On Friday, Stanford baseball defeated #16 Oregon 19-7. Stanford sophomore righty Matt Scott (3-6) picked up the win on the mound for the Cardinal in a starting role while Oregon redshirt junior righty RJ Gordon (5-3) was the losing pitcher for the Ducks in a starting role. Stanford improves to 16-19 overall and 8-8 in the Pac-12 while Oregon falls to 26-11 overall and 10-6 in the Pac-12.
BOX SCORE: Oregon at Stanford-Friday, April 19th
“It didn’t start off well for us, right?” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “They came out and they jumped us a little bit early and it was really gonna be how we were going to respond and I thought Matt Scott had a gutty effort. Didn’t have his best stuff. I don’t think he was feeling his best physically. I think he’s a little sick. But he gutted out five innings and got better as we went. Had to learn how to pitch without his best stuff and then obviously you know, Malcolm led the offense and gave us a little breathing room, and just kept coming at them. Which was awesome.”
This game was all Oregon through the middle of the 4th inning as the Ducks were up 5-1. The lone run for the Cardinal up to that point came in the bottom of the second as sophomore catcher Malcolm Moore hit a solo shot down the right field line that cleared the fence. The Ducks were in control through the middle of the 4th as Maddox Malony had a two-run homer to left field in the top of the 2nd and an RBI single in the top of the 3rd, Drew Smith had an RBI single in the top of the 3rd, and Jacob Walsh had a solo homer to right field.
In the bottom of the 4th, that’s when Stanford took control of the game and didn’t look back. Stanford scored six runs as Charlie Saum hit a two-RBI double, Brady Reynolds got hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and Owen Cobb hit a three-RBI double to left center. Stanford led 7-5 at the end of the 4th inning.
“It is a little contagious,” Esquer said of the hitting. “Guys are getting, starting to get their feet on the ground. It’s taking us a while and the game has its ups and downs, but I think we’re finally capable of some of those ups now.”
In the bottom of the 5th inning, Stanford added two more runs to lead 9-5 as Malcolm Moore hit a home run to right field to bring home Cort MacDonald. This was Moore’s second home run of the night. After missing Tuesday’s game, Moore was certainly making his presence felt. As was MacDonald by scoring that run. Having both guys back was a real shot in the arm for the offense.
In the bottom of the 7th inning, Moore hit this third home run of the night to give the Cardinal a 10-5 lead. It was a solo blast to right center. He was in the zone.
“Yeah, pretty special,” Esquer said of Moore hitting three home runs in a game. “And he’s a special player. It’s taken him a little while to get going, but that’s, just gotta be patient. He’s our guy and we just gotta let it happen and tonight it started again.”
“I think the third one,” Moore said of which home run was his favorite. “On a changeup, 3-2 pitch, it was the longest AB of the night for me. So, that was my favorite one, I think.”
From there, things only got more out of hand in favor of Stanford. Oregon would score one run in the top of the 8th to make it 10-6, but then Stanford exploded for nine runs in the bottom of the 8th to lead 19-6: Cobb hit an RBI single, Ethan Hott hit a two-RBI single, MacDonald hit a two-RBI single, Brandon Larson hit a three-run home run to right field, and then Reynolds hit an RBI doubled down the right field line.
Oregon would tack on a run in the top of the 9th, but they weren’t able to even come close to coming back. 19-7 would be the final score.
For Stanford, this was a fun night. Malcolm Moore went off, seven different guys had at least one RBI and in fact, all the guys who had at least one RBI had at least two. On a night when there were fireworks after the game, Stanford had their most explosive offensive performance of the season.
“It’s just like coming together,” Moore said of the offense. “We’ve known we could do it all year and it’s just been, this is the time right now we’re getting hot a little bit. So, we’re just looking to carry that over for the rest of the year.”
Touching more on Moore, he was all smiles after the game, donning the money shirt that is given out to the player of the game. He was signing autographs afterwards and really seemed to be enjoying himself. Games like this are why he came to Stanford.
“This is as good as it gets,” Moore said with a smile. “This is why I came to play here. I mean this is as good as it gets. These guys are my best friends and this is so much fun…It’s amazing. It’s amazing. It’s the best. This is, like I said, why I came here. It’s awesome.”
Up next for Stanford is game two on Saturday against Oregon. That will begin at 2:05 PM PT. For a preview of the pitching matchup, click here.
“We’re gonna have to play well,” Esquer said looking ahead to Saturday. “We gotta play well and we can’t have a B game and beat them. We gotta play an A game. Yeah, it’s gonna be consistency. Today will have no bearing on tomorrow. Restart. Be a brand new game. We gotta play a good game of baseball.”
“Just keeping the same energy,” Moore said of Saturday’s game. “I feel like it kind of showed that we could still score runs. In the eighth inning, there. Just coming out with that same energy because just because they lost tonight doesn’t mean that they’re just gonna walk away and let us have it tomorrow or the next day. So, playing with that same energy as we did the last couple innings of the day is gonna be huge.”
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