On Tuesday, Stanford baseball fell to Santa Clara on the road by a final score of 4-2. Santa Clara righty Josh Johnson (3-1) was the winning pitcher for the Broncos in a relief role while righty Max Bayles picked up his third save of the season. Stanford freshman righty Ryan Speshyock (0-2) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal. Santa Clara improves to 19-18 overall while Stanford falls to 17-21.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Santa Clara-Tuesday, April 23rd
“Yeah, we had plenty of opportunities to take advantage of runners in scoring position and we just didn’t play with that weekend type edge or that weekend type mentality that we’ve had,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “And we didn’t bring it to Santa Clara on a Tuesday and so when we had probably had eight or nine at-bats with runners in scoring position in the first four or five innings and they scored on a bases loaded single, they scored three runs on a bases loaded single, that’s not them doing a lot of the work. That’s us not doing a lot of the work.”
Unlike last year’s slug fest at Santa Clara that had 35+ runs scored between the two teams, this was a low scoring affair. Stanford scored first in the top of the 2nd inning as Temo Becerra flied out to bring home Brandon Larson. This gave Stanford a 1-0 lead.
Where the game was lost for Stanford was in the bottom of the 4th inning. With the bases loaded and two outs, Ben Reimers was on the mound for the Cardinal as Speshyock got relieved on his duties earlier in the inning. Kai Cunningham hit a single to right field that should have only brought home one, maybe two runs. Instead, there was an error out at right field that allowed Cunningham to advance to third base, bringing home all the other runners on base. Reimers would then force a fly out to end the inning. This made it a 3-1 lead for the Broncos at the end of the 4th inning.
“As we’re trying to just mature as a team and mature these young players you know, we pitched two freshmen the majority of the game and for the most part, all the damage was done with them shooting themselves in the foot some with walks on the bases,” Esquer said. “And then maybe followed by a hit to score a run, but yeah, that’s just part of the maturing process. It’s the painful part, but it is part of it.”
The next score came from Stanford in the top of the 8th inning. Thanks to a single followed by a couple of balks, Jimmy Nati was on third base for the Cardinal with two outs. Trevor Haskins hit a single to right field to bring Nati home, making it a 3-2 game. Haskins would then get caught stealing second base with Becerra at the plate. This sent the game into the bottom of the 8th inning.
In the bottom of the 8th, Santa Clara added a run of their own to make it 4-2. At this point, Joey Volchko was on the mound for the Cardinal. With runners on second and third base, Jordan Lewis hit an RBI single to bring home a run. Volchko then forced a double play to end the inning.
“Yeah for sure,” Esquer of that run in the bottom of the 8th not helping. “And if I think I look at it, probably the run was a walk backed up by a hit or so, right? So yeah, again it’s us manufacturing a lot of their rallies versus them earning it with a big hit or three hits or so.”
After the double play, David Esquer was ejected for saying something to the umpires. He was frustrated with some of the calls and inconsistencies, even acknowledging that his own team benefited from some of those calls.
“Yeah, you know, just I thought he missed a call and to be honest, I thought he missed a call in our favor there at the end, too,” Esquer said of his ejection. “So I thought I’d let him know that not only was he missing calls against us, but I thought he made some calls for us.”
In the end, 4-2 would be the final score as Santa Clara walked out with the win. Stanford was unable to answer in the top of the 9th inning.
For Stanford, this is a frustrating loss. A costly error gave up three runs instead of one and then their bats just fell asleep. After some electric hitting in recent games, they definitely didn’t have their best performance.
The highlight of the night for Stanford was freshman Rintaro Sasaki getting the chance to meet some fans from Japan after the game. Sasaki will play for the Cardinal next season, but he is already taking classes, practicing with the team, and accompanying the team in the dugout during games dressed in uniform. Sasaki was kind enough to take a photo with them. A sign of things to come once he actually starts playing.
Up next for Stanford is a home series against Cal. That will begin on Friday, April 26th at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Bay Area and KZSU radio.
“Well, we’re gonna be facing a really good team,” Esquer said of Cal. “You know, Cal’s playing well and they’re pretty hot and I think they’re pretty talented. So I think it’s gonna be a pretty fair match and we’re gonna have to play as good as we’ve played the last two weekends in spurts to win that series.”
CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook & X (Twitter): @StanfordRivals
Ben Parker on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, & X (Twitter): @slamdunk406
Email: slamdunk406@yahoo.com
