On Monday, Stanford baseball defeated UC Davis at home by a final score of 4-0. Stanford righty Nick Dugan (3-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role while UC Davis lefty Braydon Wooldridge (0-1) was the losing pitcher for the Aggies in a starting role. Designated hitter Luke Lavin (2 RBI) and 2nd baseman Jimmy Nati (1 RBI) both hit home runs for the Cardinal. Stanford improves to 18-12 overall while UC Davis falls to 14-16.
BOX SCORE: UC Davis at Stanford-Monday, April 7th
“Yeah, you know, every year, win number 18 is one of the toughest to get, so we’re lucky we got it tonight,” Stanford head coach David Esquer joked after the game. “You know, hey, we kept showing up. Our guys keep getting up, you know and they come with good attitudes every day. They don’t, you know, hey, we wish the weekend didn’t go like it did the last couple of weekends, but they keep showing up and staying together and preparing well and it’s going to pay dividends before it’s all said and done. So it was a good bounce back win today for sure.”
In the top of the 1st inning, Nick Dugan got off to a good start on the mound for the Cardinal as he got three straight batters out: Two strikeouts and a ground out. In the bottom of the 1st, Stanford scored two runs to go up 2-0. Trevor Haskins hit a lead-off double after which he advanced to third base as Temo Becerra grounded out. Thanks to a wild pitch from Braydon Wooldridge, Haskins came home to make it 1-0. After Rintaro Sasaki struck out, Jimmy Nati went yard to left field, making it 2-0. Charlie Saum then struck out swinging to end the inning.
In the top of the 2nd inning, Dugan once again kept the Aggies at bay by only allowing one player to get on base. In the bottom of the 2nd, Stanford added two more runs: Tatum Marsh got hit by a pitch after which Luke Lavin homered to left field to make it 4-0. Stanford wouldn’t get anyone else on base the rest of the inning.
“Yeah, I don’t know, just got in the lineup today and just decided to get out there and take some hacks,” Lavin said of his home run. “Don’t play scared. Don’t swing scared. Just get out there and get my swing off, so it’s kind of what I did…It was pretty cool [to hit my first home run of the year]. Definitely a cool feeling. Be there with the boys to see it, so hyped on that.”
“It’s his first one and it he hit opposite straightway opposite field,” Esquer said of Lavin’s home run. “Which isn’t easy to do. So, you know, hey, not a lot of offense, right? It was Trevor Haskins with a couple hits and then it was Jimmy Nati with the home run and Lavin with the home run. That was our offense, but it was enough because we pitched well.”
From there, Stanford would win 4-0 as neither team scored the rest of the way. The closest UC Davis came to scoring was in the top of the 5th inning as there was a play at the plate. Zach Story would hit a double after which Houston Hirschkorn got on first base thanks to an error while Story rounded third base and was out at home.
“They pitch really well,” Dugan said of the Aggies. “Their first guy struggled a little bit, but the rest of the guys, they kept going, put up more zeroes. So they pitch really well.”
Dugan would pitch the first five innings for Stanford striking out four batters while walking one. Trevor Moore then pitched the 6th and 7th inning, striking out three batters and walking one. Toran O’Harran pitched the 8th inning striking out one and walking one. In the 9th inning, Aidan Keenan closed it out, striking out two batters and giving up zero walks.
“I mean, I threw more fastballs than I ever have that game,” Dugan said. “So I really located it in and out, up, down. That really worked for me…My slider. My slider was really good tonight. I was able to throw it first strike and a ball, which is huge for me. Usually, it’s just a ball.”
For Stanford, it’s good to back in the win column after another rough weekend. They just need to figure out how to get back to winning in league play after a strong start to the season. What makes this win especially positive is the fact that it was a shutout. That’s something that they should be able to build on.
“Yeah, you want any good positive momentum, especially on the mound,” Esquer said of the benefits of a shutout win. “For us, it’s a little tough sledding on the mound for some of the relievers. So getting a good outing by Nick and then with Trevor Moore and Toran O’Harran coming out after him and holding it to zero was good.”
“It’s just like one after another,” Lavin said. “I mean, we don’t have doubt in this group. So it’s kind of just a re-establishment of what we do and something for us to build on.”
Up next for Stanford is a road series at Clemson to resume ACC play. Game one will be on Friday at 3:00 PM PT on ESPNU.
“Got another nationally ranked opponent that we can measure ourselves against and see where we’re at as far as just responding and getting better and learning how to win at that level,” Esquer said of facing Clemson. “Every win is a big win, you know, it helps us as far as RPI is concerned, but we just got to learn how to get our wins. We got to be able to win some weekends and put some wins together. We’ll start with one and then we’ll kinda move on from there. So, on the road, it’s tough to win on the road, but we’ve done okay and we need some big pitching performances and we’re gonna have to come through with the bats. With Brady Reynolds being out and obviously Charlie Bates out. I mean, that hurts us.”
“He’s been super positive with us,” Lavin said of Esquer. “Just kind of challenging our character, making sure that we’re staying together, keeping the locker room close together like within this rough patch and you know, there’s no quit that we see in him. No breaking him and so that’s really confident for us to see that we can keep going, we can keep doing it.”
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