STANFORD, Calif. – Freshman Brock Sell batted 3-for-4 with four runs scored, his first career home run and three RBIs on Sunday as Stanford salvaged a three-game series with Miami by winning the finale 14-6 from Sunken Diamond.
The victory moved Stanford to 17-19 overall this season, including 7-11 in the ACC, while Miami dropped to 29-11 overall and 10-8 in the conference.
After driving in a run with a productive ground ball in the second inning, Sell delivered an RBI-single in the third, connected for his first career homer in the fifth, singled and scored in the seventh, and drew a walk and scored in the eighth.
Looking for the series sweep, Miami immediately got on the board with two runs in the top of the first on a sacrifice fly and an RBI-single from Max Galvin.
The Cardinal responded for two runs in the bottom of the second, with Luke Lavin following up Sell’s RBI-groundout with a run-scoring double into the right-center field gap.
The two-bagger, the first of three for Stanford on the afternoon, was also the first of three hits on the day for Lavin, as he finished 3-for-5 with a run scored and two RBIs.
After Miami reclaimed a 4-2 lead with two runs in the third, Stanford exploded for four third-inning runs on three hits and the first of four errors charged to the Hurricanes on the day. Freshman Teddy Tokheim delivered the first run of the inning with a single back up the middle before a bloop single and a throwing error charged to center fielder Michael Torres allowed the second run to scamper home. The Cardinal would add two more runs on a ground ball from Charlie Bates and Sell’s two-out line drive into right field, claiming a 6-4 lead after three.
Miami’s Daniel Cuvet drew the Hurricanes back even at 6-6 in the top of the fourth, connecting for his 12th home run of the season off freshman Colt Peterson.
Stanford matched power with power to reclaim the lead in the bottom of the inning when Rintaro Sasaki belted his 12th home run of the year out to right field – his second round-tripper in as many games.
Sell’s home run in the fifth extended the Cardinal lead to 9-6, and Stanford would add three more in the seventh when Lavin punched a single into center field ahead of a two-RBI single into right-center field from Tokheim.
The two-RBI single capped a 2-for-5 day with three driven in for Tokheim.
Putting the finishing touches on the 14-6 runaway victory, senior Cort MacDonald split the gap in left-center field for a two-run double in the bottom of the eighth.
Backed by Stanford’s offensive outburst, Peterson was credited with the victory and moved to 3-1 on the year. Stanford’s relief trio of Kassius Thomas, Mike Erspamer and Trevor Moore faced one over the minimum and logged the final five shutout innings to secure the victory. Moore closed the door in the ninth by striking out the side in order.
Stanford will hit the road on Monday for a 6:05 p.m. first pitch at Santa Clara in nonconference play.