STANFORD, Calif. – Junior Quinn Brodey blasted a pair of home runs to guide No. 18 Stanford to its fifth straight win, 8-2, over Santa Clara on Tuesday night.
Stanford (24-12) has won six of the last seven, and 11 straight Tuesday affairs at Sunken Diamond.
Brodey's first home run was a game-changer. Stanford trailed 2-0 in the sixth when the Los Angeles, California, native came to the plate with two Cardinal on. Brodey promptly deposited the first pitch over the right field wall for a 3-2 lead.
Just one inning later, Brodey went deep again. Stanford had increased its lead to 5-2 behind an RBI single from Matt Winaker and a sacrifice fly from Nico Hoerner. Brodey then hit a solo shot near the same spot for his first career two-homer game.
B6: From ??2 to ??1 #BrodeyBlast?? gives ?? the lead #GoStanford https://t.co/UhkGOluMJY
— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) April 26, 2017
The Cardinal added two for good measure in the eighth. Duke Kinamon singled and stole second to become the first Cardinal with 10 steals in a season since Zach Jones in 2010. Alec Wilson brought Kinamon home, and Maverick Handley followed with an RBI single for the final margin.
Freshman starter Erik Miller retired the first eight batters, but Santa Clara (8-31) scored first with a two-out solo shot in the third, and extended its lead to two on a wild pitch in the fifth.
Senior Brett Hanewich (2-1) took over in relief and maintained the lead after Brodey's first round-tripper. Hanewich struck out four in four innings, allowed just one run and two hits, and earned the win.
Junior Keith Weisenberg tossed two scoreless innings and allowed just two hits to close out the game.
NUMBERS…
Four Cardinal had multi-hit games. Brodey was 2-for-5 with four RBI, Winaker was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, Kinamon was 2-for-3 with a run, and Jack Klein finished 2-for-4. Miller struck out two and allowed just two hits and one run in three innings. Stanford hit .444 (4-for-9) with runners in scoring postion and scored all three runners at third with less than two outs.
AND NOTABLES
Brodey is the second Cardinal to hit two home runs in a game this year (Winaker at USC on April 6) … Stanford has won 16 of its last 17 Tuesday games at Sunken Diamond—the last and only loss in that span was 6-5 in 10 innings against Santa Clara on April 14, 2014 … Stanford has scored eight or more runs in three straight games … Freshman Daniel Bakst had his nine-game hit streak snapped -- he had a hit in 20 of the previous 21 games.
WHAT'S AHEAD
Starting on Thursday, Stanford hosts national runner-up Arizona for a three-game series. Thursday is Dollar Dog Night, Friday is the Trading Card giveaway (set 4 of 5), and Saturday is Classroom Cardinal where local students earned free tickets for reaching their reading goals.
SOCIAL SCENE
For the latest updates, you can follow Cardinal baseball all year long on instagram, twitter and snapchat (@StanfordBSB).
#GoStanford