Recap: Stanford Baseball evens series with Clemson
On Saturday, Stanford baseball evened up their series with Clemson, winning by a final score of 5-4. Stanford dropped game one 9-3 on Friday, making it a must win for the Cardinal if they wanted to keep their hopes of winning the series alive. Righty Cohen Gomez (3-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while righty Trevor Moore (2) was awarded the save. Righty Justin LeGuernic (1-1) was the losing pitcher for the Tigers in a relief role. Stanford improves to 14-14 overall and 4-7 in the ACC while Clemson falls to 20-12 overall and 3-8 in the ACC.
BOX SCORE: Clemson at Stanford-Saturday, April 4th
“You know, great win,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “You know, their starter held us down for a while and to take that game from them against their backend of their pen was a great win for us, you know? Showed me a lot. They kind of hung in there. Got some big hits and even when they extended the lead, as they started to go to that back end of the pen, they got that two run homer, which was a big blow for them and when they extended it to 4 to 1, you know, your team can let the air out and feel like the day’s not going to be theirs, but it was a great comeback. Some good at-bats by some guys. Teddy Tokheim was great again today and then Moran with the big hit there at the end was huge.”
The game was scoreless through the first three innings as neither team was able to get on the board. In the bottom of the 4th inning, Stanford took a 1-0 lead thanks to Teddy Tokheim going yard to deep center field in the opening at-bat. Stanford would not add any more runs the rest of the inning as JJ Moran singled to right center with one out only to be left stranded on base.
“He’s different man,” Moran said of Tokheim. “He’s a beast out there. He’s just tearing it up and everyone loves him, so it’s really exciting to see what he’s doing and see what more he can do throughout these next couple years as well.”
Stanford would maintain that 1-0 lead through six innings. In the top of the 7th inning, Clemson took a 2-1 lead thanks to a two-RBI single by Tyler Lichtenberger. Stanford was unable to answer in the bottom of the 7th, keeping it a 2-1 game.
In the top of the 8th inning, Clemson added two more runs to go up 4-1 as Luke Gaffney hit a two-run blast to deep left field with two outs. Clemson wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the game.
In the bottom of the 8th, Stanford would score four runs to take the lead 5-4. Ethan Hott doubled down the left field line after which Brady Reynolds was walked. Rashad Hayes then got walked to load up the bases with no outs. Rintaro Sasaki then hit a sacrifice fly to left field to bring home Hott. That made it 4-2.
“You know what, I’m going to take that for now because I think sometimes he tries so hard that he’s not productive at all,” Esquer said of Sasaki’s fly out to bring home Hott. “You know, may pull a ground ball to the first baseman or a pop up into the infield that doesn’t score anybody. So, I think him learning to kind of just pass the baton to the next guy and then he’ll come up with a big one. You know, he’ll barrel it. He’ll go a little bit further and some good things will happen, but sometimes I think he carries the weight of the game on his shoulders and I think he just needs to be a piece of it to help us win.”
Tokheim then doubled to left center to make it 4-3 as Reynolds scored from second base while Brock Sell, who was pinch running for Hayes, advanced from first base to third base. Charlie Bates then got walked. After Bates’ trip to the plate, Moran hit a two-RBI single through the right side to bring home Tokheim and Sell, making it a 5-4 lead for the Cardinal. Stanford would not add any more runs, keeping it at 5-4 going into the 9th inning.
“Yeah, so I saw the first pitch. Probably should have swung at that, but just stayed levelheaded and I knew I was going to get a good pitch to hit,” Moran said. “He was attacking the zone and they were shifting me, so I was just looking right center and that’s exactly what I did.”
In the top of the 9th inning, Trevor Moore came in for Cohen Gomez to get the save and shut the door on the Tigers. Moore would give up a leadoff double to Lichtenberger and after a sacrifice bunt, Lichtenberger advanced to third base. With one out and a runner on third base, Moore had to dig deep and he did just that. He would get a strike out before then forcing a fly out to right field to end the game. 5-4 Stanford survived.
“Yeah, you know, I’ve thrown a lot of relieving innings in my time at Stanford in my college career and you pick up a few things over the time,” Moore said. “And you know, you have a few mental cues that you have to lock in when things get dicey at the end, so just staying easy, staying calm, and getting a W for these boys…I didn’t have any pitch that wasn’t there today. Sometimes feel might take a second or two to lock in, whether it’s later that inning or the next inning or what it might be, but I thought all my stuff was there today.”
“Well, yeah, you don’t like to lead that off with a leadoff double,” Esquer said of Moore’s performance. “And then bunt him over to third and he made a great pitch on that high fastball to McCladdie, which got him to check. Kind of rushed him a little bit. Which is obviously a big at-bat and then kind of just staying better longer. The kid Savoie was hanging in there with some foul balls and Trevor just kept making a pitch and get him to fly out to right.”
For Stanford, this is an important win. Their backs were against the wall and they were able to do what they needed to even up the series. Now, it’s just a matter of playing strong on Sunday and taking the series. On that note, the game on Sunday will begin at 1:05 PM PT on ACCNX.
“Yeah, that’s something special about our team this year is that we’re just resilient,” Moran said. “Like no matter what happens, we can be down eight for all that matters and we’re just gonna keep persevering and just be resilient throughout it.”
“You have to be [resilient],” Esquer said. “We have to be. This group has to be resilient, you know? It’s just, we’re gonna take some punches and we’re gonna have to give some back, but we’re gonna have to take a few and you know, I thought the pitching staff today with Garewal and Warner, those guys came out as different people. We need that to continue if we’re going to be able to be competitive down the stretch.
“But Garewal and Parker Warner were great. Obviously Trevor Moore’s been doing a good job to end it. Put Gomez in a tough spot, but you know, he’s got to be good for us at the end. I thought he, thinks he matches up well with them with a split, but they took a good swing off of him, but we need those guys.
“Well, it’s gonna be, you know, a more of a pitch by committee. It’s gonna be, you know, Dugan can come back and we got Ketelsen who’s got some innings in him and then, you know, O’Harran’s got the ability and Shaw. So we’re gonna use some guys that you’ve seen already, but we just got to piece together nine innings and hopefully offense a little bit better.”
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