Recap: Stanford BSB gets revenge against Sacramento State
On Tuesday, Stanford baseball defeated Sacramento State at home by a final score of 12-8. Stanford righty Kassius Thomas (1-1) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while Sacramento State righty Jasper Nelson (0-1) was the losing pitcher for the Hornets in a starting role. Stanford improves to 15-19 overall while Sacramento State falls to 18-21.
BOX SCORE: Sacramento State at Stanford-Tuesday, April 16th
“Yeah, it was awesome, I mean Tuesdays can be tough,” Stanford assistant coach Andre Mercurio said after the game. “Especially coming off kind of a high and challenge at Oregon State, big atmosphere and all that stuff, but the guys came out with energy, obviously missing some big pieces in Cort and Malcolm. But Ryan Speshyock gave us a great start, we had that big inning, and kind of used it and rolled with it. So, important win for us. Important win for us on a weekday.”
Sacramento State was the first team to strike as Elie Kligman homered to right field off Stanford’s starter Ryan Speshyock with two outs in the top of the 2nd inning. That made it a 1-0 lead for the Hornets.
Stanford would respond in the bottom of the 3rd inning with 10 runs. You read that right. Trevor Haskins hit an RBI double, Temo Becerra hit a three-RBI double, Brandon Larson hit a two-RBI double, Charlie Saum hit a two-RBI double, Luke Lavin doubled to left center for an RBI, Owen Cobb hit an RBI single, and then Ethan Hott hit a ground out to bring home Haskins for the 10th run of the inning.
“Oh, that was crazy,” Mercurio said. “I mean we talk about it quite a bit. It doesn’t always have to be perfect and kind of when we’re up there, have some presence and conviction in what we do. Take care of the little things and we feel like the ball just bounced our way. Three infield hits and four or five doubles in that inning. The ball just kinda bounced our way and you know, that’s how it went.”
“I was just going out there today being aggressive,” Becerra said of his performance. “I was kinda looking at a certain area in the box and just kinda get my own pitch to swing at and it kinda worked out today…It was pretty fun. It was pretty fun watching everyone get a couple knocks and score some people. And also it was kind of a tone setter for us knowing that we can do that in innings. Especially when we have guys in scoring position was huge for us.”
With a 10-1 lead for the Cardinal at the end of the 3rd inning, the wind was totally knocked out of the Hornets’ sails. Sacramento State added a run in the 4th and 5th innings to make it 10-3, but unless they had their own avalanche of an inning or two, they were not going to get back in this game. In the 7th inning, both teams scored two runs to make it a 12-5 lead for Stanford. Temo Becerra and Jimmy Nati each had an RBI for Stanford.
To Sacramento State’s credit, they didn’t give up as they scored three runs in the top of the 8th inning as Jose Ruiz hit an RBI triple, Kligman hit an RBI single to center field, and Myles Walton hit an RBI single of his own. This made it a 12-8 game, putting a bit of pressure on Stanford.
However, things would stall from there. Stanford didn’t add any more runs in the bottom of the 8th inning, and then in the top of the 9th inning, Trevor Moore came in to pitch for Joey Volchko, closing out the game for the Cardinal in a non-save situation.
For Stanford, this is a good win. Sacramento State defeated them 15-13 last year in April on a Tuesday, so in that sense they got some revenge. More importantly, this win showed some growth. The hitting came together and while not perfect, the pitching in the end held on to get the win.
“Yeah, I mean we talk about it all the time in momentum being such a fragile thing,” Mercurio said. “But we feel like these Tuesday games are just kind of a set up for the weekend, right? They’re either going to give you confidence or they’re going to kinda crush some confidence. So, this game is just as important as any other game we’re gonna play in terms of the confidence, in terms of learning how to play baseball, in terms of learning how to win because obviously Sac State is a more than formidable opponent. They’re playing well in conference and well coached with Reggie Christiansen over there. So, really really important win on a Tuesday. Get these guys in the right mindset for the rest of the week and the weekend.”
Freshman Ryan Speshyock had a nice outing, only giving up two earned runs in 4.1 innings pitched. He definitely is getting better as the season goes on and feeling a lot more settled in than he did a couple months ago.
“Yeah, Speshyock, I mean, he’s working on the command obviously,” Mercurio said. “I think he did a good job kinda finding it when competing. He’s got that changeup that’s really really good, but bottom line is he gave us a chance and that’s what we always ask of our pitchers. Just to give us a chance and he gave up the one solo shot and then got into a little bit of trouble, but he’s getting really really close to being the pitcher that we know he is and gave us a chance, it’s all we could ask.”
“Yeah, it was pretty good,” Speshyock said of his performance. “It’s been a battle just making adjustments from outing to outing trying to build on weaknesses that were prevalent in other outings. But I think I got the changeup going early, been working on the slider. That started going, too. Lost them a little bit in the later innings, but battle through it, kept the fastball there for the most part…I think early I would have said like starting on Tuesdays is really nice to just get experience. Especially just coming in and pitching in college for the first time.
“Just being able to have a little bit of a leash sometimes off a start or just as the year goes on and logging innings. It makes it a lot easier to just be out there. Because it’s one thing to be nervous about the environment when you’re pitching. It’s another thing to have that not be a factor and just focus on getting the hitter out and winning.”
Up next for Stanford is a home series against Oregon. Game one will be on Friday at 6:05 PM PT on Stanford Live Stream and KZSU radio.
“We’re looking forward to this weekend,” Becerra said. “So long as we just keep winning and being aggressive at the box and especially on defense, making good plays, I think we’re gonna be just alright.”
Note: Andre Mercurio addressed the status of Stanford outfielder Cort MacDonald and catcher Malcolm Moore heading into the weekend after they missed the game:
“I’m pretty sure they’ll be in there this weekend. Pretty sure they’ll be in there on Friday.”
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