielder’s choice as Montgomery was out at second base. Tommy Troy then hit a single to right field, advancing Bowser to second base. Eddie Park would then hit a single to center field, bringing home Bowser and advancing Troy to second base. Adam Crampton would then pop up to short stop to end the top of the inning.
In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Alex Williams would get three quick outs, not allowing anyone to get on base. This made it a 1-1 game at the end of the 2nd inning. It was shaping up to be a fight.
After both teams went scoreless in the 3rd inning, Stanford once again went scoreless in the top of the 4th inning as only Troy got on base via a double. In the bottom of the 4th, Texas State started to gain some separation. Gonzalez hit his second home run of the game, this time to left center in the opening at-bat. Then, Justin Thompson hit a double down the left field line. With Thompson on second base, Wesley Faison homered to left field, bringing home Thompson. Texas State almost added another run as John Wuthrich got hit by a pitch and got to third base thanks to a ground out and passed ball. With Wuthrich on third base, the inning ended as Cameron Gibbons grounded out to third base. 4-1 Texas State lead at the end of the 4th inning.
Stanford’s bats remained cold in the top of the 5th as Jones, Graham, and Barrera once again failed to get on base. In the bottom of the 5th, Stanford made a substitution, taking out Graham, moving Barrera to first base, and bringing in Trevor Haskins to play second base. Graham got hurt earlier in the game catching a foul ball down the right field line. He was able to stay in the game for a little bit, but his lower leg got too sore for him to continue.
Texas State would add a run in the bottom of the 5th inning. Ben McClain hit a double to left field and advanced to third base as Dalton Shuffield grounded out to first base unassisted. Gonzalez then got walked after which Thompson put the ball in play resulting in McClain coming home and Gonzalez getting out at second base. Thompson would advance to first base via fielder’s choice. That would be the only run Texas State scored in the bottom of the 5th, making it a 5-1 lead at the end of the inning. Williams did not finish the inning for Stanford as Ryan Bruno came in to finish things off and keep it at 5-1 with two men on base following Faison getting walked.
In the top of the 6th inning, Stanford was able to add one run. With two outs, Drew Bowser singled to left center after which Troy doubled to left center, bringing Bowser home. Park would strike out looking to end the top of the inning. It was now a 5-2 lead for Texas State. Bruno would do his job in the bottom of the 6th, not allowing anyone to score, but the bases did get loaded with two outs. Fortunately for Bruno and Stanford, he was able to get out of the jam and keep it a 5-2 game at the end of the 6th inning.
In the top of the 7th inning, the only Stanford player to get on base was Haskins, who hit a single to right field. Outside of that, Stanford’s offense did not do much. In the bottom of the 7th inning, Max Meier came in to pitch for Bruno and got all three batters out he faced with no trouble.
In the top of the 8th inning, Stanford had a little more life offensively as Huff got walked with one out. With two outs, Troy reached first base on a fielding error at third base. Unfortunately for Stanford, Park struck out looking to end the top of the inning. In the bottom of the 8th, Nathan Fleischli came in to pitch for Meier and got three straight outs. Fleischli has been dodgy all season long, but he delivered the goods in this one.
In the top of the 9th inning, Stanford had one final chance to tie the game up or take the lead. Crampton would hit a single after which Jones got walked with no outs. The absence of Graham was felt in the at-bat of Haskins, who struck out swinging. From there, Barrera would strike out after which Montgomery flied out to center field. 5-2 Texas State victory.
For Stanford, this loss really stings. Alex Williams has been one of the top pitchers in the country and he did not have his best stuff in this game. Brock Jones, who was named national player of the month, was quiet as well. In games of this magnitude, your star players have to deliver and for Stanford, their star players did not come through.
“If anything he just maybe just probably trying a little too hard,” Esquer said of Williams. “Sometimes I think he was reaching back for something more when his best is good enough and that’s sometimes what happens in playoff situations, right? Sometimes guys get kinda outside themselves and you put under just trying a little too hard, right? Because I think he had the pitch mix that could work but a couple fast ball counts were going away and misses just up in the zone and I think maybe just trying to put a little bit too much on it, right? Just when you try to overthrow it and put a little bit more than you have to kinda move up in the zone.”
At this point all that Stanford can do is worry about Sunday. If they take care of business on Sunday, they’ll give themselves a chance to win the regional on Monday. The way the regional format works is it’s double-elimination, meaning each team has to get beaten twice in order to get eliminated. Stanford will face USCB on Sunday at 1:00 PM PT and the winner of that game will face Texas State at 7:00 PM PT. If Texas State wins on Sunday, they win the regional. If Stanford or UCSB knock off Texas State, then the winner of that game will have a rematch with Texas State on Monday.
“Well you hope that they’re motivated they want to play Texas State again, right?” Esquer said. “You’re hoping they’re the type of competitors when somebody beats you kinda hope we get one more shot at them, right? Just give us one more shot at them. It’s gonna be a challenge just to maneuver our bullpen and starting pitching around to figure that out, but we’ve gotta win like I tell them, we’re not worried about how do we get to three wins, we gotta get one win three times, right? So it’s about one game and we’ll worry about the next one and then we’ll worry about the next one, but I thought Texas State played a good ball game and they kinda got it where they wanted to, right? They got through the starter to that closer who’s pretty tough and hopefully he threw about forty pitches so he’s got a little less in the tank the next time he goes out there.”
As far as Carter Graham is concerned, his status for Sunday is up-in-the-air. It’s all going to come down to how he feels.
“Yeah, we’ll see,” Esquer said. “Tomorrow morning is going to be big, right? And that’s unfortunate. Just a great hustle play and he’s just, he makes a good play and kinda bangs into the wall and just the impact is what’s causing him a problem right now and yeah, it’s lower leg and that’s unfortunate. But sometimes it just becomes an opportunity for someone else to kinda step up and you really need your, you’d rather not have someone with twenty home runs out of your lineup if you can avoid it, we’ll find out in the morning whether he’s playable, right? And that’s a big blow to us, right?
"Because he’s right in the middle of everything that we do and not ideal, but we talked a lot [to] our team about it takes a different hero every night to be the team you want to be and so we may rely on someone else to kinda step up and have a day tomorrow to help us move on in the tournament.
“It could be that [game-to-game]. What we’re looking for is how he wakes up tomorrow and whether it’s stiffer than he anticipates. His heart will be in it to play, but we may have to be smart for him if it doesn’t seem like it’s the smartest thing to do to get him out there.”
Lastly, as far as who will start tomorrow on the mound, Stanford is still figuring that piece out. As for Texas State, they know who they’re going to start.
“We don’t at this point,” Esquer said of a solidified starter for tomorrow. “We got a couple options with Dowd, maybe a start. What we want to make sure before this tournament ends is we gotta use Mathews in the best way possible. We’d hate to keep waiting for him and not get a chance to use him, so it’ll be someone to start the game and then if it doesn’t look like it’s moving our way, I think Quinn [Mathews] will probably be one of the guys that will be in there sooner than later.”
“We’ll throw Robie,” Texas State head coach Steven Trout said of who will start for his club. “Tony Robie.”
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