Winaker and freshmen push baseball to series victory

Feb. 22, 2015, 11:58 p.m.

It took four hours and 45 minutes on Sunday afternoon into the early evening, but after a rain-soaked affair that featured 15 pitchers, No. 25 Stanford baseball (3-4) clinched a series win over No. 24 Cal State Fullerton (2-5) with an 11-9 win.

“That game was something else,” said freshman first baseman Matt Winaker. “I can’t say I have [been a part of anything like that]. That was definitely the longest regulation game I’ve ever played.”

Freshman Matt Winaker’s pinch-hit three-run jack sparked the Stanford offense, who showed signs of life in the series win over CSU Fullerton. (CASEY VALENTINE/isiphotos.com)
Freshman Matt Winaker’s pinch-hit three-run jack sparked the Stanford offense, who showed signs of life in the series win over CSU Fullerton. (CASEY VALENTINE/isiphotos.com)

Winaker himself had one heck of a weekend down in Fullerton.

The freshman, who has now recorded hits in six of the Cardinal’s first seven games, smashed a pinch-hit three-run homer on the first pitch he saw in the sixth inning on Sunday to put Stanford up, 5-2.

“I was looking fastball and if I got it I was going to put a swing on it,” Winaker said. “And I got it, and I put a swing on it.”

Junior outfielder Jonny Locher, who had been used sparingly throughout his Stanford career until this series, knocked his first career home run and freshman third baseman Jesse Kuet also hit a round-tripper as part of a four-hit Sunday as the offense really showed up for the first time this season.

The Cardinal ended up scoring 11 runs in the game — they’d scored just 14 runs over their first six games combined.

While the bats finally showed signs of life in the series finale, the Cardinal’s stellar pitching certainly didn’t show any signs of letting up.

Friday’s duel between Stanford sophomore Cal Quantrill and USA National Collegiate Team member Thomas Eschelman of Fullerton was supposed to be one of the premier pitching duels of the season. In that regard, it certainly didn’t disappoint.

The two highly touted prospects cruised through their opponents’ lineups with a combined 15 strikeouts. Although Eschelman’s fastball velocity was underwhelming and he didn’t throw many other pitches, his impeccable control to all corners of the strike zone gave him a perfect game through six innings. Meanwhile, Quantrill’s changeup and slider were particularly effective and he traded zeroes with Eschelman for the first six frames.

Eschelman’s perfect game bid was only broken up in the seventh inning, when sophomore Tommy Edman singled and then advanced to second base on an error by Fullerton’s left fielder. He then went base-to-base, being sacrificed to third by Kuet and then scoring on a wild pitch.

“He worked for that run,” said Quantrill of Edman’s base-running prowess. “A little single, takes second, takes third, takes home, a pretty good job. Tommy looked good all night.”

Winaker later added a home run — the first of his Stanford career — to tack on a late insurance run as the Card pulled out a 2-0 thriller.

On Saturday, the second half of the Cardinal’s one-two punch, junior Marc Brakeman, had a strong outing, lasting five innings before the Titans even made a dent. But after he allowed a leadoff triple to Fullerton’s Scott Hurst, two Cardinal errors opened the floodgates for a three-spot for the Titans in the frame.

Edman, who got the start at shortstop on Saturday, bobbled a chopper with the infield in and sophomore left fielder Alex Dunlap committed a throwing error, leading to two more Titan runs after Hurst scored. Brakeman departed after the inning, finishing with six innings pitched and three runs allowed — one earned.

Stanford battled back with two runs in the top of the eighth against the Fullerton bullpen, but that’s all Stanford was able to get, as the Cardinal fell 4-2 in their only loss in the series.

The Cardinal now head back to the Farm, as they welcome Nevada to Sunken Diamond on Tuesday night before heading to Rice next weekend.

Contact Jordan Wallach at jwallach ‘at’ stanford.edu and Do-Hyoung Park at dpark027 ‘at’ stanford.edu.

Jordan Wallach is a Senior Staff Writer at The Stanford Daily. He was previously the Managing Editor of Sports, a sports desk editor for two volumes and he continues to work as a beat writer for Stanford's baseball, football and women's volleyball teams. Jordan is a junior from New York City majoring in Mathematical and Computational Science. To contact him, please send him an email at jwallach 'at' stanford.edu.

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