On Tuesday, Stanford baseball defeated Arizona State 8-7 to win their opening game of the Pac-12 tournament in Scottsdale, Arizona. Stanford came in riding a 10 game losing streak, so they hadn’t won a game in a little while. Stanford righty Toran O’Harran (2-4) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while righty Nick Dugan (3) picked up the save. Arizona State lefty Connor Markl (6-4) was the losing pitcher for the Sun Devils in a starting role.
BOX SCORE: Stanford vs. Arizona State-Tuesday, May 21st
Through the first three innings of the game, it remained a 0-0 tie. Stanford lefty Christian Lim got the start for the Cardinal on the mound and did a nice job of keeping the Sun Devils at bay. While the pitching was looking good for Stanford, the bats were yet to get going.
That changed in the top of the 4th inning as Stanford scored all eight of their runs. Malcolm Moore hit a solo home run to right center with no outs to make it 1-0. With one out, Temo Becerra hit a single to left center after which Trevor Haskins hit a double down the right field line to advance Becerra to third base. Jake Sapien then got walked to load up the bases. Owen Cobb then reached first base courtesy of an error at third base, resulting in all runners being safe including Becerra who came home. That made it a 2-0 lead for Stanford.
Markl then threw a wild pitch, which resulted in Haskins scoring and all runners on base advancing. It was now a 3-0 lead for Stanford. Cort MacDonald then got walked, which ended Markl’s day on the mound as righty Jonah Giblin came in for relief.
Changing pitchers didn’t change things for Arizona State as Jimmy Nati hit a three-RBI double to left center. It was now a 6-0 lead for Stanford. After Charlie Saum struck out, Malcolm Moore hit his second home run of the inning, this time to right field. That brought home Nati to make it an 8-0 lead. Ethan Hott then hit a single to third base before Becerra grounded out to second base to end the top of the inning.
Up by eight runs in the middle of the 4th inning, Stanford was looking strong. However, it ended up being the case that they would need every single run that they got to win. Arizona State made quite a rally but came up one run short. Below is a breakdown of what happened:
In the bottom of the 4th inning, Jacob Tobias flied out to left field to bring home a runner for the first run of the game for Arizona State. In the bottom of the 5th, Tobias got walked with the bases loaded and two outs to make it 8-2. That ended Lim’s day on the mound for Stanford as O’Harran came in for relief, striking the next batter out. Eammon Lance hit a two-run homer off O’Harran in the bottom of the 6th, making it 8-4.
Arizona State then scored three runs in the bottom of the 9th, making it an 8-7 final score. After Trevor Moore came in to replace O’Harran in the bottom of the 6th, Moore would get the first two outs of the bottom of the 7th inning before Matt Scott came in for relief. Scott then stayed in until the 9th inning, where he walked the first two batters he faced.
Nick Dugan came in to get the save as Stanford led by four runs but was in need of securing three outs to get the win. Dugan walked the first batter he faced to load up the bases before then forcing a foul out for the first out. Dugan then walked Lance with the bases loaded to make it 8-5. Dugan then forced Steven Ondina to fly out, which brought home Brandon Compton to make it 8-6. Ryan Campos then hit an RBI single to center field to make it 8-7 before Kien Vu flied out to left field to end the game.
For Stanford, this was a tale of two games in the sense that they dominated the first half of the game before nearly giving the game away in the second half. That said, a win is a win and when you get yourself up by eight runs, odds are good you’ll get the win even if it does get within a run. Malcolm Moore was the hero of this game with his two home runs and three RBIs. When he gets going, his teammates feed off that energy and this game was no exception.
While the pitching nearly let Stanford down, it was actually solid through the first eight innings and then Dugan actually did a good job of just not giving away the win. The one thing you don’t want to do in that situation is give up a grand slam or a multi-RBI hit. Better to walk a batter than give up a grand slam. Dugan was patient on the mound and did a good job of getting Stanford out of that jam.
Up next for Stanford is Oregon State on Wednesday at 10:00 AM PT on Pac-12 Networks and KZSU radio. If Stanford wins, they’ll secure a spot in the semifinals.
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