Coming off of its weekend sweep of Kansas at home, Stanford baseball (5-2) will return to Sunken Diamond once more for a single game against the UC Davis Aggies (3-2) on Tuesday.
The Cardinal have been red-hot since their initial series with Cal State Fullerton. After dropping the first two games of the season, the team has won five straight games, its longest such streak since May of 2014. This series also pushed the team to 11 straight home wins, its longest streak since the 2011 and 2012 seasons. The players will look to push this momentum going into their Tuesday game.
Part of the Cardinal’s recent success has to be attributed to their bats. The team has three players batting .390 or higher with at least 20 at-bats over the course of the season. Junior infielder Mikey Diekroeger (.417), sophomore infielder Duke Kinamon (.435) and senior catcher Alex Dunlap (.393) have shown batting consistency that allows the Cardinal to establish a fearsome offensive power. All three of those players also have slugging percentages over .400 and force opposing pitchers to show respect to the Stanford bats. As a whole, the team is batting .274, an impressive stat over the course of seven games.
But the team’s pitching is equally responsible for the recent success at Sunken Diamond. Through their seven game season, the Cardinal pitchers have a combined ERA of 2.14, limiting opponents to low scores throughout all of their wins. Starting pitchers have come out of the gate strong, while the relievers have shown great flexibility in being utilized in various forms. Freshman reliever Jack Little struck out the side in his single inning pitched, and reliable junior Colton Hock has a win and two saves notched under his belt in his 5.2 innings pitched.
In this early-season run, the Cardinal are still getting adjusted to all of the weapons they have on the pitching and batting sides of the ball. Head coach Mark Marquess will continue to use players in different situations to get a feel for the team’s optimal lineup, especially in early games against unranked opponents like this one. As the team moves deeper into the season, the depth of the roster and the cohesiveness of the team will be tested.
The game will be streamed on Pac-12 Networks starting at 5:30 p.m.
Contact Bobby Pragada at bpragada ‘at’ stanford.edu