Sunken Set to Host Sun Devils

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Stanford returns to Sunken Diamond this week for its first home series in three weeks. The Cardinal has played eight of its last nine on the road, but will stay in Palo Alto this weekend, where it has won its first two Pac-12 series and four of five home series this season. Arizona State will look for its first series victory at Stanford since 2010 as the team’s meet Friday (6 p.m.), Saturday (2 p.m.) and Sunday (1 p.m.).

Saturday: Free ice cream in a mini Stanford helmet for the first 500 fans
Sunday: Postgame autographs with the players

Series History

All-time vs. Arizona State
• Overall Record: 93-98 (.487) | Streak: Arizona State, 3
• Last Series: L 7-6; L 6-3; L 14-6 at Phoenix, Ariz.
• Arizona State is the only Pac-12 team with a winning record against Stanford (since 1959).
• Stanford was swept in Phoenix last year, but had won the three previous series, including two of three last year at Sunken Diamond.
• Stanford has won the last two series against ASU in Palo Alto (last loss in 2010).
• Stanford has not met ASU in the NCAA tournament since winning 9-4 to claim the 1988 national title. Other tournament meetings came in 1984 and 1967 (twice).

Current Cardinal Against Arizona State
• Senior Austin Barr is a .353 lifetime hitter against ASU. (6-for-17, 1 HR, 7 RBI in six games).
• Junior Tommy Edman has hit .421 (8-for-19) in his career against the Sun Devils.
• Saturday starter Chris Castellanos has allowed 1 ER in 2.1 innings (2 app) against ASU.
• Mikey Diekroeger (.333) and Jonny Locher (.364) have also hit over .300 against ASU.

Pac-12 All-Century Team

• Four Stanford legends were among the 30 players selected to the Pac-12 Baseball All-Century Team, revealed on the Pac-12 Networks' flagship show, ‘Pac-12 Sports Report' on Monday night.
• Three Cardinal pitchers -- Jack McDowell, Mike Mussina, and Mark Appel -- were among those honored as well as former Cardinal catcher and current Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch.

Congrats to the four Cardinal named to the @pac12 All-Century baseball team! #GoStanford https://t.co/NdzVu9T5Ay pic.twitter.com/pwXk5NiX4X

— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) April 19, 2016

We're No. 1

• Stanford entered the week ranked No. 1 in the nation in fielding percentage (.987).
• The Cardinal has the fewest errors in the country (295 teams) with just 15 in the first 31 games. Western Michigan is second with 19 errors in 33 games.
• In addition to those two categories, Stanford pitching also entered the week atop the Pac-12 in ERA (2.60), opposing batting average (.220), and fewest runs (97), earned runs (80), hits (218), doubles (29), and home runs (7) allowed. Second-fewest walks (100).
• Most of those numbers aren’t even close:
     - Stanford’s ERA is more than a half run better than No. 2 Cal (3.20).
     - Stanford has allowed 100 fewer runs than three Pac-12 teams.
     - Stanford has allowed 100 fewer hits than three Pac-12 teams.

Stanford Stats

• Stanford is No. 6 in the nation in ERA (2.60) and has allowed the third-fewest earned runs (80) in the country.
• Stanford is also No. 6 in the NCAA in hits per nine innings (7.08) and No. 10 in WHIP (1.15).
• Stanford has held its opponent to two or fewer runs 16 times this year (15-1), and allowed more then two runs 15 times (4-11).
• The Cardinal is 10-2 this year when scoring first and 10-0 when hitting a home run.

Stanford Streaks

• Sophomore Matt Winaker reached base in 14 straight games in April—the longest streak of the season for a Stanford player.
• Junior Alex Dunlap has a six-game hitting streak, longest active streak on the team.
• Junior shortstop Tommy Edman has played in 120 straight games (started 117 in a row).
• Stanford won its first three Pac-12 series for the first time since 2008 when the Cardinal finished third at the College World Series (won first five that year).

Closing the Door

• Stanford’s bullpen has an ERA of 1.84 and opponents are hitting just .200.
• The reserves also have 121 strikeouts (compared to 53 walks and 87 hits) in 122.1 inn
• Eight different pitchers have an ERA under 2.00 coming out of the bullpen this year.
• Stanford is 16-1 when leading after seven innings this season.

Stanford in the Show

• Six Cardinal made Opening Day rosters, and AJ Hinch began his second season as manager of the Houston Astros.
• Here is a full list of Stanford alums in the show: http://stanford.io/23yl6W6

Great first week of @MLB! Six Cardinal were on Opening Day rosters! #StanfordMLB rundown » https://t.co/aqvmB3pipm pic.twitter.com/2bLPXqR0fc

— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) April 11, 2016

Fab Freshmen

• Tristan Beck leads the team in wins (4), Nico Hoerner has started 30 of 31 games, Duke Kinamon has played in 19 of the last 20 games, and Brandon Wulff was one of the team’s hottest hitters prior to an injury on April 5.
• Beck became the second Stanford freshman to start Opening Day since Mike Mussina in 1988 (teammate Cal Quantrill was the other in 2014).
• 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.

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 preseason Top 25 rankings varied, each 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.
• Eighteen Stanford baseball games will be broadcast on the Pac-12 Networks in 2016.

Last Time Out

• Stanford lost its first Pac-12 series of the season at Arizona last weekend.
• In the series opener, Stanford was shut out until the ninth inning and managed just five hits on the night. Arizona scored one off starter Tristan Beck and three off the bullpen to win 4-1.
• Arizona took Game 2 by the same score. Stanford was shut out again until the ninth.
• On Sunday, Stanford trailed 5-1 entering the eighth. But the Cardinal scored three in the inning to close to within one. Then in the ninth, Quinn Brodey hit a two-run, go-ahead inside-the-park home run with two outs to give the Cardinal a 6-5 lead. Colton Hock earned the win with 2.2 innings of scoreless relief, including the bottom of the ninth.
• In Tuesday’s non-conference matchup at Cal, the Cardinal opponent scored first for the fourth straight game. Stanford tied the game at 2-2 with a run in the fifth and sixth, but the Bears scored three in the bottom of the sixth to earn a 5-2 win.

Up Next

• The Cardinal is in the middle of a stretch of 11 of 15 games on the road.
• The next road trip is to Corvallis to take on Oregon State (April 29-May 1).
• Only home series in this road stretch is this weekend vs. Arizona State.

See you at Sunken! Saturday: 🆓 ice cream 🍦 in a Stanford mini helmet to first 500 fans Sunday: postgame autographs with the players✍🏻 #GoStanford🌲

A photo posted by Stanford Baseball (@stanfordbsb) on Apr 21, 2016 at 4:20pm PDT