In their four game home series against Xavier last weekend, Stanford baseball ended up going 2-2 taking game one 10-4 and game three 8-3 while losing game two 4-5 and game four 3-11. Stanford is now 10-2 overall on the season while Xavier is now 7-5.
RECAP: Stanford BSB powers past Xavier on Friday night
Due to basketball, the two games I was able to watch were the Friday night victory recapped above and the 8-3 victory that was the second game of a Saturday doubleheader. So, I’ll really focus on the Saturday victory, but I’ll also touch on the series as whole.
In the 8-3 victory, Stanford sophomore righty Joey Volchko (1-0) was the winning pitcher in a starting role, pitching 5.0 innings while striking out six batters. Sophomore righty Aidan Keenan (4) picked up the save. Stanford freshman first baseman Rintaro Sasaki went 1-4 for three RBIs while senior catcher Charlie Saum went 3-5 for one home run and two RBIs in a designated hitter role.
“Yeah, the first game was tough, we battled, played uphill,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after Saturday’s doubleheader. “Probably didn’t play, they played a very good game and you know, the thing I’m happy about is they had to play a great game to beat us and we still had a chance at the end of the game with the game in our hands. A couple runners on base and we let some opportunities get away from us early and didn’t get enough runs early in the game. I think we had second and third nobody out. We got one, which is fine, but the one we didn’t get was turned out to be big.
“So, there’s a couple at-bats there. We just didn’t play a great ball game, yet we still gave ourselves a chance and I thought it was a good bounce back in game two. You know, after losing a game and that team, that team is playing hungry. They’re a very good team. They’re always a regional worthy and they’re gonna be in the mix in their conference and they make it tough to beat you. You gotta play a good game of baseball to beat them.”
Stanford pretty much controlled this game wire to wire. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, Stanford added five runs to lead 5-0 as Rintaro Sasaki hit a 3-RBI double down the right field line while Jimmy Nati hit a double down the left field line to bring home Sasaki before Brady Reynolds hit an RBI single to bring home Nati. Xavier would respond in the top of the 4th inning by hitting a couple of RBI singles to make it 5-2.
Neither team would score in the 5th or 6th inning, keeping it a 5-2 game at the end of the 6th inning. After Xavier failed to score in the top of the 7th inning, Stanford would add run in the bottom of the 7th inning as Ethan Hott hit an RBI single to bring home Charlie Saum and advance Brady Reynolds to third base while he advanced to second base. That made it 6-2.
Xavier would add a run in the top of the 8th via a fly out to bring home a runner, making it 6-3. In the bottom of the 8th, Stanford added two more runs as Saum hit a two-run blast to left filed to bring home Nati. That made it an 8-3 game, which ended up being the final score.
“Yeah, I mean, you know, been personally struggling a little bit swinging the bat and our lineup’s electric and they’ve been picking me up and it was good to put a good swing on one,” Saum said of his home run. “Threw me a slider right there and was able to get some good bat on it.”
For Stanford, this was a nice win to bounce back after a difficult one run loss earlier in the day. The offense did a nice job overall and then the pitching was great. Joey Volchko had his best outing of the season while the bullpen (Nick Dugan, Toran O’Harran, and Aidan Keenan) did their job.
“Went well, I think I found a good rhythm and I was really tuned into my catcher, Luke and I think he helped me out a lot with that,” Volchko said of his performance. “I live right next to Luke, we roomed last year together, so we’re super tight. There’s a pretty good chemistry between us, so I can’t wait to keep throwing to him.
“I feel like I’ve always been a starter. That’s kind of always what I’ve been really good at. I’m glad I’m getting the chance to showcase it and that Esqy just put his faith in me to keep going with that.”
“I think it was the best outing of the year so far, right?” Esquer said of Volchko. “It was his best outing of the year. And he’s getting better and better each time. We gotta keep running him out there, right? That arm is so talented. As soon as he gets some consistency he’s lights out.”
Of course, the weekend didn’t end the way they wanted to as they got absolutely shellacked 11-3 on Sunday. Stanford freshman righty Parker Warner was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role, giving up three earned runs in 2.0 innings pitched. After him, the rest of the bullpen just fell apart. If Stanford is going to want to have as good of a season as they are hoping to have, they’re going to need the back of their bullpen to be much more steady.
“This was a stinker,” Esquer said after Sunday’s loss. “But you know, every now and then that happens. We just gave them too much. I think, you know, between walking them and hitting them, it was maybe 10 or 11 times we gave them free bases. A couple misplays on defense as well. And then after we gave them something they came up with some big hits. I mean, they, you know, bases loaded double, bases loaded triple, two base advance on a wild pitch. I think they did a great job.
"I think that’s a regional team. I really do. Historically they are a team that you’ll see in a regional and I think they cause you problems because they make you play clean baseball and they make you play well. They pitch, they don’t give you a whole lot of pitching, they can move the ball around and it’s not electric stuff, but it’s solid, solid, good college pitching pitching that really challenges your hitters and they just played a better game of baseball today.
“We played this fourth game to really challenge our staff, right? I mean, we’ve done that on purpose. On purpose played four games because I wanted to stretch our staff and force us to put a fourth starter and our bullpen in situations where they gotta play against good competition because we have to find out who can help us when we start playing, you know, the best teams in the country, and that’s what we’re going to be facing moving forward.
“So it’s not a Tuesday game where you’re playing a local opponent who still can play you tough, but we’re playing our weekend opponents and we’re adding the game and playing that fourth to see what we have on the mound and so we really, you know, I think we learned some stuff about some guys that can help us. Sam Garewal showed that he can hold down a lineup as a third time around is probably a little bit tougher. Cohen Gomez got an opportunity today and looked good and so yeah, there’s some positive out of the loss.”
Looking ahead, Stanford will hit the road to open up ACC play at No. 5 North Carolina for a three-game series. Game one will be on Friday, March 7th at 1:00 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, North Carolina, top-five team, right?” Esquer said. “I mean, that’s on the road. So it’s gonna be a good test and one of the measuring sticks, it won’t be the end all or it won’t be a defining series, but I’m anxious to see how we play with that opportunity to play a top five team in the country on the road and get our first taste of the ACC with travel and the whole thing. What that brings. So it’s a great experience, a great opportunity for us, and again, just be a part of the learning process as the seasons goes on.”
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