STANFORD, Calif. – An early blast from sophomore Brandon Wulff was all the Stanford pitching staff needed as the Cardinal closed out a dominant weekend with a 4-2 win and series sweep over Kansas at Sunken Diamond.
Stanford (5-2) did not allow a run in the series until the seventh inning of the finale on Sunday. The Cardinal has won five straight games for the first time since May of 2014, and earned its 11th consecutive home win for the first time since a streak that spanned the 2011-12 seasons.
Stanford jumped out to a 3-0 lead when Wulff crushed a three-run home run to left in the second inning. Wulff's blast scored senior Alex Dunlap and junior Mikey Diekroeger, who were on base all weekend.
Dunlap was 8-for-16 in the four home games, while Diekroeger had at least two hits in every game against the Jayhawks and finished 8-for-11 (.727) in the series.
Meanwhile, Castellanos continued to cruise. He retired 12 straight batters between the second and sixth. The Jayhawks threatened with two runners on and one out in the sixth, but Castellanos recorded one of his five strikeouts and got a lazy fly to left to end the inning.
Kansas broke Stanford's scoreless streak at 27.0 innings, which dated back to Thursday night's win over Cal Poly. The Jayhawks had back-to-back doubles to make it 3-1.
6-4-3 and that's 22 straight 0's for ?? pitching
— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) February 26, 2017
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Sophomore Nico Hoerner got that run back in the home half with a two-out RBI double down the right field line.
Junior Colton Hock entered with one out and a runner on third in the eighth. He retired both batters, but Kansas got the run across to close within two. Hock returned for the ninth and closed out his second save of the season.
NUMBERS…
Wulff finished 2-for-3 with two extra base hits and three RBI. Diekroeger was 2-for-4 with a run. The final line for Castellanos included 6.2 innings, five hits , one earned run and the five punch outs. Junior Keith Weisenberg got the final out of the seventh and first out of the eighth.
AND NOTABLES
Stanford was eight outs away from a third consecutive shutout – a feat that no Cardinal team has accomplished since 1972, also the first year Mark Marquess joined the Stanford coaching staff (as an assistant) … Stanford's bullpen had a streak snapped of 17.1 innings without allowing a run … The Cardinal has won eight in a row over Kansas, and now leads the all-time series, 21-3 (.875) … This matches Stanford's best start after seven games since 2013.
WHAT'S AHEAD
A stretch of nine games in 11 days at Sunken Diamond is nearing its halfway point. The Cardinal host UC Davis at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, and then welcome Texas for a four-game set, beginning on Thursday night at 6 p.m.
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