The second ever Pac-12 Baseball Tournament continues on.
After scratching out a gritty victory over No. 9 Cal on Tuesday night, No. 6 Oregon will play the other Pool A contestant, No. 1 Stanford, Thursday night at 7 p.m. The Cardinal lost only seven conference games all year — two of which were to the Ducks.
But before Oregon and Stanford’s highly anticipated rematch, the Cardinal played their first game of the tournament Wednesday night against the rattled Golden Bears. Losing in heart-wrenching fashion like Cal did can’t be easy, and having to face the No. 3 team in the country the next day can’t be much easier.
And it showed on Wednesday. The Cardinal didn’t play a flawless game, and got off to a messy start, but they ultimately showed why they’re the better team. Defense was spotty on both sides, and a late-inning explosion of the Stanford bats led it to an 18-10 victory in a nearly four-hour affair, ending Cal’s season on a sour note.
“I thought our team did a good job of flipping that game in the middle, because we were a little sluggish to start with,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said. “We really were. I was not happy with how we were playing early in the game.”
On the mound, the Cardinal went with right-hander Matt Scott. Ducks fans may remember him from when Oregon scored six runs in 5 2/3 innings against him on April 15. He and the Stanford defense helped Cal get off to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. The Bears committed an error of their own in the top of the first — continuing a season-long trend — but Cardinal shortstop Owen Cobb handed one right back with a leadoff error in the bottom of the first.
An RBI single also got by first baseman Carter Graham — ruled a hit, but a play he likely should have made.
“Defensively, we didn’t start the game like we would have wanted,” Esquer said. “So we need to play better.”
The Cardinal got one back in each of the second and fourth innings, but Scott struggled to settle in. He gave up a two-out, two-run single in the third, then came out of the game in the fifth inning after allowing a leadoff double and a groundout. The inherited runner came around to score on a wild pitch, so Scott was ultimately charged with five runs (three earned).
Stanford trailed the No. 9 seed 5-2 after five innings of play.
“We’ve been there before. We’ve been down,” Alberto Rios, Stanford left fielder and Pac-12 Player of the Year, said. “We know that no lead is big enough. And we were like, ‘Hey, we’re just gonna go to work like we always do.’”
Rios got things started with a double in the sixth, which eventually led to a six-run outburst. The Bears helped out by committing their second error, which allowed two runs to score and tie the game. Graham had a big three-run double that gave Stanford a lead it would never relinquish.
The Cardinal still hadn’t completely cleaned their game up — an error by second baseman Drew Bowser helped the Bears get a run back in the bottom of the sixth, making it a still-tight 8-6 contest. At that point, eight of the 14 runs were unearned. If one only tallied earned runs, it would have been a 3-3 tie.
Stanford went back to work in the eighth though, leaving little doubt that it would take this one. The Cardinal posted their second six-run inning of the night, with six straight batters reaching at one point — four consecutive singles, then two bases-loaded walks. Cal, going with a bullpen game, mostly held the fort in the early part of the contest, but the Bears fell apart once Robert Aivazian (3 2/3 innings) ran out of gas, and they had to resort to their lesser relievers.
Stanford also went with one of its lesser relievers, Toran O’Harran, in the bottom of the eighth. The results were about what one might expect from someone entering the game with an ERA in the 9s. That ERA shot into the 11s with his performance Wednesday night. He actually got the first two outs, but then six straight Cal baserunners reached, including a three-run homer by Caleb Lomavita. At four runs, the Cardinal’s lead still wasn’t completely safe.
But they made it a lot safer in the top of the ninth. Braden Montgomery hit a ball an absurdly long way, over the Charro Lodge sign in right field, for a two-run shot. Rios then went back-to-back, as the first three batters of the ninth inning all scored. It ended up being a four-run frame, finally putting a cap on the scoring. The eight-run victory wasn’t as dominant or immaculate as it might sound, but it showed how dangerous these Stanford bats can be.
All of this points to Thursday being a good matchup between Oregon — who won the regular season series — and Stanford, who already clinched a semifinal spot and won’t need to use its ace and Pac-12 Pitcher of the Year, Quinn Mathews.
“The good thing is it assures that we get Quinn out there on Friday,” Esquer said. “We probably still would have [Joey] Dixon if we needed to double up and just find a way to win on Friday.”
With Stanford’s priority set on Friday, the Ducks won’t have to face any of the Cardinal’s primary starters. And because Stanford used four relievers on Wednesday — including closer Ryan Bruno — Oregon has a more rested bullpen as well.
Facing the Cardinal might be a scary task anyway, if for no other reason than their status of being ranked No. 3 in the country. But the Ducks beat this team back in April, and notably quieted a lethally powerful offensive group. Stanford will try to forget what happened in the past when the teams square off Thursday night, but Oregon knows that these Cardinal are not invincible.
“Hey, we’re gonna play a nameless, faceless opponent,” Rios said. “We’re gonna go out there and just try and compete and win. I think with our lineup, regardless of how any guys are feeling, we’ve just got some guys that’ll stick it. I think we have legit pitching behind, and I stack my odds on us all the time, for sure.”
Those odds will be taken to the test Thursday night at 7 p.m. in warm Scottsdale Stadium. The starting pitchers are TBD for both teams. Oregon will need to win to advance to the semifinals, and would be eliminated with a loss.
