On Monday, Stanford baseball fell to UNLV at Sunken Diamond by a final score of 10-8. Graduate student righty Joey Acosta was the winning pitcher for the Runnin’ Rebels in a relief role while freshman righty Ben Reimers was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role. In 6.1 innings pitched, Acosta totaled three strikeouts while only giving up five hits, one walk, and one earned run. As for Reimers, in 2.0 innings pitched he totaled one strikeout while giving up two hits, one walk, one balk, and two earned runs. UNLV improves to 3-1 overall while Stanford falls 1-3.
BOX SCORE: UNLV at Stanford-Monday, February 19th
“Yeah, tough conditions to play in,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “But tough conditions for them as well. So my hats off to them. They played a better game today than we did. We’re continually trying to get guys comfortable and just get them ready to play as games go on and so, this is kinda the bumps in the road that we’re gonna face. It’s not comfortable and we don’t like it, but this is gonna be part of it.”
Graduate student righty Nathan Fleischli was the starting pitcher for the Cardinal while UNLV junior lefty Will Girardi was the starter for the Rebels. Neither guy had a good day on the mound as they were both replaced pretty quickly.
“Well, we gotta get the game moving along, right?” Esquer said when asked about why they started Fleischli. “And we didn’t have anyone one who was a normal starter available. We used them all in relief. So, hopefully try to steal a couple innings and try to get the game moving on. That was the main focus, there.”
In the top of the 1st inning, Fleischli got the first two batters out via fly out and ground out. However, the third batter Alex Pimentel got hit by a pitch, putting him on first base. Afterwards, Kade Higgins hit a single to center field to advance Pimentel to third base. Fleischli then threw a wild pitch to bring Pimentel home and advance Higgins to second base. Fleischli then forced a ground out to end the top of the inning. It was a 1-0 lead for UNLV.
In the bottom of the 1st, Temeo Becerra got hit by a pitch with one out, giving Stanford a chance to even things up. With two outs, Jimmy Nati singled to second base, advancing Becerra to second. Trevor Haskins then singled to left center to bring home Becerra while Nati advanced to second base. Jake Sapien then struck out swinging to end the bottom of the inning. It was now tied 1-1.
“Yeah, he’s swung the bat well,” Esquer said of Nati. “He’s swinging confident and he’s made some loud contact. I guess one of his outs was a ball he hit to short stop that was struck well and again, the line drive to left, which he struck well. So, he’s having some good at-bats and we’re gonna need him. We’re gonna need to have some stability in the middle of the order to get this thing going.”
In the top of the 2nd, Paul Myro IV was walked after which Santino Panaro singled through the left side while Myro advanced to third base. Chase Ditmar then hit a single through the right side to bring home Myro while Panaro advanced to third base. At this point, Fleischli was replaced on the mound by Reimers.
Up next to the plate for UNLV would be Chase Gallegos, who singled to right center to bring home Panaro and advance Ditmar to second base. During Rylan Charles’ at-bat, Reimers committed a balk to advance Ditmar to third and Gallegos to second. Charles would then put the ball in play and be out at first base while Ditmar scored and Gallegos advanced to third base. Reimers then got the next two batters out via foul out and strike out looking to end the top of the inning. UNLV now led 4-1 with all four runs being earned by Fleischli.
In the bottom of the 2nd, Stanford was able to answer and even up the game. With one out, Saborn Campbell got walked after which Cort MacDonald singled to short stop to advance Campbell to second base. Owen Cobb then fouled out for the second out after which Becerra got hit by a pitch to load up the bases. Malcolm Moore then got walked to bring home Campbell, ending Girardi’s day on the mound for UNLV as Acosta came in to relieve him.
The first batter Acosta faced was Nati, who singled through the left side to bring home Becerra and MacDonald while Moore advanced to third thanks to a throwing error. Haskins then flied out to center field to end the inning. It was now a 4-4 game at the end of the 2nd inning.
In the 3rd inning, neither team got a batter on base as both Reimers and Acosta did their jobs on the mound. This kept it a 4-4 game entering the 4th inning.
In the top of the 4th inning, UNLV got things going again on offense. Reimers walked Panaro after which he gave up a double to Ditmar who punched one into left field. This advanced Panaro to third base. At this point, Reimers’ day on the mound was done as Trevor Moore came to pitch.
Gallegos then singled up the middle to advance Ditmar to third base and bring home Panaro. Charles then grounded out to third base, advancing Gallegos to second. JP Hefft then singled up the middle to bring home Ditmar and advance Gallegos to third base. Hefft then tried to steal second base but was caught stealing for the second out after which Pimentel struck out looking. It was now a 6-4 lead for UNLV entering the bottom of the 4th.
“You know, hey, I think if you really look at the game, they really did a really good job situational hitting,” Esquer said of UNLV. “And we did all we could to stop them. Owen made two nice plays up the middle to save some runs, but the reality is there’s a runner at third with less than two outs and they just hit a ground ball, hard ground ball up the middle. I think they hit and ran for a hit. They did a lot of things offensively, which just for situationally was called for and they executed.”
In the bottom of the 4th, Stanford did not score as the only batter to get on base was Cobb who singled to left field with one out. It remained a 6-4 lead for UNLV at the end of the 4th inning. In the top of the 5th inning, UNLV continued their offensive success. Higgins would double down the left field line to get things going after which Austin Kryszczuk singled through the right side to advance Higgins to third. Myro IV then struck out looking for the first out. Moore then gave up three straight singles to Panaro, Ditmar, and Gallegos giving three more runs to UNLV. After that, he gave up one more single to Charles to load up the bases. From there, Moore finally dialed in a bit to strike out the next two batters. Entering the bottom of the 5th, it was a 9-4 lead for UNLV.
In the bottom of the 5th, Stanford got a little offense going as Nati doubled down the left field line after which Haskins grounded out to second base to advance Nati to third base. Sapien then grounded out to short stop to bring home Nati. Ethan Hott then flied out to center field to end the inning. It was now a 9-5 lead for UNLV.
In the top of the 6th inning, Stanford made a pitching change as freshman Ryan Speshyock came in for Moore. Speshyock did not allow any runs to score though a couple guys did get on base. Kryszczuk would get on first base courtesy of a throwing error from short stop while Myro IV singled to right field to advance Kryszczuk to second base. From there, Speshyock forced a fly out and then foul out to end the top of the inning. It remained a 9-5 game.
In the bottom of the 6th inning, outside of MacDonald getting walked, nobody on Stanford was able to get on base. This kept it a 9-5 game at the end of the inning.
In the top of the 7th inning, UNLV tacked on one run as Speshyock threw a wild pitch with two outs to bring home Gallegos. Speshyock then forced a fly out to end the top of the inning. It was now a 10-5 lead for UNLV. In the bottom of the 7th, nobody on Stanford got on base, keeping it a 10-5 game.
In the top of the 8th inning, Speshyock got three straight Rebel batters out for the Cardinal: Two ground outs and a foul out. As for the bottom of the 8th, the only Cardinal batter to get on base was Hott who hit a double to left field. This kept it a 10-5 game going into the 9th inning.
In the top of the 9th inning, junior Gavin Nalu came in for the Cardinal to pitch. Nalu would have a bit of a bumpy inning, but he didn’t give up any runs. Gallegos got walked, Hefft singled through the right side with one out to advance Gallegos to second base. And then with two outs, Higgins got hit by a pitch to load up the bases. Fortunately for Nalu, he would force Kryszczuk to ground to end the top of the inning. As a result, the Cardinal entered the bottom of the 9th needing to find a way to score five runs to keep the game alive.
In the bottom of the 9th, UNLV made a pitching change as Acosta was replaced on the mound with Rylan Charles who moved from the outfield to pitcher while Pimentel moved to the outfield.
That lineup shuffle by UNLV initially appeared to backfire as Cobb and Becerra hit back-to-back singles after which Moore homered to right field to make it a 10-8 game. Down by two with no outs, the Cardinal had some life.
“Yeah, not easy at all conditions and we’re gonna need him,” Esquer said of Moore going yard in the rain. “We’re gonna need him to heat up for sure. So that’s a good sign.”
Unfortunately for the Cardinal, that would end their rally in the rain as the next three Cardinal batters (Nati, Haskins, and Sapien) all failed to get on base, ending the game. UNLV escaped with a 10-8 victory.
For UNLV, this is a nice win. They went on the road and beat a quality Stanford program on the road. They put up a good chunk of runs and positioned themselves well to fend off a late Cardinal surge. All while doing so in rainy conditions. They should feel good about this one.
As for Stanford, not the way they wanted this one to go, but they had plenty of shaky midweek games last season. No reason for them to panic after dropping this one. It was a rainy day and kind of a strange game in that vein. Hats off to UNLV for doing a better job of weathering the storm, but when you combine the conditions with it being early in the season, Stanford shouldn’t be losing too much sleep over dropping this one.
One thing to look for as the season goes on is how Stanford handles the pitching for these midweek games. Stanford in the past has had a designated starter, but it appears like this might be something they figure out as the season goes on.
“Yeah, you’d love to right?,” Esquer said of having a midweek starter. “I mean, we’ve had great success in the past having some midweek starters. Some of them, a couple pitchers of the year started off pitching on Tuesday. Alex Williams and Brendan Beck were midweek starters before they got into the rotation. I don’t know that we’re gonna have that luxury necessarily this year. You’d like to, as time moves on and we see how the roles fit on the weekend I think we’ll get a better idea if we’re gonna be able to designate someone to be our Tuesday guy.”
The one silver lining for Stanford is they fought all the way until the end and gave themselves a chance to pull it out late. It was nice to see Moore hit his first homer of the season and with the offense being more of a concern than the pitching, they have to feel encouraged by the eight runs they scored.
Up next for Stanford is a home series against Penn State. Game one will be on Friday at 2:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio.
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