On Friday, Stanford baseball fell to Notre Dame at home by a final score of 9-3. Jack Radel (4-3) was the winning pitcher for the Irish in a starting role, pitching 6.0 innings with one earned run and four strikeouts while Ricky Reeth picked up his second save of the season. Joey Volchko (2-3) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role, pitching 6.1 innings and giving up four earned runs while getting five strikeouts. Notre Dame improves to 18-17 overall and 5-14 in the ACC while Stanford falls to 19-15 overall and 6-13 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Notre Dame at Stanford-Friday, April 18th
“Not very many good thoughts,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said of how his team performed. “It’s disappointing. You know, it’s little things, right? You see little things. I thought their pitcher was complete and you know, we created our own mess early on, the misplay at first and then they get a sack fly. And then on a bunt that they don’t execute, we got them out at first, and we don’t get them and then they’re able to score two runs eventually, right?
“So, just our inabilities and just what, you know, those small things that are going to make us a complete team we’re not quite doing that. Their starting pitching did a good job. He was complete. He was quick to the plate, he threw multiple pitches for strikes, and then got us out in the big moment, right?
“That Jimmy Nati at-bat with the runners at second and third is a big point in the game. We tie that game up, now we have the ability to go to Aidan Keenan and let him ride a little bit. Instead we’re trying to, we ride our starter a little bit longer, see if he can hold him and he doesn’t. Now we’re down 5-2 and we gotta cover because of Christian Lim being out, so that makes it a little bit harder and then the bullpen kind of implodes there and makes it a no game. So, it’s a tough one. You know we’re, baseball is testing this team in a harsh way, but this is part of it.”
Stanford got on the board first as Jimmy Nati hit an RBI-double in the bottom of the 1st inning to bring home Trevor Haskins, making it 1-0. Notre Dame evened things up 1-1 in the top of the 2nd inning as Estevan Moreno hit a fly out to bring home Davis Johnson.
In the top of the 3rd inning, the Irish took a 3-1 lead as Carson Tinney hit a two-run homer to right field, bringing home Brady Gumpf. In the bottom of the 6th inning, Stanford added a run as a double by Temo Becerra advanced Ethan Hott to third base while bringing home Brandon Larson. There was only one out, giving Stanford the chance to take the lead or tie. Unfortunately for the Cardinal, Jimmy Nati struck out after which Brady Reynolds flied out to center field. That kept it at 3-2.
In the top of the 7th, a pair of RBI singles from Moreno and Gumpf gave Notre Dame a 5-2 lead. Volchko didn’t get out of the 7th inning as Ty Uber had to get the final two outs following the two runs. Stanford was unable to answer in the bottom of the inning as only Tatum Marsh got on base.
“He did decent, he did decent,” Esquer said of Volchko. “You know, when you need great on Friday night, he did decent. And his stuff was good, you know, his stuff was good. I mean, our starter threw five miles an hour harder than their starter and yet their guy wins, right? It’s baseball and so Joey’s just got little small things just to become a complete pitcher you know and those are things that you need when you’re on Friday night because you’re facing another guy that probably has the ability to hold the score down.”
From there, things went out of control for Stanford as Notre Dame scored three runs in the top of the 8th inning to make it 8-2. Kassius Thomas walked back-to-back batters after which Ryan Speshyock came in and didn’t make things any better, hitting a batter with the bases loaded followed by a two-RBI single. Speshyock would get the final out of the inning.
“A little bit, it’s about being complete, right?” Esquer said of what his message to the pitching staff is. “It’s being able to hold runners, it’s being able to execute pitches. It’s not about whether they have arm talent, right? Because you know, Joey throws 97 miles an hour and we looked like he was up there today, you know, but it’s just being the completeness of what it takes to be a Friday starer for some and even just come in. You know, some guys come in and look like they’re battling themselves more than they’re battling the game. So we just got to get better at those things.”
In the top of the 9th inning, Ben Reimers pitched for Stanford, giving up a run via wild pitch. In the bottom of the 9th, Rintaro Sasaki grounded out to bring home Brady Reynolds. That made it a 9-3 final score as the Irish cruised to a win in the final third of the game.
For Stanford, this is a really disappointing game. They came in with a better record than Notre Dame and were unable to pick up the Friday night win to start the series. At this point, all that Stanford can do is see if they can even the series on Saturday with Trevor Moore on the mound, who is projected to start over an injured Christian Lim. That game will start at 2:05 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Right now, it looks like maybe Trevor Moore will get the start,” Esquer said with a bit of uncertainty. “But we got six innings to cover that Lim usually covers and that’ll be hard.”
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