Credit: Sean Riordan/ISI Photos

On Friday, Stanford baseball defeated Pittsburgh 9-7. Trevor Moore (3-1) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role while Daniel McAuliff (2-1) was the losing pitcher for the Panthers in a relief role. 2nd baseman Jimmy Nati and right fielder Brady Reynolds each hit one home run for the Cardinal while also each having three RBIs. Stanford improves to 7-10 overall and 1-3 in the ACC while Pittsburgh falls to 12-4 overall and 0-1 in the ACC.

BOX SCORE: Pittsburgh at Stanford-Friday, March 13th

“You know, it’s kind of an ACC type game,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “You think you have it and it’s just kind of a meat grinder of a league and you can’t ever take anything for granted. I give them credit. They play hard, they play loose and hard, and they’re a good ball club and their record says that. So it was a good job by us. We had to have a little bit of every facet of our game to win. Play a little defense, had to pitch enough, and then we had to offense, too. So it was a good step forward.”

Stanford righty Nick Dugan got the start on the mound. In the top of the 1st inning, Dugan would get the first two batters out via fly out and strike out. Then, he would walk Lorenzo Carrier after which Kai Wagner singled to right center, advancing Carrier to second base. Trey Fenderson then singled to left center, bringing home Carrier and advancing Walker to second base. A fielder’s choice would then end the top of the inning. 1-0 lead for Pittsburgh.

Stanford would not respond in the bottom of the 1st inning as the first three batters all got out: Rintaro Sasaki (strike out), Teddy Tokheim (ground out), and Charlie Bates (fly out).

Neither team would score in the 2nd or 3rd inning, keeping it at a 1-0 lead for Pittsburgh. In the top of the 4th inning, Dugan pitched another scoreless inning for the Cardinal, keeping it at a 1-0 game. Dugan would strike out two batters in the top of the 4th.

In the bottom of the 4th, with Nati on first base and Bates on second base, Brady Reynolds went yard to deep center field, making it a 3-1 lead for the Cardinal with two outs. Eric Jeon then grounded out to short stop to end the bottom of the inning.

“Yeah. I mean, we had guys in scoring position, so just looking to do damage,” Reynolds said of his home run. “Their pitching stuff kinda throws a lot of strikes. Don’t really walk a bunch of guys, so just trying to be aggressive early. Threw a changeup that kind of, you know, hung up over the plate. Thought it was a good pitch to swing at and then, you know, luckily you know, put a ball out over center field fence. So, yeah.”

“Huge,” Esquer said of Reynolds’ home run. “Off the batter’s eye, right? I mean, that’s a great at bat by him and you know, Jimmy Nati obviously huge hit.”

In the top of the 5th inning, Dugan stayed on the mound for the entire inning despite giving up a solo home run to Carrier, who went yard to left field. That made it 3-2. In the bottom of the 5th, Pittsburgh’s starting pitcher David Leslie also made it through the entire inning. He would not give up a run, keeping it at a 3-2 game.

Neither team scored in the 6th inning, but there were a pair of pitching changes. Toran O’Harran replaced Nick Dugan for Stanford, pitching the entire inning. As for Pittsburgh, Daniel McAuliff came in to get the final out to close out the inning. It remained a 3-2 game entering the 7th inning.

“Gutty, you know, not good stuff,” Esquer said of Dugan’s outing. “You know, not enough glove strikes, but he got us into what the fourth or fifth inning, you know, and we’re still in the game, but I didn’t think he had great stuff and I didn’t think he threw enough glove strikes, really. But he kind of was able to hang around for his 90 pitches, which was big.”

In the 7th inning, Pittsburgh would take a 4-3 lead as Wagner went yard to right field to bring home Carrier. Trevor Moore was now on the mound for the Cardinal, replacing O’Harran to start the inning. Despite giving up the two runs, Moore would go on to be the winning pitcher thanks to what happened in the bottom of the 7th:

With two outs and the bases loaded, JJ Moran would single to left center to bring home Luke Lavin and Teddy Tokheim. That made it a 5-4 lead for the Cardinal. Moran then stole second base. After that, Nati crushed the ball to deep left field, clearing the trees at Sunken Diamond as it went 374 feet. That was Nati’s fifth homer of the season, bringing home Bates and Moran. It was now an 8-4 lead for the Cardinal. Ethan Hott then flied out to end the bottom of the inning.

“He’s just such a great ball of energy to kind of have around,” Reynolds said of Nati. “He’s such like a good leader and leads by example. And I think, you know, tonight and all the homers he’s hit in the past, I think he’s earned those just by being a good guy and you know, really leading the team by example. And that was sick.”

In the top of the 8th inning, Moore gave up a single after which Mike Erspamer came in for relief. Erspamer would get three straight batters out, keeping it an 8-4 game. A diving catch near the dugout by Moran ended the top of the inning. That’s the kind of defense Stanford is going to need from him as their 3rd baseman.

“Yeah, it was a great play, it was a great play,” Esquer said of Moran’s catch. “We got a lot of foul ground here and you gotta be able to catch foul balls here to be a good 3rd baseman and that was a great one.”

In the bottom of the 8th, with the bases loaded and Noah Czajkowski now on the mound for the Panthers, Brock Sell would get walked right after Sasaki drew an intentional walk. That would bring home Eric Jeon, making it a 9-4 lead for the Cardinal. With only one out, the Cardinal were unable to tack on more runs, but at least they didn’t come away completely empty handed.

Up 9-4 entering the 9th inning, Stanford just needed to shut the door. After Erspamer gave up a walk and then a single, Colt Peterson came in for relief. Carrier was the first batter Peterson faced and he jacked the ball deep into left field (424 feet) to bring home both runners. That made it a 9-7 game. From there, Peterson would settle down, getting a strike out and then two fly outs to end the game. 9-7 Stanford came out on top to get the first win of the series.

“We had a couple more tack on runs there in the 9th we could have put on. We missed that opportunity, which, you know, loom big,” Esquer said. “You end up going to your guy that you want to close the game with a five run lead and that’s not exactly what you want, but we had to. And you know, the kid Carrier there, I think he’s hit like nine home runs this week on the trip…We were trying to stack it at the end and give everybody an inning rather than go until somebody failed and then take them out once they failed. We’re like hey, we’re going to try to go ones here at the end and we got a little bit of a lead that we thought maybe we could run Erspamer out there and sneak another one out, but we didn’t.”

For Stanford, this is a good win. Pittsburgh came in with a lot of momentum and so to take game one of the series allows Stanford to breathe a lot more the rest of the series. Their hitting was fantastic and the pitching bended, but it didn’t break. There’s still a lot of reasons to be worried about the pitching, but if you are Stanford, you’ll take this win.

“You know, I don’t know if this one gets us all the way back with confidence, but it certainly builds some confidence, right?” Esquer said of the win. “And that’s what this team has to do. They have to learn how to win and we’ve not had that and that’s the learning process is how to win the game, how to figure it out and win a game, whether and we were behind a little bit. They took a two-run lead with the, or a lead with the homer in the 7th and we came back with two big hits by Moran and Nati. So, you know coming back offensively to win that and then kind of holding them off. I thought Colt, even though he gave up the big swing to Carrier, showed a lot of poise. He got the next three guys out. You know, he didn’t make it worse. So that was big.”

“Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, coming in, you know, we change conferences going to the ACC, you know that’s gonna be, Esqy you know, called it a meat grinder of a conference,” Reynolds added. “And I think that’s very true. You know, we’re going to face tough competition every week and I think it’s super important that the guys, you know, stay together, stay connected, and I think we really flipped the switch after the Wake Forest series. Just kind of the attitude that all the guys are bringing to the field every day. You can definitely see a difference in the intensity and the way that we’re playing and so happy that it worked out.”

Up next for Stanford is game two on Saturday against Pittsburgh. That will begin at 2:05 PM PT on ACCNX.

“You know, we’re going to have to build some consistency coming out and playing the same type of game,” Esquer said looking ahead to Saturday. “You know, they play hard and loose and they’re not scared of us, you know, and that’s okay. You know, but that’s what we’re gonna face tomorrow. A team that’s going to compete hard and doesn’t necessarily think we have a red S on our chest, right?”

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