On Monday, Stanford baseball fell to Arizona at home by a final score of 12-1. The game ended after the 8th inning due to a mercy rule. Stanford freshman righty Ryan Speshyock (0-1) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role while Arizona senior lefty Bradon Zastrow (1-1) was the winning pitcher for the Wildcats in a relief role. Arizona improves to 18-13 overall while Stanford falls to 13-17. The contest was counted as a non-league game.
BOX SCORE: Arizona at Stanford-Monday, April 8th
“You know, hey, just tough ball game, which stretches us pretty thin obviously,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “But, provides opportunity for some to show us a little bit what they have. And maybe a little hangover from a tough loss yesterday, you know. The kids maybe not as resilient as we need them to be. Again, you know, I say it over and over and over, it’s part of the growth curve and it’s not the fun part of the growth curve, but it’s part of it.”
Stanford was actually the first team to strike in this one as they scored in the bottom of the 2nd inning. Luke Lavin singled to left center after which Charlie Saum singled through the left side to advance Saum to second base. After Temo Becerra flied out to center field, Trevor Haskins singled to left center, advancing Saum to second base and bringing Lavin home. With Ethan Hott at the plate, Saum would be caught stealing third base while Haskins advanced to second base. Hott would then get walked.
At this point, Arizona made a pitching change as Josh Morano was replaced on the mound with Zastrow. Zastrow was able to calm the waters and get the Wildcats out of the inning only giving up the one run. It was a 1-0 lead for the Cardinal at the end of the 2nd inning.
From the 3rd inning on, it was all Arizona as they scored three runs in the top of the 3rd inning, one run in the top of the 4th, four runs in the top of the 5th, one run in the top of the 7th, and then three more runs for good measure in the top of the 8th. When the bottom of the 8th came rolling around, Stanford needed to score two runs to keep the game going into the 9th inning, which they failed to do. 12-1 was the final score after eight innings as Arizona cruised to an easy victory.
Going into the game, Stanford knew this could happen. They were thin on pitching and had to cobble together the best they could. Ryan Speshyock pitched 3.0 innings, Kassius Thomas pitched 1.2 innings, and Ben Reimers pitched 3.1 innings. One thing they didn’t want to do was exhaust out too many arms in this one as they wanted to make sure they were well rested for the weekend.
“We didn’t have much left and he had a chance to run,” Esquer said of starting Speshyock. “But I thought he did ok. I did. I think he’s getting better. I think he got in trouble. He tried to prevent one run and he ended up giving up three. Two outs and worried about the guy at second a little bit too much and he gives up a three-run homer, right? That’s kinda the learning of where you’re at. There’s so like I gotta be perfect and try not to give up one that you make a mistake on the pitch and a guy rides one out of the yard. So, again, tough lessons to learn, but that’s just the way it is.”
For Stanford, this isn’t the way they wanted this game to go of course. But rather than being overly frustrated about the result, David Esquer is choosing to have an approach of patience with his team. He knows they are trying their best and that this season is all about growth.
“I’m not frustrated,” Esquer said. “I’m pretty patient and obviously, I’m disappointed in the outcomes. But we’ve gotta find a way to keep this team growing and getting better. We just do. It’s just, a lot of guys playing a little before their time based on just the drafts that left and a couple portal guys that left, right? So the guys are getting opportunities early and that was my message to them. Hey, there’s guys getting opportunities that things swing one way or the other you’re not playing at all this year. But they’re playing and we gotta get them better.”
The most positive part of the day for Esquer was definitely watching his son Xavier play for the Wildcats at second base. Xavier went 1-3 at the plate and drove in a run.
“Yeah, you know what, it was a little nerve wracking,” Esquer said of watching his son play. “I’d rather not compete. I like watching him play, I don’t know that I like watching him play against us. But, I was proud of him. He played well and it was fun to watch him play. But I much rather watch him play somebody else.”
Up next for Stanford is a road series at No. 5 Oregon State. The first game will be on Friday at 6:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Oregon.
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