Shutout Sunday

STANFORD, Calif. – Cal Quantrill turned in a dominant 126-pitch effort to shutout Kansas and lead Stanford to its first series win of the season with a 1-0 victory Sunday afternoon. Quantrill allowed just four hits and two walks, while striking out seven Jayhawks, during the complete-game performance.

“I thought he got stronger as the game went on,” said Mark Marquess, The Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball. “I thought he was stronger in the last three or four innings than the first five or six.”

Quantrill (2-2) commanded the strike zone with each of his pitches to stay away from hard contact throughout the day. Kansas mustered just eight base-runners, three of which came in the first inning.

“He always battles,” remarked Marquess. “The first inning they had that chance, they got the bases loaded when he walked a guy and they got a hit. After that he settled in and did a great job.”

The freshman right-hander worked out of the bases-loaded jam in the first by forcing an easy ground ball on a 0-2 count. That out prompted a streak of 10-straight batters retired by Quantrill, who needed only 32 pitches to get through the second, third and fourth innings.

Stanford provided as much run support as necessary on a two-RBI single from Alex Dunlap in the bottom of the fourth. Danny Diekroeger had singled to start the frame before moving to second on a ground out and staying put on a lineout to right field off the bat of Austin Slater. Dunlap smacked a 0-1 offering back up the middle to send Diekroeger home.

Dunlap’s single was one of four on the day for the Cardinal off Kansas’ Frank Duncan, as neither team produced an extra-base hit. Diekroeger found holes for two hits and Tommy Edman had an infield single.

Duncan (2-1) threw eight innings for the Jayhawks, while allowing the four hits and one earned run. He struck out four and walked one.

Kansas threatened in the ninth inning, after Dakota Smith singled to lead off. He reached third base with two outs, but Quantrill got Ka’iana Eldredge to roll over a ground ball to third to finish the shutout.

The Cardinal returns to Klein Field at Sunken Diamond March 21-23 for a three-game set against USC. Stanford takes a 12-day break from games due to its exam period. 

Notes
Kansas entered the series ranked in the nation’s top ten in batting average (No. 5), hits (No. 6), runs (No. 3), scoring (No. 8) and slugging percentage (No. 6) … Quantrill threw Stanford’s first shutout since Mark Appel blanked Washington State, 3-0, March 28, 2013 … Austin Slater ended his career-long hitting streak at 10 games … Diekroeger has reached safely in nine straight games and is on a four-game hitting streak.