Stanford had twice as many pitchers (six) take the mound as hits allowed (three) in the 4-1 win over Pacific Tuesday. The Cardinal (31-5, 12-3 Pac-12) have won eight straight and are first first in the conference with Cal coming to town Thursday for a three game series.

Stanford's own lineup only managed four hits and only had one "clean" run -- a clutch two-out, go-ahead RBI single by Beau Branton in the fifth inning to score Jesse Kuet. Stanford scored its other runs on a sac fly and two wild pitches.

Freshman Austin Weirermiller got the start instead of typical week-day starter Brendan Beck, who was stellar in relief appearances over the weekend in Tuscon. The Georgian kept runs off the scoreboard but was wild as well with three walks.

Pacific had runners on the corners with no outs in the top of the third when Stanford went to sophomore submariner Zach Grech. The hope was to get a ground ball for a double play and sacrifice the run. Instead, Grech got two strikeouts and a fly ball to end the danger.

Pacific broke through in the top of the fourth with the help of a throwing error and a bloop single. Stanford had two errors in the game and allowed a single when Alec Wilson completely lost the ball in the lights in right field. It landed about 20 feet behind him.

But the Cardinal also had several web gems. The highlight was freshman Christian Robinson in the second inning.

Wilson also had a run-saving, diving catch in the fourth inning to limit Pacific to one run that frame.

Grech passed the ball to Will Matthiessen, who got the win by bridging the middle 1.1 innings of the game. Daniel Bakst took over in the seventh and was going to carry the game to Jack Little, but he injured his right hand while covering first base in the top of the seventh. Bakst got a late jump to cover after a grounder to Andrew Daschbach, but he hustled and barely beat Kevin Sandri to first. There was a collision and Bakst rolled on the ground.

Carson Rudd came in cold and the freshman excelled in a tough spot. He struck out three of the five batters he faced.

Jack Little slammed the door in the ninth by striking out the side. The Pacific batters seemed to wave the white flag in the face of the star closer, who earned his 12th save of the season and has .71 ERA. Little has 33 strikeouts to four walks.

"That was like pulling teeth all night. I give our guys credit. I've probably played a hundred games with that type of feel and I've probably lost 99 of them. It's hard to win when you play like that. Our guys keep pushing through and they find enough. That was probably more will than talent. Just try to will it from the dugout. Sometimes you run into those games and most of the time they don't go your way. I'm proud of the guys."

The bullpen pitched seven innings: "All of them, we had to piece it together a little bit. I thought the most important innings were Rudd's innings right after Daniel got injured. His five outs to bridge it to Little was the biggest part of the game. When we mapped it out we didn't have Rudd in our map of the game. Just being ready, I give him a lot of credit."

Bakst's injury: "At the very least he jammed his thumb. We'll see what happens there.

The offensive performance and Branton: "He drove in our only clean run ... we really didn't do much with runners in scoring position. You play some teams that come in inspired to play you and typically the closer the game stays late they play looser. We really had to fight that and we needed to separate that game and couldn't do it. We had to win it one run at a time."

Nico Hoerner reached third on an error by left fielder and scored third run on a wild pitch: "He's out of the box every time running all out. That wasn't extra effort from him. That was his normal effort. We benefited from that."

Winning a bullpen game:

Grech: "It's tough sometimes to win these weekday games. We used a lot of relief pitchers over the weekend. It was a tough series. Hats off to everyone who threw today, especially Rudd. It was a tough situation with no warm-up. He did a great job."

Zach, you've inherited tough situations before but it was first and third with no one out. What was your mindset?

"That one is tough. The first thing going through my mind is I'll allow the runner on third to score if I get a ground ball double play. In that situation, I don't know if it was adrenaline or what, the two strikeouts were big for me."

Carson, it wasn't necessarily in the plan to pitch today. What was that stretch like?

"I saw Daniel make the play at first and he came up holding his finger. Coach said run down to the pen and the ump said just come out on the field. That was a little nerve-wrecking, but just thought, 'Go out there and do what you have been doing.'

What have you seen from yourself and your fellow freshmen to contribute this season?

"Hats off to Austin, Brendan and Jacob (Palisch) they have been doing an unbelievable job. It has been good to watch and I've learned a lot from them. And I've also learned a lot from the older guys. They've been good to me."

What do you think of where you guys are and where you can go?

"I think it's crazy to say it, but I think we're only going to get get better," Grech said. "We're a really young team as you guys just talked about. We have a lot of freshman arms and very young players in the field. The more we play in atmospheres like we just did in Arizona I think we're only going to get stronger."