STANFORD, Calif. – Trailing 7-2 headed to the bottom of the fifth inning, Stanford (19-17, 6-15 ACC) stormed back to take a 9-8 lead in the bottom of the seventh only to see Notre Dame (20-17, 7-14 ACC) score twice in the ninth to earn a 10-9 victory on Sunday from Sunken Diamond.
With the win, Notre Dame earned a series sweep over Stanford and handed the Cardinal its 14th ACC loss in the last 15 conference contests.
Senior Ty Uber surrendered the go-ahead two-run blast in the ninth as Carson Tinney led off with a single and Bino Watters launched the first pitch he saw over the wall for his seventh round-tripper of the year. Saddled with the loss, Uber dropped to 1-2 on the season.
Tinney finished the game 5-for-5 with a double, a homer, four runs scored and one RBI. His solo homer leading off the top of the seventh inning was his fourth of the series and broke a 7-7 tie.
Trailing 3-0 after three innings, Stanford cut the deficit to 3-2 in the fourth thanks to an RBI-triple from Brady Reynolds and an RBI-ground out from Temo Becerra.
After Notre Dame responded with four runs in the top of the fifth to make it a 7-2 ballgame, Stanford punched back with a run in the fifth and four in the sixth to draw even. Freshman Tatum Marsh plated the run in the fifth inning with a single, while Rintaro Sasaki launched a two-run shot for his fifth home run of the year to get the scoring started in the sixth. Ethan Hott, who finished 3-for-5 with two runs scored and one RBI, drove in Charlie Saum to cut the lead to one, and ultimately scampered home and tied the game on a pair of wild pitches.
Continuing the back-and-forth battle, Tinney’s seventh-inning home run once again put the Fighting Irish in the driver’s seat at 8-7, but Becerra shot a one-out single into left field with a pair of runners on the move to plate Marsh and the game-tying run in the home-half of the frame. Sasaki jumped on the very next offering, lacing an RBI-double into the right-field corner to hand Stanford the lead at 9-8.
Sasaki finished the game 2-for-3 with a run scored and three RBIs.
Sophomore Aidan Keenan, who took over for starter Matt Scott with one out in the fifth, trotted back out for the eighth and hung the zero for the shutdown inning. Keenan, who threw 64 pitches and was charged with two runs on three hits and a walk while striking out six over his 3 2/3 innings, passed the baton to Uber in the ninth, but the Cardinal was unable to lock down the save.
Facing Tobey McDonough in the bottom of the ninth, Stanford made things interesting as Sasaki drew a one-out walk and was replaced on the bases by Saborn Campbell. Luke Lavin followed with a bloop single behind the bag at third, pushing runners to first and second with only one out. Stanford elected to pinch hit with Cort MacDonald, and the junior chopped a ball up the middle that was mishandled but recovered just in time to force out a sliding Lavin at second. Hott came to the plate with a chance to tie the game, but popped out to shallow center field as Notre Dame escaped with the sweep.
For his efforts over the final 2 2/3 innings, McDonough earned the victory and improved to 2-0 on the season.
Stanford will return to action on Monday when it hosts UC Davis in non-conference play at 6:05 p.m.