STANFORD, Calif. – Junior Eric Jeon laced a walk-off single off the wall in left field in the bottom of the 11th inning as Stanford defeated No. 8 Florida State 8-7 on Saturday to clinch a series win over the Seminoles from Sunken Diamond this weekend.
With the victory, Stanford improved to 20-19 overall and 9-11 in the Atlantic Coast Conference, while Florida State dropped to 29-13 and 12-8 in the ACC. The walk-off win was the fourth of the season for Stanford.
Jeon, who finished 2-for-6, came to the plate with runners at second and third and one out as Florida State pulled its infield in. Nolan Stoll, who scored the game-winning run, had reached with a one-out infield single before moving to third on Cort MacDonald’s double through the right side.
The two teams traded blows through the first seven innings, with each team managing seven runs on seven hits and two errors to that point, but neither team mustered a hit from then until Stoll’s single in the 11th.
Stanford got on the board first in the second inning as Brady Reynolds launched an opposite-field two-run home run out to left field. The round-tripper was Reynolds’ fourth of the year and his second in the last three games. He finished the contest 2-for-5 with a pair of runs, a double, the homer and two RBIs.
Florida State responded for four runs in the top of the third to take a 4-2 lead, but the Cardinal immediately drew back even with a pair of runs in the home half – this time getting the two on a two-run blast from freshman Teddy Tokheim. After Rintaro Sasaki reached on a two-out fielding error, the native of Seattle, Wash. connected on a 1-1 pitch and drove it 413 feet over the wall to hang a pair of unearned runs on Seminoles starter Trey Beard. The home run was Tokheim’s 11th of the season.
The Cardinal took advantage of another FSU error en route to scoring a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth, as right fielder Brody DeLamielleure misplayed a fly ball off the bat of Luke Lavin that went for an error and a sac fly.
Continuing the seesaw battle, Florida State answered with two runs in the top of the fifth to once again claw back even at 6-6.
With Stanford now trailing 7-6 in the bottom of the seventh, Jeon nearly connected for a go-ahead three-run home run, but was robbed by left fielder John Stuetzer. Philip Cheong, who entered a pinch runner in the inning, alertly tagged up on the play and ultimately came in to score the game-tying run on an RBI-groundout from Sasaki one play later.
After entering and surrendering the run in the seventh, senior Kassius Thomas settled in to hang a pair of zeros in the eighth and ninth innings while striking out two. Mike Erspamer struck out the side in the 10th to keep the game level before fellow freshman Brock Ketelsen took over in the 11th and logged another scoreless frame to give the offense a chance at the walk off and put himself in line for his second career victory.
Stanford’s seven pitchers on Saturday afternoon combined to strike out 11 Seminole hitters while issuing five walks.
The Cardinal, which locked up its first series win over a top-10 opponent at home since a 2-1 series victory over No. 9 Arizona from May 7-9, 2021, will look to earn the series sweep over Florida State on Sunday when the two teams conclude the three-game set at 1:05 p.m.