| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |
| Kansas (12-2) | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | 11 | 3 | |
| Stanford (6-8) | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 5 | 9 | 3 | |
| Stanford, Calif. | Klein Field at Sunken Diamond | |||||||||||||
| Pitching | |||||||||||||
| Win: John Hochstatter (2-1) | |||||||||||||
| Loss: Robert Kahana (1-2) | |||||||||||||
| Save: Tyler Thorne (2) | |||||||||||||
| Batting | |||||||||||||
| Alex Dunlap - 2-4, RBI | |||||||||||||
| Brant Whiting - 2-3, R, RBI | |||||||||||||
STANFORD, Calif. – Chris Viall pitched 4.2 innings, while allowing no earned runs and the Stanford bullpen limited Kansas to one earned as the Cardinal evened this weekend's three-game set with a 5-4 win at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond Saturday afternoon.
“It’s always good to win,” said Mark Marquess, The Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball. “It was a tough loss last night. We had a lot of chances to win and couldn’t get it done, so it was good today.”
Stanford jumped to a 5-0 lead, but the Jayhawks to get within one with the help of Cardinal miscues, before John Hochstatter, A.J. Vanegas and Tyler Thorne closed the door on the comeback attempt. Hochstatter (2-1) took the win and Thorne earned his second save, although Vanegas may have been the most effective as he went 2.2 innings and kept Kansas off the board while allowing just three hits.
Vanegas, who has pitched one inning in each of his first three appearances, needed just 25 pitches to retire eight of the 11 batters he faced.
“He felt good today,” said Marquess. “This is the longest we would go with him. He didn’t throw a lot of pitches; he has been throwing a lot of strikes. That’s good to have him healthy. That will help us down the road.”
The Cardinal bullpen was able to hold the lead after Stanford scored one in the first inning, another in the second and three more in the third. Austin Slater picked up an RBI single and Jonny Locher added a sac fly, before the breakout inning.
Two walks and a hit by pitch loaded the bases in the third and the Cardinal capitalized in a situation that haunted the team in the late innings last night. Alex Dunlap and Brant Whiting both singled through the infield to drive in runs a day after Stanford was 0-5 with the bases loaded in extra innings during a 4-3 13-inning loss.
Tommy Edman grounded out to drive in the fifth and eventual winning tally.
Stanford did all of its damage off of Kansas starter Robert Kahana (1-2), who went three innings and allowed five runs on five hits.
Marquess was happy with today’s result, but emphasized that Stanford has work to do. “We’re not playing very good baseball to be honest with you. Five errors last night, three today. We need to play better than that, we should be able to play better than that. We just have to play better.”
The Cardinal gave Kansas an extra out in the fifth inning, which resulted in three unearned runs against Viall. The freshman was relieved by Hochstatter after giving up a two-out three-run double to Connor McKay.
Two base runners reached for Kansas in the ninth, but Thorne induced a 6-3 double play to end the game.
Whiting and Dunlap collected two hits for Stanford, while five different Cardinal registered RBI.
Stanford and Kansas will play the rubber match of the three-game series tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. The start time was moved from its originally scheduled 1 p.m. slot.
Highlights
Notes
Mark Marquess was honored with a pregame ceremony for winning his 1,500th game … Marquess now holds a career record of 1,501-789-7 … Stanford continued its run of starting a freshman pitcher in each game this season … Locher started for the first time in 2014 … Dunlap had his fourth multi-hit game in 10 games played … Slater extended his career-best hitting streak to 10 games … Slater is on an 11-game reached-base streak … Danny Diekroeger has reached base in eight straight games … Drew Jackson has hit safely in four straight games.