On Sunday, Stanford baseball fell to Washington State at home by a final score of 9-7 in a game that ended in the 11th inning. Washington State junior righty Kaden Wickersham (2-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cougars in a relief role while Stanford sophomore righty Nick Dugan (3-3) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role. Washington State improves to 17-13 overall and 7-8 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 13-16 overall and 6-6 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Washington State at Stanford-Sunday, April 7th
“That’s a tough one to swallow, right?” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “That’s a tough one. A game that was well, we were gonna win. It was one of those where we came out early and hit them hard early and then kinda shut down and couldn’t get it back going, right? They played scrappy. They played desperate. That’s what Sunday baseball in the Pac-12 is like, right? You play some teams, you get them down, they’re not just gonna let you win. So they did a great job and a great play to end the game and unfortunately, it was a defensive play for us that opened the door for them to even have a chance there in the 9th.”
Stanford freshman righty Joey Volchko was the starting pitcher for the Cardinal in this one while Washington State senior lefty Spencer Jones was the starting pitcher for the Cougars.
In the top of the 1st inning, Volchko got three straight batters out, two of which he struck out. In the bottom of the 1st, Stanford got on the board, scoring one run as Malcolm Moore grounded out to second base to bring home Owen Cobb, who was on third base. Cobb hit a leadoff double to left center after which Cort MacDonald grounded out to first base to advance Cobb to third base. Stanford thus led 1-0 at the end of the 1st inning as Jimmy Nati flied out to end the inning.
In the top of the 2nd inning, Volchko continued to pitch well as he only gave up a single to Jacob Morrow. In the bottom of the 2nd inning, Stanford added two more runs. With one out, Charlie Saum was walked after which Temo Becerra singled through the left side to advance Saum to second base. Trevor Haskins then hit a single to left field to advance Becerra to second while Saum scored. With two outs, Cobb doubled down the left field line to bring home Becerra while Haskins advanced to third base. MacDonald then grounded out to second base to end the bottom of the inning. It was now a 3-0 lead for Stanford.
“We wanted him to go as far as, give us a few at least one time through the lineup,” Esquer said of what they wanted out of Volchko. “We had some other arms available, we just had a lead, didn’t really want to give that away and so, it’s just part of our plan. Just use him a minimum of one time through the lineup.”
In the top of the 3rd inning, Washington State scored two runs as Logan Johnstone hit a two-RBI single through the right side with the bases loaded to bring home Crew Parke and Jack Weise with no outs. The next three Wazzu batters failed to get on base, keeping it a 3-2 game entering the bottom of the 3rd inning.
In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Moore got hit by a pitch after which Nati doubled to left center to advance Moore to third base. Luke Lavin then grounded out to short stop to advance Nati to third base and bring home Moore. Thanks to a throwing error, Saum then got on base and advanced to second base while Nati scored. The next two Cardinal batters failed to get on base. It was now a 5-2 lead for the Cardinal through three innings.
In the top of the 4th, Volchko walked Morrow and was replaced on the mound by Trevor Moore, who pitched out the inning. Nobody scored for Washington State in the top of the 4th. Moore did his job.
In the bottom of the 4th inning, Brady Reynolds got walked, which ended Spencer Jones’ day on the mound for the Cougars. Righty Kevin Haynes came in to pitch for Jones. Haynes then gave up a home run to Cobb, who blasted one to left center to bring home Reynolds. Stanford would not score any more runs the rest of the inning. It would thus be a 7-2 lead for Stanford at the end of the 4th inning.
Washington State then went on a 5-0 run to even up the game at 7-7. In the top of the 5th inning, Max Hartman singled to left center after which Logan Johnstone homered down the right field line to make it 7-4. In the top of the 6th inning, Casen Taggart hit a single to center field to bring home Jack Weise and Cole Cramer. This made it a 7-6 game.
Washington State was able to even up the game 7-7 in the top of the 9th inning as Cramer got on base thanks to an error at right field, advancing to third base with one out. Will Cresswell then got walked after which Parke hit a bunt single to bring home Cramer and advance Cresswell to second base. The next two batters failed to get on base, keeping it a 7-7 game entering the bottom of the 9th.
“Yeah, just obviously a defensive breakdown,” Esquer said of the 9th inning. “Gives them a chance with a runner at third and less than two outs to score. And then they do, right? And so, we just gotta play a better, cleaner game. You would like not one mistake to cost you and maybe that at the moment cost us in the 9th. But I’m sure there was a couple opportunities we didn’t take advantage of that wouldn’t have made it so hurtful.”
In the bottom of the 9th, Stanford did not score, sending the game into extra innings. Nick Dugan, who had been pitching for Stanford since securing the final out in the top of the 7th, was still pitching for the Cardinal.
“Oh, he did fine,” Esquer said of Dugan’s performance. “Yeah, he did fine. You know, he deserved a better fate, right? He deserved a better fate and it just didn’t happen.”
In the top of the 11th inning, after neither team scored in the 10th, Washington State scored two runs. Cramer hit a leadoff double to right center after which Cresswell doubled down the left field line to bring home Cramer. Parke then grounded out to third base via sacrifice bunt to advance Cresswell to third base. Hartman then singled up the middle to bring home Cresswell. The next two batters failed to get on base for the Cougars. This made it a 9-7 lead for the Cougars entering the bottom of the 11th inning.
In the bottom of the 11th inning, Stanford failed to score, though they did a have a chance to even things up. With MacDonald on second base and Moore on first base, Nati came to the plate with a chance to tie the game or win it with a single hit. He would fly out to left field to end the game on a diving catch. 9-7 Washington State held on for the extra inning victory.
For Stanford, this was a disappointing loss in that they had the lead all the way until the 9th inning. They were eying a sweep and to not get that done is frustrating for them. While they have shown growth by winning the series and taking a 2-0 series lead, failing to secure the sweep is a reminder that this team is still growing and in need of more seasoning.
“You need to be relentless offensively, right?” Esquer said. “You need to just kinda keep putting runs up. Especially in warm weather in the sun on Sunday, right? You just have to…Yeah, you need to win series’ for sure. But when you have a chance to close them out, you like to do that, too.”
Up next for Stanford is a home game on Monday against Arizona. That will count as a non-league game. That will begin at 12:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio.
“Well, we’re thin,” Esquer said looking ahead to Monday. “It’s gonna be a tough one to get through. We’re pretty limited pitch-wise. So, we’ll be pitching on fumes and have to figure out a way to scrap some outs and then score some runs.”
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