On Wednesday, Stanford baseball defeated Oregon State 2-1 to advance to the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament. Stanford freshman righty Joey Volchko (2-1) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role while righty Toran O’Harran (7) picked up the save. Oregon State righty Jaren Hunter (1-2) was the losing pitcher for the Beavers in a relief role.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. Oregon State-Wednesday, May 22nd
As you can tell from the final score, this one was low scoring. Stanford scored first in the bottom of the 4th inning as Malcolm Moore hit a solo shot to right field in the opening at-bat. Stanford then added one more run in the bottom of the 5th inning. Cort MacDonald got to second base by hitting a single and then advancing courtesy of a ground out. With two outs, Malcolm Moore got intentionally walked, resulting in Ethan Hott coming to the plate. Hott hit a clutch double down the left field line that just barely landed fair to bring home MacDonald and advance Moore to third base. That made it a 2-0 lead for Stanford.
After MacDonald came home, Jaren Hunter’s day on the mound was over for Oregon State as righty Ian Lawson came in to get the final out of the inning. Lawson did his job as the first batter he faced (Temo Becerra) flied out to center field to end the bottom of the 5th.
Oregon State’s lone run came in the top of the 9th inning. After getting the first batter out, Stanford righty Trevor Moore walked Wilson Weber after which Elijah Hainline hit a single up the middle to advance Weber. At this point, Moore’s day on the mound was done as Toran O’Harran came in to get the save. Moore took over for Volchko in the top of the 7th inning but was not able to finish the job.
From there, O’Harran was able to secure the save. The first batter O’Harran faced was Easton Talt, who hit the ball in play resulting in Weber scoring and Hainline being out at second base for the second out of the inning. Talt advanced to first base via fielder’s choice. With two outs, O’Harran was able to get the next batter out to win the game as Jabin Trosky flied out to left field to end the game. 2-1 the Cardinal hung on for the victory.
For Stanford, this is a huge win. They advance to the semifinals of the Pac-12 tournament and are two wins away from reaching the NCAA tournament. Considering that they came in on a 10 game losing streak and appeared to have lost the will to live, this has been a pleasantly surprising turn of events to say the least.
Over the course of both games, Malcolm Moore has been the difference for Stanford. He has three home runs in two games. That was one of my keys to the tournament for Stanford and he has delivered the goods big time. Moore was just named a semifinalist for the Buster Posey Award, given out to the top catcher in college baseball and his performance thus far in Scottsdale has only boosted his resume.
The other key to the Cardinal’s success has been their pitching. The pitching almost cost them against Arizona State, but against Oregon State Joey Volchko was fantastic. In 6.0 innings pitched, he only gave up two hits and zero earned runs all while striking out nine batters and only walking four. To see a freshman come in and step up like that is exciting for Stanford.
Stanford will get Thursday off as the rest of the Pac-12 tournament bracket still needs to take shape. Stanford has clinched a spot in the semifinals and will resume play on Friday once they find out who their opponent is. Regardless of how the rest of the week goes, this tournament has been a definite success for the Cardinal. It’ll be fun to see if they’ll be able to keep this run going and whether or not they’ll punch an improbable ticket to the NCAA tournament.
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