STANFORD, Calif. - No. 8 seed Stanford dropped a 4-1 decision to Cal State Fullerton on Friday night in the NCAA Stanford Regional.
Stanford (41-15) lost for just the third time in the last 25 games. The Cardinal will play in an elimination game on Saturday against BYU at 1 p.m. The Cougars will be the home team.
Stanford, which lost at Sunken Diamond for the first time since April 15, was also the visiting team on its home field against the Titans. One night after routing Sacramento State 10-0 in its postseason opener, the Cardinal managed only four hits and scored its lone run in the fifth inning thanks to Jesse Kuet's RBI single.
Junior starter Andrew Summerville (5-2) worked out of trouble early. He stranded five runners in scoring position in the first three innings. Though Cal State Fullerton (36-21) did sneak a run across on a walk and two hits in the second.
Stanford evened the score in the fifth. Sophomore Brandon Wulff walked to start the inning and was bunted into scoring position. Kuet extended his career-long hitting streak to a dozen games with a two-out bloop single to center. Wulff scored from second to make it 1-1.
The Titans quickly responded, pushing across a pair of runs for a 3-1 lead in the home half of the inning. Dillon Persinger's RBI single made it 2-1, and he later scored on a two-out throwing error taht put the deficit at 3-1.
Senior reliever Tyler Thorne registered his 100th career appearance when he entered in the fifth. The Lubbock, Texas, native pitched 2.1 innings, allowed three hits, one earned and struck out another.
Tyler Thorne hits a milestone ?? #GoStanford
A post shared by Stanford Baseball?? (@stanfordbsb) on Jun 2, 2017 at 8:35pm PDT
Cal State Fullerton added an insurance run in the sixth when Chris Prescott scored on Sahid Valenzuela's two-out single.
Stanford's eight-game winning streak was snapped in large part to Cal State Fullerton starter John Gavin (7-2). The San Jose native and product of nearby St. Francis High School struck out 10 in seven innings, following up a strong six-inning outing back on Feb. 18 to lead Cal State Fullerton to an 8-1 win.
NUMBERS…
Summerville finished 4.1 innings, was touched for six hits, three runs (two earned) and struck out four. Freshman Will Matthiessen struck out the only batter he faced in his postseason debut, while senior Brett Hanewich pitched a scoreless inning.
Stanford was out-hit 10-4. It snapped Stanford's streak of 10 straight game with double-digit hits. Kuet finished 2-for-3 with the lone RBI, while Jack Klein was 1-for-2 for the second straight night, and Matt Winaker was 1-for-3 with a double.
AND NOTABLES
Stanford had won eight straight Regional games at Sunken Diamond, and 10 straight games overall on its home field ... Kuet's hit streak is the longest of the season for Stanford and the longest for a Cardinal since Quinn Brodey collected a base hit in 14 straight games last season ... Since May 17 at Santa Clara, Kuet has gone 21-for-38 (.553) and has had multi-hit games in six of the last eight contests ... Matt Winaker reached base for the 27th consecutive game, extending his career high and the longest streak for a Cardinal since Alex Blandino reached in 31 straight in 2014 ... Wulff extended his on-base streak a career-best 16 games, though his career-best 11-game hit streak came to an end.
Game-tying RBI single also makes a dozen straight games with a hit for @jesse_kuet008 ??#GoStanford #RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/rcHdCXvIsD
— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) June 3, 2017
WHAT'S AHEAD
The winner of Stanford and BYU squares off against Cal State Fullerton at 6 p.m. PT and would need to beat the Titans twice to advance to the Super Regionals. Both games can be seen worldwide on ESPN3.com and the Watch ESPN app. Tickets are still available here.
POSTGAME QUOTES
SOCIAL SCENE
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#GoStanford
June baseball at Sunken ??#GoStanford #RoadToOmaha pic.twitter.com/QTFxIsqGxu
— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) June 3, 2017