On Saturday, Stanford baseball defeated the Washington Huskies 11-9. Stanford right-handed pitcher Nick Dugan (1-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while right-handed pitcher Aidan Keenan (4) was awarded the save. Washington left-handed pitcher Gunnar Nichols (0-1) was the losing pitcher for the Huskies in a relief role. Stanford 3rd baseman Trevor Haskins was the top offensive performer for the Cardinal going 2-5 for one home run and four RBIs while right fielder Brady Reynolds went 1-2 for one home run and three RBIs. Stanford improved to 6-0 overall while Washington fell to 2-4.
BOX SCORE: Washington at Stanford-Saturday, February 22nd
“Proud of our guys, we’ve had to win a lot of different ways and you gotta fight that urge and just expect it, right?” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “We had basically our second Friday starter going today. They could want it to be easy, hey, just shut them out let’s score a couple runs and let’s go home. And it wasn’t Christian Lim’s day, but we have to be able to have his back when he doesn’t have his best stuff and gave up some runs and gave up a lead and a little bit once you score six it isn’t about just again sitting back and just let him do his thing and watch. Just wasn’t going to be his day.
“I thought our bullpen was outstanding. Ben Reimers came in there and really he’s done that. This is the second time he’s done it where he’s changed the whole momentum of the game by just getting his zero for starting that zeros and then Dugan, O’Harran, and Keenan were excellent at the end there. But it really is, you know, what we expect to be one of our strengths is we can keep putting guys in there to help us stem the tide when maybe someone doesn’t have their best stuff and so it was a bullpen win and our guys kind of hung in there and kept their poise. But had to remind them a little bit like, hey, don’t want or expect it to be easy because baseball is just not that way. Regardless of the opponent.”
Stanford left-handed pitcher Christian Lim got the start for the Cardinal and short stop Sam DeCarlo, the first batter he faced, went yard to left field in the top of the 1st inning, making it a 1-0 lead for the Huskies. The next two batters also got on base via single and hit by pitch before Lim was able to get the next three batters out via fly out and strike out.
Washington right-handed pitcher Reilly McAdams was the starting pitcher for the Huskies and aside from walking Stanford designated hitter Brandon Larson, he took care of business in the bottom of the 1st inning.
Nobody got on base in the 2nd inning for either team. In the top of the 3rd inning, nobody scored for Washington, but there was a bit of drama as Lim walked AJ Guerrero with one out and then hit the following batter Colton Bower to advance Guerrero to second base. Fortunately for Lim, the next batter struck out after which Bower was caught stealing to end the top of the inning.
In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Stanford exploded for six runs as Trevor Haskins hit a three-run homer to left field before Brady Reynolds followed suit with a three-run blast of his own to right field. That gave Stanford a 6-1 lead at the end of the 3rd inning.
“I’m seeing the ball well right now,” Haskins said. “I’m seeing it pretty well right now. Hopefully see it well tomorrow, but not trying to do too much, honestly. Just trying to be a lead off, just trying to put barrel behind the ball, keep it simple, and just be on the heater.”
“Yeah, we kind of worked a little bit today, their starter had a bunch of run on his ball and he liked to work away,” Reynolds said of his home run. “And so on that pitch, I mean, he got me with a change up before and so I was just looking for the ball up and he left it over the plate, a little inside, so I knew it was gonna run back in my barrel, so I just saw it and instincts. Just swung. Got a good pitch to hit.”
In the top of the 4th inning, Washington responded with a ridiculous eight run inning as Braeden Terry hit an RBI single, Blake Wilson hit a two-RBI double, AJ Guerrero hit an RBI single, Casen Taggert hit a three-RBI double, and Trevor Kole hit an RBI single. That gave the Huskies a 9-6 lead. Christian Lim did not get out of the inning as Ryan Speshyock came in to relive him. Speshyock got shelled and so it was Ben Reimers that had to come in to finish the inning without giving up a run.
“They ran some hits together, right?” Esquer said of Washington. “Maybe some down counts and some leverage counts were able to scrap some hits. I thought they did a great job. They played like they were almost desperate to stay in the game and they played well that way. They were not just gonna let us win and I kept reminding our guys that this is one of those games where they just turn it over and say you can go ahead and you can go and have it. So I give them credit for being really competitive and making it tough on Lim and then making it tough on Speshyock who was the first guy out of the pen and then Reimers came in and was able to flip it.”
In the bottom of the 4th inning, Stanford added one run as Brandon Larson hit an RBI single to bring home Charlie Bates, who was on second base after being walked and then advancing to second base thanks to Tatum Marsh grounding out. That made it a 9-7 game.
Reimers would pitch the 5th inning for Stanford after which Nick Dugan came in for the 6th inning. Washington didn’t score in either inning. In the bottom of the 6th inning, Stanford added four runs to take an 11-9 lead. With the bases loaded Haskins hit an RBI single to left center after which Larson hit an RBI single. With the bases still loaded, Washington’s Isaac Yeager, who was in for Gunnar Nichols, threw a wild pitch allowing Marsh to score. Jimmy Nati then hit a fly out to bring home Haskins. From there, Stanford hung on to win 11-9 as Nick Dugan, Toran O’Harran, and Aidan Keenan pitched it out from there, Keenan getting the save.
It wasn’t a pretty win from a pitching standpoint, but boy did the bats come alive for the Cardinal. It was a throwback to the team they had 2-3 years ago that was never out of it with their bats. Of course, Haskins and Reynolds were the big heroes with their pair of three-run homers in the bottom of the 3rd inning, but across the board it was a team effort. An all-around good win.
“Yeah, yeah, we’re trying to establish a little consistency there, right?” Esquer said. “A good offense is going to be a relentless offense, right? Where you just offense because that’s who you are. Their pitcher gave us a little trouble early and hey, not all the games, you’re gonna be able to pull away and win. You just gotta take whatever game is presented there. You gotta be good enough to win that game and we were tonight.”
“I think it’s a testament to the team we are this year,” Haskins added. “We can be behind in the ball game and be able to come back in no matter the score. It could be a low scoring game, a high scoring game. You know, we could be down two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight runs, but there’s no give up in us. It’s a fight, all competitiveness, and I know, like this year’s team, we definitely have that level of competitiveness in us where we can come back like that.”
One other thing that has made this series fun for Stanford is the fact that Washington is a former Pac-12 opponent. There’s a lot of familiarity there and they seem to be enjoying going up against a team that they previously saw every year during league play.
“Oh, I love it. I love it. I have a couple of friends on that team over there,” Haskins said of facing a former Pac-12 team. “So it’s constantly like back and forth chirp, but all love at the same time.”
Stanford would go on to win on Sunday as well by a final score of 9-5, improving to 7-0. Full recap of that is to come.
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