On Sunday, Stanford baseball defeated Cal State Fullerton 4-1. Stanford sophomore righty Nick Dugan was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role, totaling five strikeouts and only giving up one earned run in 5.1 innings pitched. Stanford freshman righty Aidan Keenan was awarded the save, pitching the final inning. Keenan walked one batter, gave up no hits, and gave up no runs. Fullerton righty Chad Gurnea was the losing pitcher for the Titans in a starting role. In 4.1 innings pitched, Gurnea gave up one earned run, two runs, four hits, and one walk. Stanford improves to 1-2 overall while Fullerton falls to 2-1.
BOX SCORE: CSU Fullerton at Stanford-Sunday, February 18th
“Hey, it’s what we’re gonna have to get good at, which is playing a close game against a quality opponent and just winning the game,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “I thought Dugan pitched well, played good defense, got a couple big hits, Cort MacDonald, Owen Cobb had nice days at the plate and I thought the relievers at the end along with getting experience did a good job to get us to the finish line, right? And so, Kassius Thomas did well, we had to pick up Volchko a little bit, but he’ll be better the more he gets out there and Keenan finishing it and obviously Toran O’Harran was great to get that done.”
After both teams failed to score in the 1st inning, Fullerton was the first team to get on the board in the top of the 2nd. With one out, Colby Wallace went yard over the right field fence. Dugan settled in after that and got the next two batters out, forcing a ground out and then a strike out. As a result, it was a 1-0 lead for the Titans entering the bottom of the 2nd inning. Nobody got on base for Stanford in the bottom of the inning, keeping it a 1-0 game.
In the top of the 3rd inning, Dugan gave up a single to Draven Nushida, but aside from that didn’t allow anyone to get on base. He was starting to really find his groove on the mound.
“Really the fastball,” Dugan said of what was clicking for him. “Locating the fastball, kinda giving me some leeway to miss with other pitches. So, really the fastball was a big part in that.”
As for the bottom of the 3rd, Owen Cobb hit a triple down the left field line with one out, giving the Cardinal some hope to find their first run of the day. However, Temo Becerra and Malcolm Moore both failed to get a hit or get on base, ending the inning. It remained a 1-0 lead for the Titans.
In the top of the 4th inning, Wallace singled for Fullerton with one out, but nobody was able to advance him. In the bottom of the 4th, Trevor Haskins doubled to right center for Stanford with one out. Unfortunately for him, nobody was able to get a hit to advance him as Jake Sapien and Charlie Saum flied out to end the inning. It remained a 1-0 lead for Fullerton.
After Dugan once again kept the Titan batters in check, Stanford looked to finally even up the game in the bottom of the 5th. Leading off the inning for the Cardinal was Saborn Campbell, who got on base courtesy of a throwing error from third base. Cort MacDonald then hit a sacrifice bunt to advance Campbell to second base. Up next to the plate was Cobb, who crushed the ball down the right field line for a triple to bring home Campbell. It was now tied up 1-1.
“That’s one of the things he can bring to us,” Esquer said of Campbell’s speed. “If he gets on base, he can create offensively. So that’s good.”
“Yeah, that’s a huge thing for me,” Campbell added. “My speed, I can just touch the ball and go. Eventually get on base, but you know, just trusting my training, Gunnar our strength and conditioning coach is just always pushing me to work on my speed because no matter what, even if my swing is not feeling well, I know I have a chance of getting on base. So, when I get on base, I can make a lot of things happen. So, just getting on base and using my speed and using my legs has been great for the team and everyone. Our team is a lot faster than last year, so we’re just trying to use it as a positive for us.”
At this point, Gurnea’s day on the mound was done as Jason Krakoski replaced him. Krakoski would then throw a wild pitch to bring home Cobb. It was now a 2-1 lead for the Cardinal. Becerra would then line out after which Moore fouled out to right field to end the inning. Stanford would have liked to add more runs, but they at least now led at the end of the 5th.
In the top of the 6th inning, Dugan got the first out by forcing a fly out before Maddox Latta singled through the left side. At this point, Dugan’s day on the mound was done as Kassius Thomas came in for relief.
“365 days, he’s just a little better at everything he does,” Esquer said of Dugan. “Control, a little bit better velocity, a little bit better breaking ball out of hand, the changeup has always been a weapon and it still is. So, experience is a great ally for him as well. He’s been out there and been in big games for us. So, we need that little bit of experience that we have.”
“It’s not really pressure,” Dugan said of pitching to avoid the sweep. “I mean, I just try to keep making pitches and collecting outs. Get some momentum going into tomorrow…For me, it’s been the changeup [that I’ve most been focusing on]. My changeup kinda struggled in the fall, so I’ve been trying to get that more consistent.”
With two outs, Wallace singled to right field to advance Matthew Bardowell to third base. Fullerton had a chance to even this game up. However, Luke Mistone flied out to first base to end the top of the inning. The Cardinal maintained their one run lead.
Stanford would not score in the bottom of the 6th inning despite Haskins hitting a double to right center with one out. What did the Cardinal in that inning was Sapien putting the ball in play, resulting in Haskins being tagged out at third base while he got to first base via fielder’s choice. Saum then grounded out to end the inning. It was still a 2-1 lead for Stanford at the end of the 6th.
In the top of the 7th inning, Thomas did a nice job on the mound for the Cardinal, getting through the inning while only walking one batter and giving up no hits. In the bottom of the inning, Stanford added a couple more runs. After Campbell hit a single to short stop, MacDonald homered to right field to make it a 4-1 lead for the Cardinal. Stanford would not add more runs the rest of the inning, but they now had more breathing room for their bullpen to finish the game strong.
“Yeah, you’d hate to give that game with the one run lead and then having to hold on,” Esquer said of getting that extra run support. “You want to have a little breathing room. A little margin for error. Our guys could use a little margin for error.”
“I mean, the biggest thing is just having trust in myself and my training,” Campbell said of his improved hitting. “I mean, it’s hard for a lot of athletes to just trust themselves, so you know, my faith and just trusting myself and my abilities has been the biggest thing for me growing as a player and just having that confidence on the field has been the greatest thing for me.”
In the top of the 8th inning, things got a little hairy for Stanford as Joey Volchko came in to pitch for Thomas. Under Volchko, the bases got loaded with only one out as he gave up a single, threw a wild pitch, and walked two batters. At this point, Toran O’Harran came in to get Stanford out of the jam as Volchko’s day on the mound was over.
O’Harran would take care of business by striking out the next two batters. One struck out swinging while the other struck out looking. To call that clutch pitching is an understatement.
“They’ve been doing awesome,” Dugan said of the bullpen. “Kassius, he’s been throwing the crap out of the ball, I mean Aidan, he kinda had a rough first outing, but he figured it out this time. So, that was great.”
Stanford would not add any more runs in the bottom of the 8th inning, keeping it a 4-1 lead for them entering the 9th inning. O’Harran’s day on the mound was done as Aidan Keenan came in to get the save for the Cardinal in the top of the 9th. Keenan would walk Eli Lopez to lead things off and advance him to second base thanks to a wild pitch. To Keenan’s credit, he settled in after that to get the next three batters out via one foul out and two ground outs. Stanford got the win 4-1 while Keenan picked up the first save of his career.
“Just a couple big hits and a couple opportunities to have some at bats with runners and Cort obviously with the big swing, I think Cobb scored on a wild pitch after a triple,” Esquer said of their run production. “So, we had another couple other opportunities to score in which we didn’t. I think Becerra hit a hard comebacker at the pitcher. We ended up not scoring and then hopefully, in a few games those at-bats with runners in second and third, we can have something to show for it to make it a little easier on the mound.”
For Stanford, this is a huge win. Even though it’s super early in the season, they did not want to get swept by Fullerton in their opener. To find a way to avoid the sweep on a Sunday has to give them a lot of confidence. Especially since it’s such a different looking team from last year. Esquer challenged his guys to avoid the sweep and step up today. His guys rose to the occasion and did as they were asked to do.
“It’s so new,” Esquer said of his team. “Every single person there is playing that position for the first time, right? I mean, from Becerra to Haskins to Cobb to Nati to all three outfielders, not one of them played that position a year ago. The three guys played short stop, but they didn’t play the positions they’re playing now. And Malcolm hitting third! Middle of the order. There’s just more weight and more responsibility there. And they’ll get used to it and they’ll get comfortable.”
“I mean, get some momentum going into tomorrow,” Dugan said. “Hopefully get back to .500. I mean, for the freshmen just getting out there, getting some experience, it’s a good time…I mean, they’re doing a lot better than I was. I struggled a lot more than they did last year. So, I mean, I help them out, but a lot of it comes from experience.”
As for Fullerton, they can’t feel too bad about the weekend went. They went 2-1 on the road against a Cardinal team that projects to be in the mix to win a Pac-12 title this year. If you are the Titans, you of course would have liked the sweep, but you can’t get too greedy. If you had told them at the beginning of the weekend they would have taken two out of three, I think they’d take it.
Up next for Stanford is a home game on Monday against UNLV. Opening pitch is set for 12:00 PM PT. Pac-12 Networks and KZSU radio will carry the game.
“You know, it’s about us, really,” Esquer said of facing UNLV. “Coming back the fourth day, but just getting used to playing and as you could see, it’s not like they’re getting dominated or wowed by the level of competition. It’s just kinda getting used to how to create the hit, how to create an inning, how to score runs, and then with our pitchers more and more they get out there, making pitches and getting outs.”
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