STANFORD, Calif. – No. 2 Stanford plays host to No. 1 UCLA for a three-game series at Sunken Diamond, starting Friday at 6 p.m.
The defending conference champion Cardinal (19-3-0, 6-0-0 Pac-12) rides a 10-game win streak into Sunday, having won each of its first six Pac-12 contests. The top-ranked Bruins (21-5-0, 7-2-0) enter the weekend having won eight of their past nine, earning Pac-12 series wins against Oregon State, Arizona and USC.
It is the first matchup of No. 1 and No. 2-ranked teams at Sunken Diamond since February of 2000 when the Cardinal, which topped the Baseball America top-25 poll, swept No. 2 Cal State Fullerton, 3-0. Live streaming and live statistics will be available at GoStanford.com. On Tuesday, Stanford travels to San Francisco to play San Francisco at 3 p.m.
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Weekend Opponent, UCLA
• Friday's series opener will be the 273rd meeting between the two programs with Stanford owning a 161-112-0 advantage in the series, which started in 1959. Most recently, then No. 2 Stanford lost a three-game series, 2-1, against No. 21 UCLA at Jackie Robinson Stadium last season.
• Jack Stronach leads the team, offensively, slashing .426/.611/.522 while four other players have at least 48 total bases – Garrett Mitchell, Ryan Kreidler, Chase Strumpf and Michael Toglia.
• The Bruins' pitching staff carries a 2.54 earned-run average, which ranks third in the nation behind only Bradley (2.45) and Stanford (2.36).
• It is the first matchup of teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the D1 Baseball poll since April of 2015 when Texas A&M and Louisiana State faced off. It is the first matchup of teams ranked No. 1 and No. 2 in the Baseball America poll since April of 2016 when Texas A&M and Florida met.
• Eleven players listed in D1 Baseball's top 350 prospects for the 2019 MLB Draft are set to appear in the series, including Stanford's Kyle Stowers, Erik Miller, Andrew Daschbach, Jack Little and Maverick Handley.
Tuesday's Opponent, San Francisco
• The Dons (17-11-0, 6-3-0 WCC) enter the weekend have won four straight. On Feb. 27, the Cardinal earned an 8-3, comeback win over USF – Brandon Wulff hit two home runs and Stanford's bullpen combined for 5.0 innings of shutout ball while allowing just two hits.
• Stanford owns a 93-18-2 all-time record against San Francisco with the series dating to 1959.
Don't miss our first annual Youth Baseball Day, set for April 6 when we play host to UCLA!
— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) March 28, 2019
INFO: https://t.co/x3q4enBR4D#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/bybOOLMiC5
What's Next?
• Following Stanford's trip to San Francisco on Tuesday, the Cardinal opens a three-game series against Washington at Sunken Diamond, starting April 12 at 7 p.m. – all three games of the series will broadcast live on Pac-12 Networks.
• Starting with the Washington series, 18 of Stanford's final 28 regular-season contests will air on Pac-12 Networks.
• Stanford's other remaining Pac-12 home opponents include Arizona (April 26-28) and No. 6 Oregon State (May 17-19). Midweek home opponents remaining include UC Davis (April 16), Gonzaga (April 22), San Jose State (April 23), Santa Clara (May 7), Cal Poly (May 14) and Pacific (May 21).
Cardinal in the Polls
• Stanford climbed to No. 2 in this week's D1 Baseball top 25, its highest ranking of the season. The Cardinal also ranked in the Baseball America (2), Collegiate Baseball Newspaper (4), NCBWA (2) and Perfect Game (2) polls. UCLA and Stanford rank No. 1 and No. 2 in the D1 Baseball, Baseball America, NCWBA and Perfect game polls.
• Four of Stanford's 2019 opponents ranked top-12 in the poll, including No. 1 UCLA, No. 6 Oregon State, No. 7 Arizona State and No. 12 Texas.
"When you're surrounded by those kinds of people, all striving to succeed and prove themselves, it really makes you feel like you're in a very special place."
— Stanford Athletics (@GoStanford) April 3, 2019
My Stanford Story: @jack_little11#GoStanford pic.twitter.com/kYmZOaMYJ1
Pitching and Defense
• Stanford's 2.36 earned-run average leads Division I programs entering the weekend, including a 1.54 bullpen ERA.
• Stanford has allowed two earned runs or less in 15 games this season and five or less hits in seven – Tuesday's 2-0 win over Fresno State was the Cardinal's second shutout of the year.
• Among Pac-12 teams, Stanford has allowed the fewest runs (60), walks (66), doubles (23) and home runs (4). Opponents are hitting just .221 against the Cardinal, an average which ranks third-lowest in the Pac-12.
• All-American Jack Little headlines the staff, leading the bullpen in appearances (11), innings pitched (19.0), strikeouts (25) and saves (6) – Little's 22 career saves rank third in program history behind Colton Hock (25 – 2015-17) and Steve Chitren (26 –1986-89). In Pac-12 play, Little has surrendered zero earned runs with a .045 opposing batting average, both of which lead the league.
• Stanford's .980 fielding percentage ranks second in the Pac-12 and ninth, nationally.
Quick Hitters
• Five Cardinal have started all 22 games – Will Matthiessen, Andrew Daschbach, Maverick Handley, Brandon Wulff and Tim Tawa.
• Duke Kinamon's three stolen bases in Friday's 7-1 win at Washington State were the most of any Pac-12 player this season – the senior is 8-for-9 in stolen base attempts this season. Kinamon made his first appearance in 630 days on Feb. 23 when the Cardinal played host to UNLV.
• Nick Bellafronto became the first Cardinal to register four hits in a game on Sunday, going 4-for-4 with two doubles, two RBI and three runs – Bellafronto is one of nine players in the Pac-12 to have four hits in a game this season.
• Handley rides a 23-game reached-base streak and nine-game hit streak into the weekend – he has reached base safely in all 22 games this season and in his final appearance of 2018. Handley, who has started 20 games at catcher, has thrown out 5-of-7 stolen base attempts against him this season with two pickoffs. Handley (bioengineering) aspires to be an orthopedic surgeon following his baseball career.
• Stowers switched numbers to 37 prior to the season to honor teammate and close friend Jason Lyon, who died of brain cancer when the pair were teammates in high school.
• Matthiessen, who owns a 2.25 earned-run average in 16.0 relief innings, leads qualifying Stanford players in .OPS (.985), total bases (41), slugging percentage (.539), on-base average (.446), batting average (.355), RBI (19) and multi-hit games (8). Matthiessen made his first career start in Tuesday's 2-0 win against Fresno State, tossing 3.0 shutout innings.
• Stanford is 15-1 in the month of February and 21-5 in March under the Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball David Esquer.
• Vincent Martinez and Nicolas Lopez both made their collegiate debuts in Sunday's 14-2 win at Washington State.
• Stanford will host its first annual Youth Baseball Day on Saturday. For more information, visit GoStanford.com/youthbaseballday.
Welp, that was fun. ???? #GoStanford pic.twitter.com/FKGo7a6CRb
— Stanford Baseball (@StanfordBSB) March 31, 2019
2019 Season Recap
• Stanford made it 10 in a row with a 2-0 triumph of Fresno State on Tuesday (April 2) – it was the Cardinal's 24th straight midweek win, a streak dating to April 26, 2017.
• Stanford improved to 6-0-0 in Pac-12 play with a 3-0 sweep at Washington State (March 29-31) – the Cardinal outscored the Cougars, 29-8, including a season-high 17 hits in Game 3.
• The Cardinal opened Pac-12 play with a 3-0 series sweep over Utah (March 22-24) with wins by the scores of 7-4, 7-6 and 7-3.
• Stanford emphatically wrapped up pre-Pac-12 play with a 3-1 series win over No. 12 Texas at Sunken Diamond (March 7-10). After dropping the series opener, despite a career performance from starting pitcher Brendan Beck, the Cardinal outscored the Longhorns 21-3 over the final three games to clinch the series win.
• After sweeping a doubleheader, 2-0, to clinch the series win at No. 24 Cal State Fullerton (March 1-3), Stanford dropped the series finale, 4-3, on a walk-off single at Goodwin Field in Fullerton, California.
• Stanford's streak of midweek wins stretched to 23 games with an 8-3 win over San Francisco (Feb. 27).
• The Cardinal came from behind to earn a 2-1 series win over UNLV in Stanford's first home action of the season (Feb. 22-24).
• Stanford opened the season with a 4-0 showing at the Angels College Classic in Phoenix, Arizona (Feb. 15-18). The Cardinal earned wins over Ball State (2-1), Wichita State (5-4), Pepperdine (6-1) and Grand Canyon (14-4).
Defending the Crown
• Stanford captured its first conference championship since 2004 in dramatic fashion last season, coming from behind on the road during the final day of the regular season.
• After losing Games 1-2 at Washington, Stanford trailed, 5-3, entering the ninth inning of Game 3 (May 26). Will Matthiessen's two-run home run in the ninth inning tied the game at 5-5 before Nico Hoerner beat out an infield single to score Alec Wilson. Jack Little struck out the side in the bottom of the ninth to secure the Cardinal's 18th conference championship.
Firepower Returning
• A significant portion of Stanford's offensive production returns for 2019, including 95 percent of the team's home runs, 79 percent of RBI and 74 percent of total bases from 2018.
• Three players who started all 58 games return – Tim Tawa, Andrew Daschbach and Kyle Stowers.
• Daschbach led the team in home runs (17), RBI (63) and total bases (125). Daschbach's 17 big flies were the most in a season since Sean Ratliff hit 22 home runs during the 2008 season.
• Stowers ranked second on the team in home runs (10) and RBI (42) while leading the team in walks (30).
• Tawa, who split time between center field and third base, earned freshman All-America honors from Collegiate Baseball Newspaper and Perfect Game after hitting seven home runs with 41 RBI, 44 runs and a team-high 18 doubles in 2018.
• Led by Little, Stanford returns most of its pitching staff from 2018, which ranked second in the nation with a 2.83 earned-run average.
• Brendan Beck finished his freshman season with an 8-0 record and 2.43 ERA across 66.2 innings pitched.
• Erik Miller, a preseason All-American and Stanford's Sunday starter in 2018, is one of the top prospects for the 2019 MLB Draft – Miller went 4-4 with a 4.07 ERA in 48.2 IP.
• Other key arms returning include Will Matthiessen (2.00 ERA in 13 relief appearances), Zach Grech (2.65 ERA in team-high 28 appearances) and Austin Weiermiller (5-1, 3.29 ERA in 38.1 IP across 23 appearances).
Esquer Era Underway
• 2019 marks the second season under the Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball David Esquer.
• Esquer, a 1987 graduate of Stanford and starting shortstop on the 1987 College World Series-winning team, returned to The Farm after serving the previous 18 seasons as the head coach at Cal.