No. 2 Stanford baseball (8-2, 0-0 Pac-12) defeated CSU Bakersfield (7-4, 0-0 Big West) 8-4 in the second game of a three games series on Saturday afternoon. This is Stanford’s sixth consecutive win.
Like in their game yesterday, the Cardinal came out swinging in the early innings. In the bottom of the second, freshman phenom Malcolm Moore led off the inning with a towering solo shot, his fifth of the season (which leads the team). After a single by junior infielder Drew Bowser and a hit by pitch to junior outfielder Alberto Rios, sophomore catcher Charlie Saum brought in Bowser, his first RBI of the season, with a double down the left field line that also allowed Rios to end up on third base. Senior infielder Owen Cobb then hit a sacrifice fly to score Rios. Stanford led 3-0 through two innings.
In the bottom of the third inning, junior outfielder Braden Montgomery lined a single through the right side on the infield and ended up at third base after a double by Moore. After a pop out by Bowser, Rios singled through the left side to bring in Montgomery and extend Stanford’s lead to 4-0.
On the bump for Stanford was junior pitcher Drew Dowd. He was incredible through three innings. He retired the first eight batters he faced and struck out the side in the third inning to bring his strikeout total to six. However, after the third inning, Dowd ran into trouble.
In the top of the fourth inning, after a single, a walk and a fielding error by Bowser, the bases were loaded with two outs for the Roadrunners. With the Cardinal infield playing junior outfield Kyler Stancato to pull to the right side, he hit a grounder to the left side. With Cobb having a long way to go to field the ball towards his right, Stancato reached on an infield single and picked himself up an RBI to cut Stanford’s lead to 4-1.
In the top of the fifth inning, after back to back walks by Dowd, he was pulled from the game. Junior right hander Joey Dixon came into pitch. The first batter Dixon faced, junior designated hitter James Bell, ripped a double down the left field line that scored both the runners that were on base, charged to Dowd. Dowd’s final line was four plus innings pitched, three hits, three runs (only two of those earned), four walks and six strikeouts. Bell then advanced to third on a wild pitch by Dixon and wound up scoring on a groundout to tie the game at four. The next batter hit a ball into the right center field gap for what appeared to be a double, but was called out after forgetting to step on first base.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, Stanford took the lead right back. After a single by Montgomery, a walk to Bowser and another hit by pitch to Rios, freshman infielder Jimmy Nati hit a ball just out of the reach of the third baseman for a two-run single to retake the lead 6-4. Nati started in place of junior infielder Tommy Troy after Troy was hit by a pitch in yesterday’s game. After Saum reached on a fielding error by the third baseman, Cobb brought home Rios once again via a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 7-4.
Junior right hander Brandt Pancer and freshman right hander Matt Scott shut the door in the last four innings. They allowed a combined two hits, and both pitched two innings allowing no runs, no walks and each striking out two. Scott is yet to give up a run this season.
Up next, the Cardinal will host the final game of the three games series and look for the sweep against CSU Bakersfield on Sunday. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m.
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