Stanford took the first punch for the second straight game, regrouped and responded with a winning effort Friday to even the series against the visiting Oregon Ducks. Stanford (19-3, 4-1) won 5-1 behind an impressive 7.1 inning performance by Kris Bubic (5-0, .96 ERA), who overcame 50 pitches through the first two innings to retire 15 straight batters at one point.

Oregon scored yet another two-out RBI in the second inning after getting two Thursday to get the ball rolling in the 10-1 rout of the Cardinal. In the middle of the second inning head coach David Esquer called a huddle in the dugout to deliver a quick message that the Cardinal needed to step up against an opponent that was taking it to them.

Stanford tied the game in the bottom of the third because of the efforts of freshman first baseman Nick Brueser -- who got the start as part of the shuffle to cover for an injured Brandon Wulff -- and senior second baseman Beau Branton. Brueser hit the first of his three singles, stole second and came home on a Branton single.

That sequence played out almost exactly the same in the fifth, except Brueser advanced to second on a passed ball. That gave the Cardinal a 2-1 lead, which is all they would need as they watched Bubic settled down and become stronger as the game went on.

Bubic went back out for the eighth inning after striking out two batters in the seventh. But at 110 pitches, Esquer had Jack Little (8 saves) ready to step in. The cue was a one-out hit by Kyle Kasser. Bubic exited to a deserved ovation from the fans and Little struck out the side in the ninth.

Andrew Daschbach hit a one-out single in the bottom of the sixth to give Stanford some more separation and Stowers followed RBI single with another in the eighth.

There was a little huddle in the middle of the second inning, so what was talked about then?

"I wanted to tell them that Oregon was playing us tough. They were playing a little tougher than we were and we needed to step up and match that. They were grinding out some two-strike hits and two-strike contact. And they were holding their ground and getting hit by pitches. They were trying to bully us a little bit -- in a good way, not a bad way -- to tell us that they're going to fight for it. We needed to stand up for it.

"We got our lip bloodied yesterday and you don't want to turn and run when you get a little taste of blood. You have to stand up."

Bubic threw 50 pitches through two innings and then he really settled down: "For a lot of reasons it was one of the best pitched games I've seen in all my years coaching. And not because it was clean and pretty, but because of what he was going through during the first two innings and then to find it, and to keep competing until he did find it and not feel sorry for himself. Or let them score because he didn't have his best stuff, we talk about that all the time that sometimes you have to have a good crappy day when you don't have your best stuff. You have to compete."

The work of Branton and Brueser in the bottom of the lineup: "At one time during the game Beau came into the dugout and half joked, 'Hey guys, Bru and I can't do it by ourselves.' The reality is they could because all we needed was two and they got them both."

You've talked about how three-game sets can go, so was this more the up for grabs game or was this more your night?

"This game felt a little bit more up for grabs than anything else. I thought it was tight and once we got the lead, even though Bubic was pitching well, I always felt we had to add before it was going to be our game. This was clearly one of those dog fight games. What a great job Bubic did. That was professional the way he pitched."

You guys had one error but did you feel it was a cleaner effort?

"It was cleaner. I thought that was a playoff atmosphere type game. I really did. And I equate when you have playoff atmospheres when you feel like you've been out here for three or four hours and you've only been here for maybe two. Each pitch was a grind for us early on. It was difficult. Things were hard for us both pitching and offensively to start coming off of yesterday. I don't think we had quite gotten our feet together. That's why I brought them together in the second inning. I didn't feel like we were holding our ground."

How did you feel they responded to that talk?

"I thought they played great. I really did. It wasn't sexy. We didn't bang the ball all over the park, but we had some key hits. Daschbach had a key hit. Stowers had a key hit. And obviously both of Branton's hits were. That's clutch hitting. If you get four or five clutch hits then you don't have to rely on one big swat to separate the game. That's pretty big."

What's the mindset for the rubber match and coming back with a day game?

"We have Erik Miller and plus everybody else -- we haven't used (Jacob) Palisch, yet, and (Austin) Weiermiller, so we've got some bullets left in the pen. But they (Oregon) have already established that they came here to play for keeps. They're not going to back down and they're certainly not going to give us anything. What a heck of a player that Kyle Kasser is (2-for-4), right? He's just outstanding and one of the best battlers and best hitters in our league. He goes and they go."

How would you describe your night after a strong finish?

"A little slow to start tonight, obviously. I was trying to find some things. Maybe my arm slot was a little off early and I was fighting my mechanics a little bit. But I think after the third inning I was at about 60 something pitches and I calmed myself down, stopped thinking so much and relaxed out there. Everything followed through after that and I was a lot sharper."

What do these Oregon hitters do so well that you guys had to talk about after Thursday and how did you try to approach them?

"Early today and yesterday, too, they're working counts and being aggressive as well. Early in the count yesterday they ambushed Tristan a lot. They were fortunate enough to string together some hits yesterday. Tonight, same aggressiveness but I was missing my spots the first three innings. They were working counts and that's probably why my pitch count was up. I think the combination of aggressiveness and working counts has been really effective for them."

Obviously you're not going to start grooving pitches when your count gets up, but did it inform the aggressiveness of how you went after them in the later innings?

"Yeah. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't thinking about my pitch count at least a little bit. In the back of my mind I was thinking to stay aggressive in the zone and trust what you have been doing all year. And obviously get ahead of guys, too, because I had trouble with that in the first three innings. It makes it a lot easier on me."

What was the dugout reaction to that second inning huddle?

"It brought us together because yesterday we were a little flat and today we were a little flat to start as well. I think it was just gathering the troops and reminding us what Stanford baseball is and how we've been playing all season. We were a little off that, obviously."

Big picture is the team is 19-3 and now that you've seen this club for a while now how has played out to what you expected?

"It has definitely been a battle to get to 19-3. But I would definitely say we have had a lot of guys step up with Duke going down at the beginning of the year and now Wulff is out for an extended period of time. Those are two main cogs in our lineup and on the field. So, I think Beau and Brueser and Daschbach have really stepped up. I think that's what is so special about our team. Coach Esquer talks about it a lot that on any given night anyone can be the hero for us and play well."