On Saturday, Stanford baseball fell to #4 Oregon State 3-2 on the road at Corvallis in a game that went to 11 innings. This came after a 1-0 Friday victory that went to the 10th inning. The series is now tied 1-1. Oregon State improves to 20-6 overall and 7-4 in the Pac-12 while Stanford falls to 13-9 overall and 5-6 in the Pac-12. Oregon State redshirt freshman right-handed pitcher Ryan Brown (3-0) picked up the win while Stanford sophomore right-handed pitcher Joey Dixon (2-2) was awarded the loss.
Both teams got off to hot starts offensively in the opening inning but were unable to generate any runs. In the top of the 1st inning, Stanford left fielder Joe Lomuscio hit a double but wasn’t able to be driven home. In the bottom of the inning, Oregon State left fielder Wade Meckler hit a lead-off triple only for the next three batters to all strike out.
The next couple innings were pretty uneventful. In the 4th inning, that’s when runs were finally scored. In the top of the 4th, Stanford was able to get the bases loaded, but no cigar. After 1st baseman Carter Graham struck out, 3rd baseman Brett Barrera hit a single. Then, catcher Kody Huff hit a single to advance Barrera to second base. Right fielder Braden Montgomery then grounded out, but that advanced Barrera to third base and Huff to second. After Eddie Park got walked, that loaded up the bases for Drew Bowser with two outs. Bowser was unable to get a hit or draw a walk to bring a runner home.
In the bottom of the 4th, Oregon State was able to score two runs to take a 2-0 lead. Center fielder Jacob Melton hit a double and advanced to third base thanks to an error. A single from 1st baseman Garret Forrester brought Melton home to make it a 1-0 Oregon State lead. Forrester would advance to second after a single from 2nd baseman Travis Bazzana and advance to third base after a fly out from catcher Tanner Smith. After Bazzana stole second base, designated hitter Greg Fuchs would be walked to load up the bases. With the bases loaded, short stop Jabin Trosky flied out to left field to drive in Forrester. 2-0 Oregon State lead. Kyle Dernedde then flied out to end the inning.
Stanford would quickly respond in the top of the 5th inning to even things up. Short stop Adam Crampton was walked to get on base. Then, thanks to a double from center fielder Brock Jones, Crampton would advance to third base. It was at this point that Oregon State made a pitching change, taking out starting pitcher Jacob Kmatz and bringing in Ben Ferrer. With Ferrer on the mound, Lomuscio would fly out to center field bringing home Crampton and advancing Jones to third base. Graham would then hit a single to bring home Jones. 2-2 game, both earned runs went to Kmatz. Barrera would then fly out to left field after which Graham would get picked off trying to steal second base.
In the bottom of the 5th inning, Stanford made a pitching change of their own as Cody Jensen came in to relieve starter Ty Uber, who pitched the first four innings. Things got a little hairy for Jensen as he walked Meckler in his opening pitch. After right fielder Justin Boyd flied out to center field, Melton hit a single to advance Meckler to second base. It was at this point that Ryan Bruno came in to pitch for Jensen. Bruno would get two strike outs to end the inning though he did load up the bases in between strikeouts to make things a bit more interesting than he would have wanted.
The musical chairs of pitching would continue for Stanford as Brandt Pancer pitched in the bottom of the 6th inning while Tommy O’Rourke came in for Pancer with two outs in the bottom of the 7th. O’Rourke would pitch all the way through the 10th inning, not giving up any runs. O’Rourke really was fantastic for Stanford in this game. In 13 batters faced, he gave up just one hit to go along with three strike outs.
After Stanford was unable to get a run in the top of the 11th inning, that’s when head coach David Esquer decided to take O’Rourke out and bring in Dixon. The move to bring in Dixon initially seemed to pay off as he got two quick outs via strike out and a pop out. However, things went south right after that. Meckler doubled to left center and then Boyd hit a single which brought Meckler home. Ball game. 3-2 Oregon State victory.
For Stanford this is a tough loss in that it went to extra innings and they had their chances to take a 2-0 series lead. At the same time, knowing they got a win on Friday softens things substantially as a win on Sunday means they’ll win the series. In many ways, just picking up one win makes this road trip a success, so by no means should they be feeling too bad about how this game went.
Looking ahead to Sunday, Drew Dowd is likely to be on the mound for Stanford, though with Ty Uber getting the start on Saturday and Quinn Mathews throwing just nine pitches on Friday night, it’s possible that Esquer decides to roll with Mathews instead of Dowd or use some combination of the two. It’ll be interesting to see how that plays out. The opening pitch on Sunday is scheduled for 12:00 PM PT on Pac-12 Oregon and KZSU radio.
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