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Baseball

All-Around Effort

Box Score

STANFORD, Calif. – All nine batters had at least one hit in No. 3 Stanford's 7-4 win over Utah to open Pac-12 conference play on Friday night at Sunken Diamond.

The Cardinal (13-3-0, 1-0-0 Pac-12) traded punches with the Utes (7-10-0, 1-3-0) early on but pulled away with two runs in the fifth and seventh innings. Duke Kinamon reached base three times, scoring all three times, adding a stolen base and an RBI. Maverick Handley scored twice, finishing 2-for-5, and Brendan Beck (1-2) earned his first win of the season.

"It's never easy coming off of finals week, so credit our student-athletes for being ready to play tonight after a big week in the classroom," said the Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball David Esquer. "You love to see what Duke Kinamon is doing, it's rare to find a player who can impact the game like he did tonight."

The Utes struck first in the top of the first. Zack Moeller doubled down the left field line to score Oliver Dunn, but the Cardinal responded in the home half. Brandon Wulff ripped a two-out double off the right-field wall and scored on Will Matthiessen's two-strike single to left.

Utah restored its lead in the second inning but Beck limited the damage to one run, which was unearned. The Utes loaded the bases with no outs and Beck struck out a pair before walking in a run to make it 2-1, Utah. Stanford again tied the game in the home half with Christian Robinson's sacrifice fly to deep center scoring Kyle Stowers, who led off the inning with a single.

Matthiessen brought home Kinamon in the third to give Stanford its first lead of the night, 3-2, but Utah responded in the fourth with an RBI double into the gap in left center.

After Beck worked a quick 1-2-3 fifth, Kinamon singled home Maverick Handley before stealing third and scoring on a throwing error by the catcher to give Stanford a 5-3 lead. Austin Weiermiller relieved Beck, who struck out five and allowed two earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched, with one out in the sixth. Weiermiller registered a career-high four strikeouts, allowing no hits in 1.2 innings.

In the home half of the seventh, Stanford further extended the lead with another pair of runs. Handley scored as Utah turned a 4-6-3 double play, followed by the hustling Kinamon, who scored from second on the play to make it 7-3.

Kyle Stowers robbed an extra-base hit in the eighth with a spectacular play in the eighth with Zach Grech on the mound. Utah plated a run in the ninth to make it 7-4 before Jack Little entered for the final out while earning his fourth save of the season.

No. 3 Stanford returns to action on Saturday for Game 2 of the three-game series at 2 p.m. Live streaming and live statistics will be available at GoStanford.com.

Cardinal Notes

  • Handley has reached base safely in all 16 games this season.
  • All nine batters had one hit.
  • Zach Grech allowed one run in 1.2 innings after relieving Weiermiller to start the eighth.
  • Little's appearance was his team-leading eighth of the season.