STANFORD, Calif. – The Cardinal offense scored 32 runs on 30 hits across a pair of games on Sunday, sweeping a doubleheader over visiting Utah Valley to clinch a series win over the Wolverines in a four-game set that will conclude on Monday.
The Cardinal defeated Utah Valley 17-10 and 15-9 to improve to 10-12 on the season, while the Wolverines dropped to 10-12.
Freshman Teddy Tokheim went 6-for-8 with six runs scored, a double, his fifth homer of the year and five RBIs over the two games, while Ethan Hott finished the second game of the doubleheader 4-for-4 with two doubles, two runs scored and three RBIs.
Eric Jeon continued his hot hitting, finishing 4-for-8 with four runs scored, his fifth round-tripper of the season and four RBIs. Charlie Bates connected for a homer in each game, going 4-for-10 on the day with five runs scored, a double and six RBIs. With the two on Sunday, Bates has now launched six home runs on the season.
JJ Moran and Rintaro Sasaki also homered on Sunday, with Moran’s long ball – his fifth of the year – being a grand slam that flipped the script and highlighted an eight-run bottom of the fourth for the Cardinal in game one of the doubleheader. With a two-run blast in the bottom of the fifth in game one, Sasaki leads the team in homers with seven.
The Cardinal trailed 8-0 in game one headed to the bottom of the third, but exploded for four runs in the third, eighth in the fourth, four more in the fifth and one in the seventh to eventually run away with the victory.
The four-third inning featured RBI-doubles from Sasaki and Bates, before Moran laced a two-RBI single into left field to cut the deficit to 8-4.
Jeon led off the fourth with a home run to make it 8-5 before the Cardinal took advantage of a pair of UVU errors, received a two-RBI single from Tokheim and saw four come in on Moran’s grand slam to straight-away center field.
Moran, a native of San Diego, Calif., finished the first game with a career-best six RBIs while batting 2-for-5.
After Utah Valley got two back in the fifth, Sasaki and Bates each launched two-run homers in the home-half of the inning to push the tally to 16-10. The Cardinal would tack on one more in the seventh to finish the scoring in the opener.
Sophomore Austin Steeves was credited with his first career victory in game one after tossing a scoreless fourth inning.
The Cardinal managed to carry all the momentum into the second game, jumping out to a 9-0 lead after two innings. Stanford put up four runs in the first on a sac fly from Jimmy Nati and RBI-singles from Jeon, Hott and MacDonald.
Tokheim’s homer got the rally going in the second before Jeon laced a two-out, two-RBI single into left field. Hott followed with an RBI-double before coming around to score on a single from Cort MacDonald – one of three hits for the senior in the second game of the doubleheader.
UVU managed to get four runs back in the third, and added one more in the fourth to cut the deficit to 9-5, but Stanford responded with another five spot in the bottom of the fourth. The crooked inning was highlighted by a two-RBI single from Tokheim and a three-run blast from Bates.
Hott, who also drew a walk in the fifth to reach five times in game two, completed his stellar day at the plate in the bottom of the seventh, lacing an RBI-double into left-center field to chase home Jeon and the game’s final run.
Stanford will look to sweep the four-game series on Monday when the two teams meet for a 12:05 p.m. first pitch.