Recap: Stanford Baseball needs a wake-up call after losing to Nevada
On Monday, Stanford baseball fell to Nevada at home by a final score of 9-6, giving up five runs in the top 9th inning. Righty Andres Castro (1-0) was the winning pitcher for the Wolfpack in a relief role, giving up zero earned runs and two hits in 2.0 innings pitched. Righty Toran O’Harran (1-1) was the losing pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role, giving up five runs (zero earned) in 1.2 innings pitched. Nevada improves to 5-5 overall while Stanford falls to 5-7.
BOX SCORE: Nevada at Stanford-Monday, March 2nd
“Yeah, it was, obviously, just a humbling loss for sure,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “And really just, the game really just defining that you gotta make 27 outs to win, right? I mean, we got to 26 and then we didn’t play a good 27th out.”
Stanford went up 2-0 in the bottom of the 2nd thanks to a two run homer by Luke Lavin to center field, bringing home Tatum Marsh. Nevada would tie it up 2-2 in the top of the 3rd inning:
A wild pitch from Stanford starting pitcher lefty Brock Ketelsen brought home Jack Metcho, who was on third base thanks to a failed pickoff attempt from Ketelsen after hitting a double to center field. Jayce Dobie later hit a single to center field to bring home Rominic Quiban, who was on third base. Quiban was walked, advanced to second via wild pitch, and stole third base. A pretty infuriating way for the Cardinal to allow him to get 90 feet from home. Nevada wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning, keeping it 2-2.
Stanford would answer in the bottom of the 3rd thanks to a solo home run to right field from JJ Moran. That made it a 3-2 lead for the Cardinal. It would soon be a 5-2 lead for the Cardinal in the bottom of the 4th inning thanks to a two-run shot to deep right field from Rintaro Sasaki to bring home Rashad Hayes. 5-2 would remain the score at the end of the 4th inning.
Nevada would answer in the top of the 5th inning with a pair of RBI doubles from Quiban and Dobie. That made it 5-4. Then, in the bottom of the 5th, Stanford would tack on a run as a ground out from Lavin brought home Jimmy Nati, who was on third base after being walked and advancing to third base via a wild pitch. That made it a 6-4 lead for the Cardinal.
Before the Cardinal imploded in the top of the 9th inning, there was a bright spot on the mound in freshman lefty Andrew Shaw. Shaw pitched the 6th and 7th innings, getting all six batters he faced out, five via strike out.
“You know, good changeup today and he located the ball down and away,” Esquer said of Shaw. “Kettleson had, you know, had some bright spots, too. And you know, so that was good. That was good for sure.”
Toran O’Harran did well for the Cardinal in the top of the 8th, getting one strike out, a ground out, and a line out, keeping it at a 6-4 game. After not being able to extend their lead in the bottom of the 8th, Stanford took that 6-4 lead into the top of the 9th. That’s where the wheels came off:
The Wolfpack scored five runs in the top of the 9th all with two outs. O’Harran forced back-to-back ground outs. At this point, it looked almost certain that the Cardinal were going to escape with the win. But then, an almost comedy of errors ensued. O’Harran gave up back-to-back singles and after a mound visit, a throwing error (E5) allowed Metcho to get on first base, advancing the other two runners. Quiban then hit a two-RBI single to make it 6-6. Junhyuk Kwon then hit a two-RBI double to right center, making it an 8-6 lead for the Wolfpack. Dobie then singled to center field to bring home Kwon. The Wolfpack wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning, keeping it at 9-6 entering the bottom of the 9th.
“It’s not completely their fault, right?” Esquer said of his pitching staff. “I mean, we all had a hand in it. We all had a hand in it.”
In the bottom of the 9th, Stanford failed to score a run despite back to-back singles from Rintaro Sasaki and Cort MacDonald with no outs. JJ Moran would strike out swinging before Nati grounded into a double play to end the game. 9-6 the Wolfpack came out on top at Sunken Diamond.
“Yeah, you know what? That’s kind of the trick. You gotta figure out what it’s going to take to get them right, right?” Esquer said of getting his team going. “I mean, and it’s a young club in a lot of ways and you gotta know when to go to the whip and when not to.”
For Stanford, this is a game where they need to have a come to Jesus meeting. After dropping the series to Fresno State, this was a chance to get back in the win column and end this four game stretch with at least a bit of good news. Instead, they now have to take a long flight to face No. 15 Wake Forest, who on paper is probably gonna spank them. While it’s early in the season, Stanford has to view this recent stretch of baseball as nothing close to the standards that they should have as a program. There’s a lot they need to figure out.
“Well, that’s a good question,” Esquer said of the key to playing a complete game in all aspects. “And that’s what the key is, right? We’ve always, there’s been one component that’s maybe hurt the rest. So we played a lot of close games for the most part. We just haven’t been able to put it all together. So maybe that’s something to look forward to if we can do that.”
Probably the most frustrating aspect of all this are the errors. Stanford had two costly errors in this game. Had Moran thrown a clean ball to Sasaki at first base, the Cardinal would have won this game. Instead, they let things spiral out of control with righty Kassius Thomas having to come in to get the final out. That’s the one silver lining. Some of the reasons they are losing are due to things that on paper shouldn’t be too hard to fix.
“Yeah, you know what, you just gotta do it, right?” Esquer said. “You gotta do it, grounded to short, grounded at third. We got to make those plays.”
Stanford’s series at Wake Forest begins on Friday, March 6th. Opening pitch is set for 3:02 PM PT on ACCNX.
“It’s not getting easier,” Esquer said looking ahead to facing the Demon Deacons. “It’s not getting easier now. Maybe the thing we’ll look to is, you know, a couple teams came in here and had to stretch themselves to compete with us and we’re gonna be that team stretching ourselves against the Wake Forests of the world and you know, the Miami, Florida States. We’re gonna have to certainly improve, but we’re certainly gonna have to play a lot better baseball. We’re gonna have to play 27 outs.”
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