On Saturday, Stanford baseball defeated Washington State by a final score of 3-1. Stanford freshman lefty Christian Lim (3-2) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a starting role while sophomore righty Nick Dugan picked up his second save of the season. Washington State righty Connor Wilford (3-3) was the losing pitcher for the Cougars in a starting role. Stanford improves to 13-15 overall and 6-5 in the Pac-12 while Washington State falls to 16-13 overall and 6-8 in Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Washington State at Stanford-Saturday, April 6th
“Obviously outstanding performance by Christian Lim,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “He’s pitching beyond his years and just doing a great job. Really picked us up. We missed a couple layups. We had some more runs out there that we need to pick up if we’re gonna really be able to win games like that. Game was closer maybe than it should have been. Should have been pitching with a little more breathing room and again, we’re not having those experienced at bats with runs on the table. So, it makes the game closer than we really want it.”
This game was really about the pitching. Christian Lim was fantastic, pitching a no-hitter through 7.1 innings and totaling eight strike outs. In the top of the 8th inning, Lim did give up a run as Cole Cramer hit an RBI double to center field to bring home Ely Kennel. Lim would finish out the 8th inning before Nick Dugan pitched the 9th inning to get the save as Stanford led 3-1.
“I mean to be honest; I feel like my defense really helped a lot,” Lim said. “I mean, there was a lot of big hits that they had early in the game that my defense just made look really routine. The changeup has kinda always been that main secondary pitch followed by my fastball command working in and out. I was able to use that really well today. But to be honest, they didn’t really, it just felt like kind of another day until the fifth inning rolled around and then I kind of started to really find my groove. That’s when I started really executing those pitches.”
“He tunnels the ball real well,” Esquer said of Lim. “Throws his pitches off of the same release point. The changeup is a weapon pitch for him for sure and he’s just gotten better with just setting up hitters. Coach Eager does a great job of calling the game and I tell him, let Coach Eager do the driving, right? And he’ll be fine and getting right and left handed hitters out and it’s just outstanding.”
As a result, the game went by really fast as Washington State really struggled to get any offense going, totaling just two hits on the day. Dugan did not give up any hits, though he did walk a batter after which a batter got on base thanks to an error at third base. With runners on first and second base and two outs, Dugan was able to shut the door as he forced a ground out to win the game.
“I dunno, a little sloppy, right?” Esquer said of the error. “A little sloppy. Giving away too many outs and changing pitch counts for some guys that we can keep in the game and it’s unfortunate. The infield defense has been a strength of ours. We just haven’t played well the last couple ball games.”
Regarding the runs that Stanford scored, Jimmy Nati hit a solo homer to center field in the bottom of the 2nd inning while Owen Cobb hit a solo homer to left field in the bottom of the 3rd. Nati also flied out to left field to bring home Cort MacDonald, who was on third base in the bottom of the 3rd. MacDonald hit a single to the pitcher and advanced to third base thanks to Malcolm Moore hitting a single to right center.
“It’s a little old school Stanford, right?” Esquer said of the runs they got. “We win by the home run. It’s just that we’re not gonna be able to rely on that. So today we did. We won on hitting a couple home runs and that’s how we used to play. But we’re gonna have to pick up those runs and make those wide open layups when we have them. Because that’s gonna be key to us being an offensive club.”
“I don’t know, I just saw a first pitch fastball and I just decided to put my best swing on it and I was looking at that ball going, I was pushing it out,” Nati said of his home run. “I was trying to blow it out and I saw the dude tipped off the end of his glove and it went off the batters eye, but I wasn’t sure everyone was telling me it was out or wasn’t out. So, yeah when they said it was going, it was good to get that one for the boys…Honestly, my best swings are when I just black out and I just swing. So, I just saw a pitch and hit it.”
Stanford would lead 3-0 at the end of the 3rd inning and maintain that lead all the way until the top of the 8th when Washington State finally got a hit and scored a run. As was mentioned above, Lim pitched through the entire 8th inning before Dugan closed the game in the 9th.
For Stanford, this was overall a good win. They followed up Saturday’s walk-off with a second straight win. Lim was fabulous on the mound, dominating the Wazzu batters. And then the offense did enough to win. While Stanford would have liked to have scored more runs considering they got 10 hits, they still have to like the fact that they pulled this one out and that they were able to hold a lead. Something that has been an issue for them at times this season.
“No, I was just trying to get a win for my brothers in the dugout,” Lim said when asked if the no-hit bid was on his mind. “I mean, that’s all it’s about. There’s no better friends in the world than the guys I have right now right here. So, I was just trying to get a win for them. Nothing on the scoreboard really mattered. The only thing that mattered to me was the actual score. No hits, no walks, nothing like that.”
“When we have a dog like Christian Lim on the mound, we’re going to war with him,” Nati said. “The energy that he brings every single inning, it just pushes you through the whole game and we want to win for him. We deserved to win that game because of him. We just had the energy and the boys were scrapping through it right now and however way we win, we win. Doesn’t matter if it’s pretty or ugly.”
Up next for Stanford is Sunday’s game against Washington State. That will begin at 1:05 PM PT on Stanford Livestream and KZSU radio.
“They’re gonna play hungry, they’re gonna play desperate,” Esquer said of the Cougars. “We’re gonna have to play our best game of the weekend tomorrow. We can’t play satisfied. You get two wins and like my coach Marquess used to tell us on a weekly basis, the key to your season is you get an opportunity to sweep someone and if you get down, don’t get swept, right? Those are the opportunities that you’ve gotta make sure you take advantage of and so we have an opportunity to get one and we’re gonna have to play our best game of the weekend to win.”
“We’re up 2-0, but we’re gonna treat it like it’s an 0-0 series,” Nati said. “And just go out, play hungry, get that win, and get that sweep. We want the cookies. When we sweep, we get cookies. So, that’s our motto tomorrow.”
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