On Saturday, Stanford baseball defeated Cal State Northridge 6-2 to even up their weekend series 1-1. Stanford junior left-handed pitcher Quinn Mathews (2-1) picked up the win for the Cardinal giving up zero runs and three hits in 7.0 innings pitched while sophomore 3rd baseman Drew Bowser had 3 hits, 2 RBIs, and 1 home run. CSUN senior right-handed pitcher Blake Sodersten (2-1) picked up the loss, giving up six runs (four earned) and eight hits in 5.1 innings pitched. Stanford improves to 7-3 overall while CSUN falls to 6-3.
“A little better, right? Although we left a lot of guys on base,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said of his team’s performance in contrast to Friday. “And we left some opportunities. We left a lot of runs on the bases. So we’re still not clicking offensively, but we scored enough and Drew Bowser had a big day for us and they helped us out with that bloop shot that fell in there and scored three runs. So, we’ll take it. We’ll take it because things aren’t coming easy to us right now and Quinn Mathews was great on the mound, which gave us a great outing. And better than anyone could know because that team is tough to get out, right? And so, he was good today.”
Mathews got off to a strong start for Stanford as he gave up no hits in the top of the 1st inning. 2nd baseman Mason Le struck out and short stop Ali Carmarillo only got on base because of a throwing error by Stanford short stop Adam Crampton. Center fielder Kai Moody would ground into a double play to end the inning.
“The great thing is coming off of last appearance is there’s some consistency there, right?” Esquer said of Mathews’ pitching. “So he’s been good the last two times in a row and against Arkansas, who’s a great opponent and then obviously Northridge who’s, maybe people don’t know as well as Arkansas. But this might have been a tougher game for him to keep’em down because I think they were playing well and we weren’t playing very well.”
“I don’t think it’s momentum for me,” Mathews added. “I was able to mentally adjust after that first weekend against Fullerton. I’ve got a new outlook on how I need to pitch every single weekend and like I said, I’m trying to get my team a chance to win every Saturday and if I’m able to do that, we’ll be a pretty good baseball team.”
In the bottom of the 1st inning, Stanford left fielder and lead-off hitter Eddie Park grounded out to short stop while 1st baseman Carter Graham flied out to right center. However, things would turn around quickly as center fielder Brock Jones singled to short stop with two outs. Catcher Kody Huff would then get hit by a pitch, advancing Jones to second. Bowser would then double to left field to drive in Jones before Huff got tagged out at 3rd base to end the inning. 1-0 Stanford lead.
“Coming off of yesterday’s game, right? To get a lead, a little bit,” Esquer said of how much it helped to get a run in the opening inning. “But frustrating that we had a chance to extend early and weren’t able to. So, kinda felt like we were keeping them in the game longer and that made it dangerous because they’re a dangerous club, but good to get out to a little bit of a lead and then get some luck with that three run play that kinda separated it for us some.”
In the top of the 2nd, right fielder Andrew Sojka singled up the middle for CSUN. He would then advance to second base on a wild pitch but get tagged out at third base. 1st baseman Joey Kramer would then get walked and advance to first base. Designated hitter Gabe Gonzalez would then strike out looking. Outfielder Bart West would single to left field, advancing Kramer to second base. Catcher Graysen Tarlow would then single to third base to load up the bases. With two outs and the bases loaded, third baseman Brandon Bohning flied out to end the top of the 2nd.
After 2nd baseman Tommy Troy struck out swinging to lead off the bottom of the 2nd inning for Stanford, right fielder Braden Montgomery got walked to get on base. Designated hitter Brett Barrera would ground out to second base to advance Montgomery to second. Short stop Adam Crampton’s fly out to right field would end the inning.
The 3rd inning was really quiet as it was three straight outs for both teams. At this point, it was looking like this game might shape up to be a bit of a pitching duel given how both starting pitchers were settling in.
In the top of the 4th inning, that pattern continued as CSUN didn’t do much offensively. Outside of Gonzalez getting walked, nobody else was able to get a hit to advance him. Quinn Mathews was continuing to frustrate the CSUN batters, not allowing them to get into any sort of groove.
“I don’t think there’s any other pressure,” Mathews said when asked if he feels a need to set the tone after a loss like Friday’s loss. “I mean again, it’s just a Saturday. Whether we won or lost yesterday I was just going to go out and do it. I expect to do it every single Saturday which is give us a chance to win and fortunately today I was able to throw up zeroes early and the bats kinda got going, we scored a couple runs here and there and then that big four spot I think in the fifth or the sixth was big because it kinda put the game out of reach.
“It [the run support] makes it a little easier because you know the margin for error is changed just a little bit. But at the end of the day I’m just going out there to throw up zeroes, so if it’s a zero-zero baseball game or a ten to zero baseball game, I’m not going to let another team breathe just because of that. Run support’s awesome, it makes it a little easier, but at the same time, I’m not expecting it every day.”
In the bottom of the 4th inning, Huff would fly out in the opening at bat for Stanford, but then Bowser responded with a solo home run to make it a 2-0 Stanford lead. Troy would get on base via an error and then steal second base, putting him in scoring position. The bases would then get loaded as Montgomery got walked and Barrera got hit by a pitch. Stanford wouldn’t add any more runs as Crampton (infield fly out to short stop) and Park (grounded out to 1st base) were unable to drive anyone in.
“Well, we got a few guys that we’re going to count on,” Esquer said of his lineup. “And other guys have been picking up the slack. Carter Graham has been doing a great job and Barrera and some other guys have been picking up the slack. But to, hey, to get the main guys in the middle of the order, the Drew Bowsers and Tommy Troy and Brock Jones going, that’s gonna be big for us as we get the season going.”
“I just think as an offense as a whole, we just decided to respond,” Bowser said. “Stick to our plan and that’s kinda what we just did.”
In the top of the 5th inning, CSUN was unable to get anyone on base as Mathews continued to have a dominating performance. The Matadors were hoping to get rolling on offense, but so far, their bats remained dead.
“I think we did better today,” Bowser said of the Stanford defense. “Just having the mentality just to collect outs, play catch, and I think we did much better today than yesterday...He [Mathews] did great. Every pitch was working, he was locating. That’s just the guy he is.”
In the bottom of the 5th, Graham would single up the middle for Stanford to get things going. Jones would strike out, but then Huff doubled down to right field, advancing Graham to 3rd base. Bowser would strike out swinging and Troy would ground out to short stop, unable to drive in anybody.
The top of the 6th inning once again was quiet as a mouse for CSUN. Nobody got on base as they remained perplexed by Mathews’ pitching. He was really on his game.
“Today, I mean normally I’d say the change up, but they were sitting back on the change,” Mathews said of what he was throwing. “Kinda flipping it out for hits and even soft contacts, which was like, new for me. I mean normally I don’t see that on the change up. Some of the fastballs were probably the biggest pitch early and late just because they were sitting soft, which I hadn’t seen a team really do with the flat swings that they did. They had some success, but I kinda was able to flip it on them a little bit at the end and find a little more success with the off-speed stuff later in the game.”
In the bottom of the 6th, Montgomery and Barrera each singled to get on first and second base for Stanford. Crampton would be out on a sac bunt, advancing Barrera to second and Montgomery to third base. Park would then get intentionally walked. The decision to intentionally walk Park backfired as Graham would single in his next at bat, driving in Barrera, Montgomery, and Park. Park scored on an error. During Brock Jones’ at bat, Graham would then score on a wild pitch. Jones would then get walked, resulting in a pitching change as CSUN brought in Elias Jauregui to replace Sodersten. Jones would then steal second but ended up getting out as he was caught stealing third. Huff flied out to right field to end the inning. 6-0 Stanford lead entering the 7th inning.
In the top of the 7th, it was more of the same as Mathews got a pair of strikeouts while also not allowing anyone to get on base. He was really in the zone.
“Yeah, I mean, coming off of yesterday with Williams early and the rest of our staff, it was kind of like a punch to the face,” Mathews said of how good it felt to bounce back in game two. “Where put together some good at bats, didn’t think that they were going to do what they did approach-wise, so they kinda flipped the script on us a little bit yesterday. So charting out and watching the game was kinda helpful. But also kinda flipped the script on me again early today, so I think I gave up all three hits in the second inning, which you know, I was like, this is what they’re doing going into the dugout with Eager, talking about what I was seeing on the mound and kinda going from there just editing what we were doing pitch sequence-wise, what we’re doing early in the count versus later in the count and stuff like that. But, I mean seven scoreless is never a bad day, so I’m just happy overall.”
In the bottom of the 7th, Drew Bowser would single up the middle for Stanford and then advance to second after Owen Cobb came in to pinch hit for Tommy Troy and grounded out to second base. Montgomery and Barrera failed to drive in Bowser.
“I don’t think we ever really try to hit home runs,” Bowser said. “I think we just control our intentions and if the ball goes, it goes and we just think about line drives.”
In the top of the 8th inning, Stanford went with a pitching change of their own as Cody Jensen came in for Quinn Mathews. Jensen would walk Nathan Barraza before hitting Camarillo with a pitch. With two men on base, CSUN had some life. Moody would then single down the right field line, driving in Barraza. Sojka flying out would then end the top of the inning. 6-1 Stanford lead.
“Well this early in the season, he was at a hundred pitches,” Esquer said of his decision to pull Mathews after seven innings. “So it’s usually pitch limit. No use to run him out there and wear him out this early in the season. Week three. So, we’ll keep building him up so if he ever had to go 110 or so that he could do that and we trust our pen and we knew we had O’Rourke and Montgomery in the back end if things got a little bit hairy. So, try to get an inning out of Jensen and then see where we lie.”
The bottom of the 8th didn’t start good for Stanford as Crampton grounded out and Park lined out. With two outs, they were hard pressed to generate any offense. To their credit, they were able to load up the bases. Graham hit a single and advanced to second base on a throwing error; Jones got walked; and then Huff got walked. With the bases loaded and Bowser at bat, Stanford had a chance to break this game even more open than it was. Bowser wouldn’t deliver this time as he reached first on a fielder’s choice, resulting in the end of the inning.
In the top of the 9th, Stanford brought in Tommy O’Rourke to pitch for Jensen. This got off to a shaky start as Kramer doubled to center field and then advanced to third base thanks to Gonzalez flying out to left field. Kramer would then score on a passed ball, unearned, making it a 6-2 lead for Stanford. To O’Rourke’s credit, that would be the end of CSUN’s hopes as he recorded two consecutive strike outs to end the game, making it a 6-2 Stanford victory.
To Stanford’s credit, they did what they had to do and tied up this series. After losing the first game pretty handily, they needed to bounce back and they did. Quinn Mathews was fantastic on the mound and Drew Bowser got hot behind the plate. Both guys really came through for the Cardinal in a big way.
“Well for us, it was a good response after yesterday,” Esquer said when looking ahead to game three of the series. “And one, acknowledging that things aren’t coming easy, right? So, the game’s been hard for us the last couple ball games and we’ve just gotta kinda get through the other side and hopefully get some guys hot and put our offense and pitching together and the defense, it was the big part today. I think over the last two games we made seven or eight errors over UTSA and game one. Which, that’s not our calling card.”
“I think it’s just remembering who we are,” Bowser said of what changed on Saturday. “That’s all it is. We didn’t put bunts down; we didn’t hit balls in the gap. It’s just remembering who we are and what we do pretty much…Just the mentality to finish the job. That’s all it is.”
The third and final game of this series will be on Sunday at 12:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio.
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