On Sunday, Stanford baseball defeated CSU Fullerton 14-11 on the road. Stanford sophomore righty Ryan Speshyock was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role, pitching 3.2 innings and giving up zero earned runs while striking out six batters. Stanford sophomore righty Aidan Keenan picked up the save for the Cardinal, pitching the 9th inning while giving up zero runs. Cal State Fullerton sophomore righty Dylan Goff was the losing pitcher for the Titans in a relief role, giving up two earned runs in 1.1 innings pitched. A bit unfortunate for him since Dylan Smith gave up six earned runs in 2.1 innings pitched.
The top offensive player for the Cardinal was freshman right fielder Tatum Marsh, who had three hits and one home run for four RBIs. Stanford freshman 1st baseman Rintaro Sasaki and sophomore designated hitter Brady Reynolds each had three RBIs for the Cardinal as well. The top offensive player for the Titans was junior left fielder Andrew Kirchner, who had three hits for four RBIs. Stanford improves to 3-0 on the season while Cal State Fullerton falls to 0-3.
BOX SCORE: Stanford at Cal State Fullerton-Sunday, February 16th
As the final score indicates, this was a wild game. Stanford scored three runs in the top of the 1st inning, Fullerton answered with three runs in the bottom of the 1st. Stanford then scored a run in the top of the 2nd after which Fullerton scored five runs in the bottom of the 2nd inning to lead 8-4. Stanford then scored two runs in the top of the 3rd to make it 8-6 before Fullerton scored three runs in the bottom of the 3rd to make it 11-6. Stanford would next score four runs in the top of the 5th to make it 11-10, three runs in the top of the 6th to make it 13-11 and then one more run in the top of the 7th to make it 14-11, which ended up being the final score.
Stanford had 17 hits and one error while Fullerton and nine hits and zero errors. So, Fullerton got more bang for their buck per hit, but Stanford’s accumulation of hits and offensive firepower ended up making the difference in the end.
To go into a bit more detail on the 8-0 run that the Cardinal finished the game on, in the top of the 5th inning down 11-6, Stanford had a lot of work to do. Brady Reynolds woulds get walked after which Temo Becerra singled through the left side to advance Reynolds to second base. With one out, Tatum Marsh got hit by a pitch to load up the bases after which Cort MacDonald got walked to bring home Reynolds, making it 11-7.
With two outs and the bases loaded, Rintaro Sasaki hit a three-RBI double to bring everybody home, making it 11-10. Charlie Saum then flied out to left field to end the top of the inning. Stanford was now right back in the game.
Stanford scored three more runs in the top of the 6th inning thanks to a three-run jack rabbit by Tatum Marsh that cleared the left field fence to bring home Becerra and Reynolds. Marsh’s home run made it a 13-11 game.
And then in the top of the 7th inning, Stanford added one more run as Charlie Saum hit a solo blast to center field, making it 14-11.
From there, Stanford would hang on to win 14-11 as they shut out Fullerton in the final six innings of the game. All 11 of the runs that Fullerton scored came with Joey Volchko and Nick Dugan pitching for Stanford. Ryan Speshyock, Toran O’Harran, and Aidan Keenan collectively pitched a shut out for 5.2 innings, doing a nice job of holding down the fort while the offense came back.
For Stanford, this is a throw back to the kind of games they had a couple years ago. They were a team that was never out of it offensively despite giving up a lot of runs at times. This game should give Stanford a lot of confidence from an offensive standpoint going forward that they have an elite offense capable of doing serious damage.
Of course, the pitching is something that needs to be improved. Credit to the bullpen for coming in and doing its job, but both Volchko and Dugan had rough performances at the start. Stanford definitely doesn’t want to be a team that lives and dies by having a high octane offense. They’re going to need the pitching to settle down.
Up next for Stanford is game four of the series on Monday. That game started at 1:05 PM PT on ESPN+. It’ll be interesting to see if the Cardinal are able to close out the series with a sweep.
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