Credit: Ben Parker/CardinalSportsReport.com

On Saturday, Stanford baseball defeated Utah Valley 4-3 to take the first game of a four-game series at Sunken Diamond. Stanford righty Kassius Thomas (1-1) was the winning pitcher for the Cardinal in a relief role, pitching 1.2 shutout innings to close the game while Utah Valley righty Cooper Littledike (1-1) was the losing pitcher for the Wolverines in a relief role.  Stanford 1st baseman Rintaro Sasaki went 2-5 for one home run and two RBIs, hitting the walk-off single to win the game. Stanford improves to 8-12 overall (1-5 in the ACC) while Utah Valley falls to 10-10 overall (0-0 in the WAC).

BOX SCORE: Utah Valley at Stanford-Saturday, March 21st

“Wow, this is a, you know, a little bit of a pillow fight for seven innings on our offense, but guys grinded out some runs,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said after the game. “A couple big swings, but we didn’t get much, but they hung in there. They hung in there and that’s all we asked of them. Especially at the end of the game where, in the late innings they got to be able to stay loose and have a chance rather than get tight and wonder why they’re not ahead by some runs. And so, it was a good job.

“And I thought our pitching staff gave us a chance to win and that’s all we asked of them. You know, when you attack by just bringing in more pitchers and just in and out. But we asked that, hopefully if that works that gives us a chance to win. Exactly what it did today.”

Lefty Quinten Marsh was the starting pitcher for Stanford while lefty Jacob Heppner was the starting pitcher for Utah Valley. In the top of the 1st inning, Marsh got three straight batters out: pop up, strike out (swinging), and strike out (swinging). In the bottom of the 1st, Heppner gave a up a single to Teddy Tokheim, but he would get picked off for the second out. After Charlie Bates was walked, JJ Moran fouled out to first base to end the bottom of the inning. It remained a 0-0 game.

In the top of the 2nd inning, Mason Strong hit a single to right field for the Wolverines. Strong would then advance to second base via throwing error (E1) on a failed pickoff attempt with Trenton Rowan at the plate. Strong would then steal third base and score via throwing error (E2) with Rowan still at the plate. The next three batters would get out to end top of the inning. 1-0 lead for the Wolverines.

In the bottom of the 2nd, Heppner would get three straight batters out, keeping it a 1-0 game.

Neither team would score in the 3rd, 4th, 5th, or 6th innings, keeping it a 1-0 lead for Utah Valley entering the 7th inning. Heppner was still on the mound for the Wolverines entering the 7th inning. As for Stanford, they went with a pitch by committee approach in this one. Righty Toran O’Harran would pitch 2.0 innings (3rd and 4th inning) while righty Parker Warner pitched 2.0 innings (5th and 6th innings).

In the top of the 7th inning, righty Colt Peterson came in to pitch for Warner. Derek Houston was the first batter Peterson faced and he went yard to deep right field, making it a 2-0 game. Nobody else would get on base for the Wolverines, keeping it a two run game entering the bottom of the 7th.

In the bottom of the 7th, Eric Jeon got walked leading to a mound visit. Heppner would stay in to finish out the inning, but the shutout did not survive. Luke Lavin would ground out to second base, advancing Jeon to third base. Ethan Hott then hit a sacrifice fly to right field to bring home Jeon. Tatum Marsh then flied out to left center to end the bottom of the inning. 2-1 Utah Valley led at the end of the 7th inning.

In the top of the 8th, Peterson would force a fly out before Utah Valley slugger Hunter Katschke hit a four-bagger to deep center field, making it a 3-1 game. That ended Peterson’s day on the mound as Kassius Thomas came in for relief. Thomas would force a deep fly out and then secure a strikeout to keep it a 3-1 game entering the bottom of the 8th.

In the bottom of the 8th, Rintaro Sasaki went yard to deep right field, his sixth home run of the season. That made it a 3-2 game. Stanford wouldn’t add any more runs the rest of the inning, keeping it 3-2 at the end of the 8th. Cooper Littledike replaced Heppner on the mound and would finish the inning.

“It was fun, very fun moment,” Sasaki said of his home run. “So, I mean, we did a good job to the ninth running, to defense, so I just want to make a win. I mean, starting from Jimmy, bottom of the 9th inning, but I was ready for that. Actually, I was ready for AB focusing. Keep focusing, keeping focusing on like coming to AB. Yeah, that’s gotta he hard, bro…Swing pretty well, actually. I mean, a couple good catches for defense, but I’m still seeing a great ball. Actually, good. I’m feeling good.”

In the top of the 9th inning, Thomas pitched lights out. After an error (E4) allowed Mason Hamlin to get on first base, Thomas would force a ground out double play before forcing another ground out to end the top of the inning.

“It’s a mindset,” Thomas said of the key to his performance. “I go in there and I’m trying to kill the batter. I get in the game, it’s like I look at them and excuse my language, I’m like f— you. And that’s what’s helped me to, like, I’m out there trying to kill him. It doesn’t matter if we’re up 10, down 10, I’m trying to go in there and f—ing win the game. So that’s what you gotta have.”

In the bottom of the 9th, Littledike came back on the mound for the Wolverines, looking to close out the game. Jimmy Nati would strike out swinging for the first out, giving the Wolverines some hope. However, that hope would be short-lived as Jeon doubled to left field after which Philip Cheong came in to pinch run. Lavin then doubled to deep center to bring home Cheong as Utah Valley was unable to secure the out. It was now tied 3-3.

“You know what, we needed that, right?” Esquer said of Lavin’s RBI. “And so yeah, it was big that he had to run so far and come up against the wall and you know, I don’t think many people are going to be able to throw Phil out in that situation, but I don’t know that I would have went back to tag like he did, which he made it a little closer than it should have been. But again, that’s a freshman running the bases that needs to learn…He’s fast and he plays fast [Cheong]. You know, not all the fast guys play baseball fast and Phil can play fast and we’ve needed it a couple times this year.”

Brock Ketelsen then came in to pinch run for Lavin after which Hott got hit by a pitch. Hott then advanced to second base via wild pitch while Ketelsen advanced to third base. Cort MacDonald then got walked to load up the bases. Up next to the plate would be Sasaki. Sasaki would single to deep center field for the walk off as Ketelsen scored to win the game. 4-3 Stanford came out on top.

“That’s kind of my favorite point for me that, especially like walk off game,” Sasaki said. “I can’t say like nothing. I’m just happy right now. Yeah, I just feel happy.”

“Yeah, we needed it, right?” Esquer said of Sasaki’s day. “He had two big swings for us and you know, those RBIs obviously were huge. And for him to just do it in that spot. Hopefully, when he gets in those spots more often, he’s a little more relaxed and confident that it’s happened before.”

“I want to win, you know?” Thomas said. “I was like, we’ve been in a little bit of a rough streak, a little bit of a rough patch, but I know, like, we have the guys and the team to come out of it and we just needed a chance. We just need to give our offense an opportunity. In my heart, I was like yeah, we’re going to come through and win this game. So I was, as soon as we got like first batter on, like first guy, I was like oh yeah. We at least gonna tie it up. Might walk it off and walked it off.”

For Stanford, this is a much-needed win. They’ve been off to a rough start and have been in need of getting some positive momentum going. Perhaps this will be the start of them getting things going in the right direction. The rest of the series will answer that question, but regardless, this was an important win.

“I would say, everyone stayed locked in, winning the baseball game,” Sasaki said. “Play the baseball. So I mean, it’s kind of like mini pressure. Like tied the game, last inning, hitting stuff, going to the AB. So many pressure. But everyone was still positive. So, I mean, we have just confidence to the win. I think that’s gonna be like today’s, I mean, we made the win, I think. We made the win. Big reason, I think. Mental things.”

“Yeah, yeah. No big,” Esquer said of his team shutting the door in the 9th. “These are all lessons this team has to learn offensively. You know, it’s not, again, it’s a lot of inexperience as we’re going on. We believe in the talent and sometimes we think the talent’s just gonna carry the day and obviously experience is a big part.

“We’re playing against a very experienced lineup. I think they have like eight seniors, right? I mean, so like, that’s what we’ve been facing more often than not. In this day and age, that’s what you face a lot of times is just old teams because they just keep reloading. We got to grow this team and so, that’s just part of the growth.”

The most encouraging part of this win for Stanford was the pitching doing its job. While it wasn’t perfect, the pitching staff on the whole should feel good with how this game went, giving up just three runs. Thomas coming in and closing it out was something they haven’t seen yet this season.

“Yeah, I thought all our guys had reasons to leave positive,” Esquer said of the pitching. “You know, from Quinten Marsh to, you know, O’Harran and Parker Warner. Just we got to piece it together. We got to build some confidence in that staff and give them small moments that they can leave confident and then hopefully build on it and the Kassius was obviously one of them with his performance.”

“Just keep passing the torch,” Thomas said of the key to their pitching performance. “Like, we had it kind of scripted a little bit. Like, we knew guys were trying to go two, two, two, and then we’re just gonna figure out six, seven, eight, nine. And it was just a, like, playing for, you know, playing for your boys, like we’re gonna go out there, do your job, pass the torch, keep it going. And we did a really good job of that today. And we’re gonna keep it up tomorrow…Honestly, I’ve been blessed. I’ve always kind of thrown hard. It was just matter of getting in the zone and now I know where the ball is going.

“So that just helps me out. But, I mean, I don’t think about velocity at all. I don’t go out there trying to throw hard. I just throw at a, I have a very high motor, so I just know where I need to be and I just give the same effort on every pitch and the velocity is just gonna be what it’s gonna be.”

At this point, Stanford needs to get back out there on Sunday for a doubleheader against Utah Valley. The first game will start at 1:05 PM PT and the second game will begin at 4:05 PM PT or 30 minutes after the conclusion of the first game. Both games will air on ACCNX.

“Yeah, the pitching,” Esquer said of the key to Sunday’s doubleheader. “We’re gonna keep running guys in and out and we just gotta try to build confidence and hopefully, I think we’ll play better. You know, sometimes after finals it takes a minute and I think, you know, sometimes you gotta come out and go through a game like this and then get your game feet back under you because you don’t know how you come out of studying. And so, a little slow today, but we’ll be better tomorrow.”  

“Take a relax, have a great sleep, and then come back tomorrow,” Sasaki said looking ahead to the doubleheader. “I think that’s it.”

“Yeah, we’re going into it, we didn’t even play great today,” Thomas said candidly. “Like, we actually didn’t play like really great at all. Errors, not many hits, we’re coming off finals week, so it’s a little bit slow, but like, it’s a good win to get us going back and we’re gonna come out, play better tomorrow, and f—ing take both games. That’s the plan.”

CardinalSportsReport.com on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), & Bluesky: @StanfordRivals

Ben Parker on Facebook, IG, Threads, X (Twitter), YouTube, & Bluesky: @slamdunk406

Email: [email protected]

Join the conversation on CardinalSportsReport.com