On Wednesday in Scottsdale, Arizona, #4 Stanford baseball defeated Arizona State 6-3 to win their first Pac-12 tournament game. Ryan Bruno (4-1) was the winning pitcher for Stanford in a relief role while Quinn Mathews (6) picked up the save. Blake Pivaroff (1-3) was the losing pitcher for Arizona State, also in a relief role.
Things didn’t get rolling in this game until the 5th inning as neither team scored in the first four innings of play. Drew Dowd came in to finish the 4th inning for Ty Uber, who was the starting pitcher for Stanford. In the top of the 5th inning, Arizona State struck first with a run scored by Will Rogers, who hit a single and advanced to second base before eventually coming home due to a throwing error by Stanford 3rd baseman Drew Bowser. Stanford evened up the game 1-1 in the bottom of the 5th as Tommy Troy hit a triple before being brought home by a single from Eddie Park.
In the top of the 6th inning, Arizona State scored two runs: Rogers doubled to left center to bring home Jacob Tobias who had singled to right center for the first run. Hunter Haas hit a single to left field to bring home Rogers. It was now a 3-1 Arizona State lead. Dowd also was done for the day as he was replaced by Bruno to get the final out of the top of the 6th inning.
Stanford struck back with a run in the bottom of the 6th inning. With Kody Huff on 1st base and Braden Montgomery on 2nd base, Bowser hit a single to left field to bring home Montgomery. Troy and Park then failed to get on base to end the inning. 3-2 Arizona State lead.
After Bruno kept Arizona State scoreless in the top of the 7th, Brock Jones hit a two-run home run to right field to bring home Adam Crampton in the bottom of the 7th inning. Crampton got on base by hitting a single up the middle. 4-3 Stanford lead.
The 8th inning was pretty much an exact repeat of the 7th inning. After Bruno held Arizona State scoreless, Huff singled up the middle before Bowser hit a homer to left center. It was now a 6-3 Stanford lead at the end of the 8th inning as nobody else from Stanford was able to build the lead further.
In the top of the 9th inning, Stanford pulled Bruno and brought in Mathews to close the game, which he did with a little drama. He walked a batter and hit another one to get two men on base before forcing a double play and then striking out Tobias to end the game. 6-3 Stanford victory was the end result.
For Stanford, the name of the game is to survive and advance and they did that in this game. Multiple guys got going, there was a nice balance in terms of contribution, and then the pitching was really good. There just wasn’t much Arizona State could do.
Up next for Stanford is a game against Arizona on Thursday in the winner’s bracket. That game will begin at 4:45 PM PT on Pac-12 Networks.
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