LOLETA, Calif. - Stanford Club Baseball opened their 2025-2026 campaign with a tripleheader against Cal Poly - Humboldt this past Saturday, February 21. Despite the shivering cold and wind gusts that surpassed 35 MPH, the Cardinal coolly dispatched the home Lumberjacks 8-0, 15-3, and 10-4 to gain the coveted "sweep".

Donnie Raymond twirled a gem in Game 1. The graduate right-hander racked up 14 strikeouts as he blanked Cal Poly - Humboldt and silenced the hostile Lumberjack faithful that braved the elements to support their home squad at Bear River Recreation Center. Offensively, both teams were slow out of the gate. A 2-RBI double from Raymond in the top of the 5th inning opened the scoring for the Cardinal. Angel Piña tacked on two more insurance runs in the top of the 6th with a towering "big fly" to left-center field, plating Miles Gumbs, and a four-hit flurry in the 7th inning extended the lead to 8-0. That was more than enough for Raymond, who only needed 92 pitches to fire a complete game shutout. His final line: 7 IP, 4 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 14 K, 1 HBP.

The Cardinal came out hot in Game 2, inducing the "slaughter rule" in a 15-3 trouncing that was ultimately shortened to five innings. Stanford's bats didn't wait long to warm up, as a one-out Cooper Tenney single followed by a Raymond double opened the scoring in the top of the 1st. After the inning was brought to two outs, five Cardinal batters reached base consecutively to bring the early advantage to 4-0. Stanford was able to scratch three runs across in the second and third innings, respectively, to rip the game open. The culminating blow was delivered in the fifth inning by Tommy Kaufman, who singled to center field to score Thomas Ravel and Joseph Seddon, which stretched the Cardinal lead to 14-2 and took the game across the slaughter rule threshold. Joseph Seddon was able to finish what he started on the mound, tossing five innings of three-run ball. He complemented his performance on the hill with a 2-3 effort at the plate, driving in two and scoring once. Offensively, Stanford's attack was balanced. Cooper Tenney, Donnie Raymond, Danny Gass, Angel Villeraldo Amador, and Joseph Seddon all recorded multiple hits.

Game 3 proved to be the closest affair of Saturday's action. Though the Cardinal did not trail at any point Saturday, the Lumberjacks saved their best effort for last, holding Stanford close into the late innings. Danny Gass, starting on the mound, pushed the Cardinal ahead in the opening frame of action with a three-run home run to dead-center. However, the Lumberjacks answered with two of their own on a two-RBI single in the bottom half. The game was on. Stanford failed to score until the top of the fourth, when Joseph Seddon scampered home on a wild pitch to take the lead to 4-2. However, Cal Poly - Humboldt answered right back with a two-run long ball in the bottom of the 4th inning to level things at 4-4, to the raucous delight of the home fans. After a scoreless fifth inning, Stanford drove the dagger home in the 6th. Seddon led off the inning with a double, and was subsequently chased home courtesy of a Jamie Baum triple. An RBI Raymond single and Gumbs walk made things 7-4, as sprinklings of rain started to trickle down. In the bottom of the 6th, NCBANow Preseason Pacific Region Player to Watch Tommy Kaufman took the ball from Danny Gass, whose final line totaled 5 innings of 4 run, 4 strikeout ball. Kaufman served as the proverbial "stopper", facing the minimum over his first inning of work. Raymond singled home another run in the 7th and Dean Perry came through with a two-out, two-RBI single to further push the contest out of reach, and Kaufman retired the side in order in the bottom of the 7th to secure the 10-4 victory. He went 2 IP with 1 K. Notable performances from Game 3 included a Jamie Baum 3-5 effort and three hits in three at-bats for Donnie Raymond.

Raymond impressively caught game two and three of the same-day triple header and threw out one of the two runners that attempted to steal against him after pitching seven innings in the first contest. Cal Poly Humboldt never retired him. He went 8-8 with 2 doubles, 4 walks, and a HBP, while stealing 5 bags, scoring 7 runs, and driving in 6 himself.

Stanford improved to 3-0 with the sweep, which dropped the 'Jacks to 0-6 on the young season. The next action for the Cardinal will be a doubleheader against USF on February 28th.