Charlie Bates hit a go-ahead triple for the Cardinal. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

On Sunday, Stanford baseball defeated Cal State Fullerton at home by a final score of 3-2. Stanford righty Trevor Moore (1-0) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role, pitching 2.1 innings with four strikeouts and zero earned runs while righty Toran O’Harran (1) was awarded the save, closing out the game in the 9th inning with two strikeouts. Cal State Fullerton lefty Brady Dockan was the losing pitcher for the Titans in a relief role, pitching 1.1 innings while allowing two hits and one run, which was earned. Stanford improves to 4-4 on the season while Cal State Fullerton falls to 3-5.

BOX SCORE: Cal State Fullerton at Stanford-Sunday, February 22nd

“Hey good win. You know, if it was hockey we had a whole line change there around the 5th or 6th inning,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “ We got kinda tired of looking at the same thing, which is, you know, just either mentally tired or just, you know, just beating down a little bit or a baseball got that first line. The guys who came in did a great job, gave us some energy, some at bats, and it was great. It was great. I thought Parker Warner pitched fine and well, and obviously with Trevor Moore behind him and Toran O’Harran. Just a couple blips. I think that’s the only…we wild pitched both their runs in. I don’t think had a swing for any of their runs.

“So, it’s a good win. We’re still in that learning process trying to figure out and we’re going to be a better offensive team, I hope. I believe that. I believe in our offensive players, but it was a little bit of a pillow fight for three days.”

Righty Parker Warner got the start for Stanford, pitching 5.2 innings and giving up just two runs (one earned), six hits, and striking out six batters. The first run that was given up came in the top of the 1st inning. With Nick Miller on second base and Cameron Kim on third base after a throwing error (E1) by Warner, Warner would then throw a wild pitch, bringing home Kim and advancing Miller to third base. Warner would force a pop up to end the top of the 1st inning, leaving it at a 1-0 game.

The 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings remained scoreless as Fullerton maintained a 1-0 lead entering the 6th inning. In the top of the 6th, Fullerton would add one more run to go up 2-0. Kim would single to left center after which Miller singled to right center, advancing Kim to third base. Warner would throw another wild pitch, bringing home Kim and advancing Miller to second base. Almost a déjà vu of the 1st inning. Miller would end up get caught stealing home to end the top of the 6th, keeping it at a 2-0 game.

“Got to play cleaner, you know?” Esquer said of his team. “And that’s a sign of a mature team is when you play cleaner, you don’t make those little mistakes, it costs you, costs you runs or bases or at-bats, which it all leads into more pitches and, but I thought at times we pitched very well this weekend and we made it hard on them to score. We just couldn’t do enough. Maybe the conditions weren’t great for, I don’t think we hit one home run the whole weekend. I think, you know, if you’re Stanford and you only hit one home run on a weekend, four game series, you’re not playing your game, necessarily, yeah.”

In the bottom of the 6th, Stanford would even it up with two runs. With the bases loaded and two outs, Eric Jeon got walked to bring home Charlie Bates while Philip Cheong advanced to third base and Rashad Hayes advanced to second base. Righty Jason Krakoski was on the mound for the Titans, coming in for righty Bobby Mahoney.  Right after that, Cheong would score on a passed ball, tying up the game 2-2. Stanford wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning, keeping it a tie game entering the 7th inning.

“He’s a solid player, really,” Esquer said of Jeon. “And we trust him at a number of positions, you know, and he swings the bat well. And so, the fact that he walked there, it was a lot of it was respect to him. They weren’t just gonna throw him a cookie in there. They’re trying to pitch him tough and so he’ll help us down the line for sure.”

“Rashad’s getting better,” Esquer said of Hayes. “He’s a short stop. It’s you know, waiting for an opportunity, but you know, obviously Charlie’s going to be the starter and Rashad has to be ready in case something happens. But he comes to work every day, plays hard, and he plays with energy, which is great.”

In the top of the 7th inning, Moore remained on the mound for Stanford after having closed out the top of the 6th inning, replacing Warner. Moore would only give up a single while also getting two strike outs and a flyout. That kept it tied 2-2 entering the bottom of the 7th inning.

In the bottom of the 7th, Stanford would get the run they needed to win the game. Teddy Tokheim singled to left field after which Cort MacDonald hit a sacrifice bunt to the catcher, advancing Tokheim to second base. Charlie Bates then hit a triple to right center, bringing home Tokheim.

“I remember talking to a couple of lefties who had faced him in the inning before and you know, they gave me the utmost confidence and you know, that’s just a team effort right there,” Bates said of his triple. “I was glad that I was able to come through, but I was just looking for a fastball early in the count and that’s what I got. So, yeah.”

After the triple, Bates was called out at third base for the second out. Cheong then flied out to left field to end the bottom of the inning. It was bit of mixed emotions for Bates to have a huge go-ahead triple while also getting out on the same play.

“I mean, you can’t get too down because we have a lot of baseball left to play,” Bates said of that sequence. “Obviously, it was a mistake on, you know, my behalf and I’ll learn from it. I won’t make the same one again, obviously, but again, yeah, you have to keep the same kind of demeanor as you go into the dugout and just happy that we got a run across and we’ll learn from it.”

From there, 3-2 would end up being the final score as neither team would score the rest of the game. Stanford pulled out the win. In the top of the 9th inning, Toran O’Harran did a great job of closing the door on the Titans, getting a strikeout, fly out, giving up a single, walking a batter, and then getting a strike out looking to end the game. There was a little bit of a drama, with two outs and a runner in scoring position, but O’Harran did what was needed to shut the door for good.

“I mean, just relying on my defense, knowing what we’ve been working on all fall and winter, right?” O’Harran said of the key to the save. “Executing that game plan and allowing them to hit the ball and put it in play and let my defense get them out…Yeah, I think just being in zone more. I have had a already early, but we’ll clean it up and I just think, you know, the more you’re in zone, the harder it is on the offense to hit you. So that’s pretty much been the main focus coming into this year.”

Overall, this was a good win for the Cardinal. Especially since the pitching was able to do their job. There is high confidence in the offense of the team but there are some questions about the pitching. Assuming the offense is able to step it up, the pitching seems good enough to keep the Cardinal in a lot of games. Parker Warner is a big part of that.

“Well, you know what, I’ll be honest, the thing that clicks is one, the one walk that’ll show you that he doesn’t repeat his miss three or four times,” Esquer said of Warner. “He can make, you know, one or two pitch adjustments to get back in the zone and that’s going to be everything for him that he can just minimize those mistakes.”

“Yeah, I think it really comes down to a mentality thing,” O’Harran said of the key to their strong pitching. “I think we, the last few years we haven’t been as good as we wanted to be and I think coming into this year, it’s been a complete mentality shift of we’re not gonna wait for things to happen. We’re gonna go make it happen. I think it’s bled into our performance so far and hopefully into the future as well…Yeah, just be gritty [pitching coach Thomas Eager’s message] and then you know, win your 1-1 counts and there’s like, these little sayings that we’ve kind of installed in the staff to, you know, slow the game down and honestly make it feel like a step easier for everyone.

“I think last year we were really young. I think we’re much older this year, so the game is much slower for us, I think. And now we’re gonna continue to make it that way.”

One thing that that definitely helps the pitching is having Charlie Bates over at short stop. Short stop is his natural position, but last season he had to play in the outfield. He’s certainly happy to be back home in the infield.

“It feels like being home again,” Bates said of being at short stop. “I love it. I was glad that I was able to help us out in the outfield lats year, but I will say that it definitely feels nice to be back at short stop…I think definitely staying pitch to pitch in the infield [is the biggest adjustment back to short stop]. Especially at short stop, there’s a lot going on, a lot of moving parts in the defense that we run here and so, you really have to make sure that everyone is in the right place, whereas in the outfield it was a lot more just running the ball down, which is obviously a good time. But I love being really involved in the game and being able to make a bit difference like that at short stop.”

All season long, Stanford will be honoring the late Mark Marquess, who was the head coach of the program from 1977-2017. The team is wearing number nine patches with a number nine decal on the outfield wall. To cap off the weekend with a win to even up a series was a nice way to honor him given how much he preached about not giving up and never allowing yourself to get swept or lose a series.

“Yeah, it’s honestly been, not having been here when he was here, you know, it’s tough to sometimes understand the impact someone has,” O’Harran said of honoring Marquess. “And just over the last three or four weeks, we’ve had so many alumni come back and just tell some of the amazing stories and it really, it really puts in perspective how much bigger that Stanford is than just this team. It’s really just a whole, it’s a whole bunch of guys who have been through the exact same thing we have and just honoring them and honoring it into the future as well.”

Up next for Stanford is a home exhibition game against Waseda University from Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. That will be on Wednesday at 3:30 PM PT on ACCNX.

“Yeah, it’s gonna be great,” Esquer said of the exhibition. “You know, they’ll come in and getting Rintaro a chance to play against them. And it’s an exhibition and we get some other guys a chance to play. But they’ll be good. You know, the play a very disciplined brand of baseball. It’ll be fun to watch how they prepare and go about their business.”

“Yeah, I mean, that’ll be sort of kind of like a light-hearted scrimmage,” Bates added. “Obviously we want to come away with a win. So, I think it’ll be good to make some adjustments on Monday, Tuesday, and then be able to see how those play into our offense going into Wednesday.”

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