NCAA Hopes Alive

STANFORD, Calif. -- Stanford capped the 2014 regular season with wins in both ends of a doubleheader at Utah’s Smith’s Ballpark to reach 30 victories. The Cardinal swept the three-game series with the Utes to win its fourth straight Pac-12 series.

Stanford (30-23, 16-14 Pac-12) now waits to hear its postseason fate Monday at 9 a.m. PT on ESPNU.  

“It was huge,” said Mark Marquess, the Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball. “We put ourselves in position to hopefully go to the postseason. You can’t do any more than sweep.”

The Cardinal stood at No. 47 in the RPI, a key component to NCAA tournament selection, at the beginning of the week. That number will climb after a perfect 4-0 week, including Stanford’s first Pac-12 sweep of the season.

Zach Hoffpauir hit go-ahead home runs in each game, including a three-run inside-the-park shot to break a 5-5 tie in the seventh inning of game one. He drilled a 3-0 pitch off the top of the wall in left field and it trickled down the warning track, while Hoffpauir sprinted all the way around and slid in safely at home. His second trip around the bases was easier, as he sent a 1-2 offering over the left field wall in the third inning of the second game to break a 1-1 score.

“He has really been swinging it,” Marquess said of Hoffpauir. “He got the big hits today and really won the game for us. He has played phenomenal over the last five or six weeks.”

John Hochstatter (10-1) became the third Stanford pitcher to win 10 games in a season in the last 10 years by going 6.0 innings in the first game, while allowing five runs on seven hits. Hochstatter joins Mark Appel, who reached the 10-win plateau in 2012 and 2013, and Jeff Gilmore, who won 10 games in 2005. The junior lefty finishes the regular season with an 8-0 mark in Pac-12 games and a .188 batting average against by conference opponents.

Logan James (3-3) put together the longest outing of his career in the afternoon session. James continued his run of throwing more than seven innings to three straight games by going 7.2 frames. He allowed only two runs on seven hits, before turning it over to Marcus Brakeman.

Brakeman shut the door on the Utes, who had the tying run on second base in the eighth and ninth innings, to register Stanford’s second save of the day. A.J. Vanegas earned his team-leading seventh save in the first game by going 3.0 innings and allowing two runs (one earned) on three hits.

Alex Blandino and Danny Diekroeger had three hits during the doubleheader along with Hoffpauir. Blandino hit his 11th home run of the season in the ninth inning of game one, before getting two hits in game two. All three of Diekroeger’s hits came in the morning contest.

Austin Slater also hit the ball hard all day, but was held to one hit in each game. The knocks were enough to extend his hitting streak to 17 games, the ninth-best Stanford streak since 1988. Slater passed Kenny Diekroeger (16, 2011) and John Mayberry Jr. (16, 2003) to move into a tie with Sam Fuld (17, 2003).

Blandino has reached base in 23 straight games.

Slater and Blandino will have the opportunity to extend the streaks even longer during the 2014 season if the NCAA selection committee calls Stanford’s name Monday morning.

Stanford’s postseason resume is highlighted by 24 games against the RPI top 50, nearly half its schedule, including series victories over Oregon, Arizona State and Kansas.

The Cardinal finishes its 20th 30-win season in the last 21 years by winning eight of its last 10 games. The squad hit .292 during the second half of the season to go 19-7 since April 13.