Pac-12 Play Gets Underway

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Pac-12 play gets underway for Stanford on Thursday when the Cardinal begins a three-game set with Washington State at Sunken Diamond.

Series History

 All-time vs. Washington State: 47-25 (.625)
First meeting in 1964 | Streak: Washington State, 1
Last Series: W (9-0); W (3-1); L (3-2) at Pullman, Wash. (May 23-24, 2015)

• Stanford took two of three from Washington State in the final series of 2015. The Cardinal swept a doubleheader in Pullman, but dropped the final game of the year in 11 innings, 3-2.
• Stanford has won five straight series against the Cougars (11-4 record since 2011).
• The last time Washington State took a series from Stanford was in 2010 when the Cougars
took two of three on The Farm.
• The Cardinal is 23-13 against Washington State at Sunken Diamond.
• Stanford beat WSU, 12-11, May 24, 1987 in the 1987 West I Regional on its way to its first of two straight national titles.

We're No. 1

• Stanford leads the nation in fielding percentage (.988). The Cardinal have made the fewest errors in the country (295 teams) with just seven in the first 15 games.

Best defense in the nation #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/0xpSe3Sg7q

— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) March 23, 2016

Stanford Stats

• Stanford is No. 5 in the nation in ERA (2.18) and has allowed the second-fewest runs in the country (38). Only St. Bonaventure has allowed fewer (37 in two fewer games).
• Stanford is also No. 4 in the NCAA in hits/9inn (6.35) and WHIP (1.01).
• In addition to those categories, Stanford also leads the Pac-12 in opposing batting average (.200), and fewest hits (96), walks (96) and home runs (2) allowed.
• Five of Stanford’s 10 wins have come against the Top 25, including two on the road.
• Stanford outscored Kansas 18-6 in the three-game sweep and had an ERA of 1.67.
• Stanford has held its opponent to two or fewer runs in nine of its 10 wins.
• The Cardinal is 7-0 this year when scoring first.

Stanford is No. 5 in the nation in ERA. @coltonhock leads the Pac-12 in ERA (0.00), opp. batting avg (.200), hits allowed (6), runs allowed (0) and extra-base hits allowed (0) #GoStanford

A video posted by Stanford Baseball (@stanfordbsb) on Mar 22, 2016 at 7:14pm PDT

Stanford Streaks

• Junior catcher Alex Dunlap reached base in his first nine games—that’s the longest streak of the season for a Stanford player. Bryce Carter owns the longest active streak (6).
• Junior shortstop Tommy Edman has played in 104 straight games (started 101 in a row).
• Three-game sweep of Kansas was Stanford’s first since May 24-25, 2015 at Utah.
• Stanford's last four-game win streak was May 23-30, 2014 (five in a row).

Closing the Door

• Stanford’s bullpen has an ERA of 0.74 and opponents are hitting just .160.
• The reserves also have 61 strikeouts and just 22 walks and 33 hits in 60.2 innings.
• Colton Hock, Tyler Thorne and Chris Viall have not surrendered an ER in 36.2 innings.
• Stanford is 9-0 when leading after six innings this season.

Fab Freshmen

• Tristan Beck leads the team in wins (3), Nico Hoerner has started every game and leads the team in batting average (.304), Duke Kinamon and Brandon Wulff started all three games last series with slugging percentages of .556 and 1.250, respectively, and Kris Bubic has a 2.25 ERA with 1 save in three starts and one relief appearance.
• In all, head coach Mark Marquess added 11 freshmen in his latest recruiting class.
• Three pitchers (one lefty), four infielders, three outfielders and a catcher. Six are from the homestate of California, three from Georgia and one apiece from Colorado & Nevada.

Pac-12 Pitchers of the Week

• Stanford won the first two Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week awards this season.
• Colton Hock earned the award on March 1 after throwing 5.2 scoreless innings in relief in the longest recorded shut out in the program’s history (since 1959)—Stanford won at #23 Texas, 1-0 in 12 innings, on Feb. 25. Hock finished with a career-high eight strikeouts and allowed just three hits.
• Tristan Beck earned the conference honor in the first week—he was the first Stanford hurler to win the award since 2013 MLB first overall pick Mark Appel in May of 2013.
• Beck became the second Stanford freshman to start Opening Day since Mike Mussina in 1988 (teammate Cal Quantrill was the other in 2014).

2016 Schedule

 54 regular season games, 30 at Klein Field.
 More than half of the schedule (30/55, 54.5%) is against 2015 tournament teams: Cal (5), Texas (4), Cal St. Fullerton (3), UCLA (3), USC (3), Oregon (3), Oregon State (3), Arizona State (3), Vanderbilt (3).
 Though the Top 25 rankings vary, each has included at least 20+ games for Stanford against Top 25 opponents.
 11-day break from March 7-17 for finals.
 Longest homestand was seven games and 20 days long (March 1-20).
 Longest road swing is four games (four times).
 First 11 games were played in 13 days.

Last Time Out

• A shutdown pitching performance by Tristan Beck and the bullpen propelled Stanford to a 2-0 series-opening victory over Kansas. Beck allowed no runs on six hits and a walk in 6.1 innings. Colton Hock came in as relief in the seventh and struck out five consecutive batters before handing the ball over to Chris Viall in the ninth who picked up the save. The Cardinal struck for two runs in the bottom of the fourth inning when Nico Hoerner led off with a triple to the right-center field gap. Mikey Diekroeger followed with a double to bring Hoerner home and give Stanford a 1-0 lead. Quinn Brodey followed with a sacrifice fly.

Is it good if you can't even see where the ball comes down? @DukeKinamon was very mean to that baseball https://t.co/GOmJvSa72U

— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) March 20, 2016

• On Saturday, Stanford’s offense erupted for 10 runs on 13 hits to earn a 10-4 victory.
Chris Castellanos came in as relief in the top of the first inning to pick up the win. Castellanos held Kansas to two runs on seven hits and one walk with four strikeouts in six innings. Seven Stanford players registered at least one hit with five players recording multi-hit games. Matt Winaker had a big day at the plate, going 3-for-4 with two RBI and two runs. Stanford did a majority of its damage in the fifth inning, rallying for seven runs on seven hits.
• Freshmen Brandon Wulff, Nico Hoerner and Duke Kinamon combined for six of Stanford’s eight hits, including two milestone home runs, and all five of the team’s RBI’s in Sunday’s 6-2 win to clinch the sweep. Summerville pitched 5.1 innings in relief and allowed just one unearned run to earn his second win of the year.
• Stanford also played on Monday in a game that was suspended in the ninth inning with the Cardinal leading 12-9 at UC Davis. The game will resume on May 17 at Sunken Diamond.

Up Next

• Stanford plays at home for all but two mid-week games between March 1-April 5.
• Following the Pac-12 opening series, the Cardinal head to San Jose State on Monday.
• Stanford then hosts USC for three games, April 1-3—all on the Pac-12 Network.
• Stanford’s next overnight trip will be at UCLA, April 7-9 (last was Feb. 25-28 at Texas).