On Sunday, No.8 Stanford baseball defeated Cal State Fullerton 6-5 to stay alive in their home regional of the NCAA Tournament. Nick Dugan (1-0) picked up his first win of the season for the Cardinal in a relief role while Ryan Bruno (9) picked up the save. Trevor Hinkel (1-5) was awarded the loss for the Titans in a relief role.
BOX SCORE: Cal State Fullerton at Stanford-Sunday, June 4th
“Yeah, hey, that was, Stanford-Fullerton, they come all the same way, it is a battle,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “We were lucky to be out on top. Just, you saw the heat of the moment maybe play in it a little bit early where we made a couple of mistakes that are kinda uncharacteristic. But you know, when you play playoff baseball sometimes you gotta work through some mistakes you don’t usually see and Fullerton played a great game and a quality team and that’s a big quality win for us. Win number forty on the season and that one was hard fought and we needed a lot of people to do it.
“Temo right here coming up big for us with the big swing and you know what, we talk about it all the time. Our mantra a little bit is pitching defense and different hero every night, right? And then preparation and we gotta count on different people. We just can’t count on the same part of the lineup all the time or the same person. We gotta spread it around to be the team we want to be. The pitching staff, we’ve kinda pieced it together. It’s gonna be patchwork quilt from here on out. So, we’re gonna need some big performances by some people to keep this thing going.”
Matt Scott got the start on the mound for the Cardinal while Peyton Jones got the start for the Titans. Stanford played as the “road” team in this game, which meant that they got to bat first. In the top of the 1st inning, Stanford did not score any runs as only Tommy Troy got on base by hitting a single. Troy later got caught stealing second base to end the top of the inning.
In the bottom of the 1st, the Titans added a run as Maddox Latta singled up the middle to bring home Zach Lew. Given that Lew reached first base thanks to a throwing error by Owen Cobb, it was not an earned run for Scott. 1-0 lead for the Titans at the end of the 1st inning.
In the top of the 2nd inning, Stanford did not score as only Braden Montgomery got on base by hitting a single to right field. In the bottom of the 2nd, the Titans scored one run thanks to Cole Urman going yard to left field. It would be a 2-0 lead for the Titans at the end of the 2nd.
In the top of the 3rd inning, Stanford finally got on the board. Temo Becerra singled to right field and with one out, Eddie Park singled up the middle to advance Becerra to second base. Troy then homered to center field to make it a 3-2 lead for the Cardinal. Stanford would not score any more runs the rest of the inning after the Titans made a pitching change, replacing Jones with Hinkel.
In the bottom of the 3rd, the Titans responded with two runs to retake the lead. Nate Nankil hit a double to right center after which Brendan Bobo was walked with no outs. At this point, Dugan came in to pitch for Scott. Latta then hit a sacrifice bunt to advance both runners on base. Carter White then reached first base on a throwing error by Cobb, bringing home Nankil and advancing Bobo to third base. Moises Guzman then singled to first base by hitting a bunt, bringing home Bobo. The Titans did not score any more runs the rest of the inning, making it a 4-3 game at the end of the inning.
In the top of the 4th, Stanford added one run as Park was walked with the bases loaded and two outs, bringing home Alberto Rios. Troy then lined out to center field to end the top of the inning. It was a 4-4 game. In the bottom of the 4th, Jack Haley hit a comet up the middle to get on first base. With two outs, Nankil doubled to right center to bring Haley home. The Titans did not score any more runs the rest of the inning. 5-4 lead for the Titans at the end of the 4th.
In the 5th inning neither team scored nor was there a pitching change. It remained a 5-4 lead for the Titans. Stanford needed to find a way to pull ahead at least one more time.
In the top of the 6th inning, Stanford added two runs to re-take the lead. And this time for good. After Drew Bowser was walked with one out, Temo Becerra hit a big fly to left field to make it a 6-5 game. Stanford did not score any more runs the rest of the inning.
“Yeah, I dunno, I kinda just blacked out when I hit it,” Becerra said of his home run. “I just wanted to square up the baseball, get the next guy up. But, I hit it and I kinda knew that I barreled it. So, just kinda watched the outfielder go back a little bit, I was like okay, just watched it a little bit…It was a fastball. Yeah.”
In the bottom of the 6th, the Titans did not score any runs though the Cardinal did make a pitching change as Drew Dowd came in to get the final out.
From there, Stanford went on to win 6-5 as neither team scored in the final three innings. Dowd pitched the 7th inning while Ryan Bruno pitched the 8th and 9th innings. Things got a little hairy with Bruno on the mound, but he was able to settle in and get strikeouts to end both the 8th and 9th innings. He was clutch.
“Between Dowd and Bruno, yeah, that’s typically who we try to get the game to at the end there,” Esquer said. “It’s been Dowd and Bruno for a long time. Yesterday, A&M beat our guy and got to our guy, but that’s just the way we’ve been doing it. And so we went right back to them today. Couple quality innings out of him and then Bruno at the end.”
Up next for Stanford is a game on Sunday night at 6:00 PM PT against Texas A&M on ESPN2 and KZSU radio. If Texas A&M wins, they’ll win the regional. If Stanford wins, there will be a game on Monday to determine the regional.
“You know what, we’re probably gonna talk about that right now,” Esquer said of how they’re going to manage tonight’s game. “We’re gonna find nine innings and we’re gonna have to offense a little better than we did yesterday and it’ll be a team victory in every sense of the word because we’ll use everybody that we have. I got Quinn Mathews telling me he’s got six innings for me and I’m like yeah, if it’s the 10th through the 16th maybe, but not any of the first nine.
“So, hey the guys are ready and we’re just gonna try to win one inning at a time and hopefully add up to nine and then pick it up and piece it again tomorrow. So, we’re just hoping to give ourselves another chance to wear the jersey and I would love to coach this team for one more day.”
Note: Esquer said after the game that Temo Becerra will get the start at short stop tonight in place of Owen Cobb, who struggled against Fullerton with two errors. The status of Bruno and Dowd is also up-in-the air after pitching against the Titans, though it looks much more the case that Dowd will not pitch tonight. Bruno is more of a possibility though even with him, it’s hard to say.
“Yeah, it’s possible. He’ll start at short stop the next game,” Esquer said of Becerra replacing Cobb for Sunday night. “Just, the jitters a little bit. You see that. That can happen and give him a blow and a chance to see the game from a different angle. He’s played fifty games for us and done a great job. But, Temo’s got a slow heartbeat and will do fine out there.”
“Yeah, I’d have to think,” Esquer said of bringing back Bruno and Dowd for tonight. “Yeah, Dowd twice in two days is about what we would use him and I’d have to really check with Ryan to see if that’s a possibility. We’ve never done that before and I don’t know that I’ve done that much in my career as one pitcher in a double-header. But maybe. If he feels up to and if it’s a one run lead and it’s one inning or one batter, maybe. But not more than that.”
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