FULLERTON, Calif. – Quite a way to get the first win of the season. No. 23 Stanford trailed by six on the road against No. 8 Cal State Fullerton, but rallied to win the series finale, 7-6, in 11 innings on Sunday at Goodwin Field.
Stanford (1-2) faced a 6-0 deficit after four innings, but cut that to 6-4 entering the ninth inning. The Cardinal was one strike away from being swept in its opening series of 2017, but junior Quinn Brodey delivered the clutch opposite-field double to left to score two and tie the game.
Duke Kinamon, who finished 3-for-4, led off the 11th inning with a single through the left side. Two batters later, junior Matt Winaker lined one into the left field corner to score Kinamon from first.
Sophomore Colton Hock (1-0) completed his third straight 1-2-3 inning to wrap up Stanford's first win of the season.
Clutch, @quinnbrodey2.
— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) February 19, 2017
Tie game.#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/Q3nsg2bZut
Stanford started to chip away at the six-run deficit in the fifth. Sophomore Brandon Wulff singled through the left side and advanced to third on a double to right center by freshman Kyle Stowers – his first career hit. Kinamon's sacrifice fly to left made it 6-1.
One inning later, back-to-back opposite-field singles from Brodey and Alex Dunlap plated Winaker to cut the deficit to four.
Then with two outs and one on in the eighth, back-to-back doubles by Dunlap and freshman pinch-hitter Andrew Daschbach made it a two-run game and set up the late innings heroics.
About 10 innings earlier, senior starter Chris Castellanos escaped runners at the corners with one out in the first with a double play ball. The southpaw retired the next five, but the Titans put together three straight two-out hits to plate three in the third. Fullerton (2-1) followed with three more two-out runs in the fourth for a 6-0 lead.
Senior Tyler Thorne, junior Keith Weisenberg and freshman Will Matthiessen allowed just two hits in for four scoreless innings of relief. In his college pitching debut, Matthiessen retired all six batters he faced.
Hock took the final three innings as Stanford's bullpen allowed just two hits and one walk in seven scoreless innings.
NUMBERS…
Three of the six runs allowed by Castellanos were unearned as the Cardinal had two errors – Stanford led the nation in fielding percentage last season. Castellanos had three strikeouts and allowed just one walk in 4.0 innings. Brodey finished 2-for-6 with the 2 RBI, Dunlap was 2-for-5 with a run and 2 RBI, and Wulff was 2-for-4 with a run.
AND NOTABLES
Kinamon, who had Stanford's first hit for the second straight game, recorded his third career three-hit game … Eight different players had a hit for the Cardinal … Matthiessen made his first college pitching appearance less than 24 hours after he made his Cardinal debut as a defensive replacement at first base.
UP NEXT
Stanford also has a scheduled game with Cal Poly on Monday at 1 p.m., weather permitting. Follow Stanford baseball on twitter and Instagram (stanfordbsb), and on Facebook for the latest updates.
#GoStanford