TEMPE, Ariz. – The two-way brilliance of Will Matthiessen and spotless defense lifted No. 4 Stanford to a 6-4 win over Arizona State on Friday night at Phoenix Municipal Stadium.
Matthiessen earned the win in 5.2 innings while allowing one run on two hits with six strikeouts and reached base three times with a solo home run, a two-run double and a walk – Matthiessen started his outing with 5.0 perfect frames. Kyle Stowers drove in a pair to finish 3-for-5 and Tim Tawa was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored. Stanford's defense played error-free defense for the fourth straight game and the Cardinal held off a late rally by Arizona State to even the series at one game apiece.
"Our defense was spectacular tonight as it's been for a while now, and this was a great character win for our team in all aspects of the game," said the Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball David Esquer. "Will continues to deliver for this team when we need it most and the trio of Tim Tawa, Nick Bellafronto and Duke Kinamon have been playing fantastic defense at an important time of the season."
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The Cardinal (40-11-0, 21-7-0) started slow on offense, going down in order in each of the first three innings, but Matthiessen, in turn, retired the first nine batters he faced with five strikeouts – he worked a quick first before striking out the side in the second. In the third, Nick Bellafronto and Tim Tawa each made terrific plays to their right before Matthiessen wrapped up the inning with his fifth punchout.
Matthiessen tossed another perfect inning in the fourth before registering the first hit of the game, a solo home run to the opposite field to put Stanford on top, 1-0, in the fifth. The junior returned to the hill in the home half to deliver a shutdown inning, another one-two-three frame for five perfect innings to start his outing.
Stanford tacked on three more runs in the sixth with Matthiessen at the heart of the scoring. Matthiessen obliterated a ball off the wall in straightaway centerfield, a double to score Brandon Wulff and Kyle Stowers, and eventually scored on Andrew Daschbach's double into the right-field corner.
In the home half, Arizona State got on the board with its first hit of the game, a solo home run to right-centerfield off the bat of Carter Aldrete – the ball appeared to hit the top of the wall and carom back onto the warning track but, after a conference between the umpires, it was ruled a home run. Matthiessen got two more outs, including a strikeout of Spencer Torkelson, before Austin Weiermiller relieved him with a runner on first base and two outs. After issuing a walk, Weiermiller got Hunter Bishop to pop-out, stranding two runners.
Stanford got the run back in the top of the seventh, courtesy of Stowers' RBI double into the alley in right-centerfield to score Tawa. The Sun Devils made it 5-2 in the bottom half as Lyle Lin hit a solo home run but Zach Grech and Maverick Handley combined to escape the inning. With runners on first and second and one out, Handley picked off Aldrete at first before Grech punched out Cole Austin to end the inning.
B7 | @MaverickHandley does it again. Surprised? Ok. Didn't think so. ?????? @Pac12Network
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Grech returned to work a one-two-three eighth – Tawa made another superb play charging a weakly-hit grounder and Grech threw out Torkelson attempting to leg out an infield single with a fantastic play of his own. In the top of the ninth, Stanford tacked on an insurance run as Stowers drove in Tawa, who led off with a double, with a two-out single.
Gage Workman hit a two-out, two-run home run off of Grech in the bottom of the ninth but Grech retired the next batter he faced for his first save of the season.
No. 4 Stanford wraps up the regular season on Saturday with Game 3 against the Sun Devils – Jr. Erik Miller takes the mound for Stanford with first pitch at Noon PT on Pac-12 Networks. Live statistics will be available at GoStanford.com.
Cardinal Notes
- It is the 24th 40-win season in program history and third in a row.
- Matthiessen is the third Cardinal with 10 or more home runs this season, joining Brandon Wulff (17) and Andrew Daschbach (16). It was Matthiessen's team-leading 18th multi-hit game of the season.
- Stanford is 19-4 away from Sunken Diamond.
- Stanford has hit at least one homer in 21-of-23 games with 58 home runs in its last 27 games. The Cardinal entered Friday co-leading Pac-12 play with 46.