San Francisco, Calif. - Fresh off of a resounding series victory against Cal Poly - Humboldt to open NCBA action, Stanford Club Baseball visited the USF Dons over a three game set. Amidst beautiful, sunny conditions, and with many parents in attendance, the Card scratched across 60 runs over the three games. They won the first game 32-0 and the second and third games 17-4 and 11-1, respectively, to earn back-to-back series sweeps.
The day's first contest was one for the history books - it was over before many fans could settle into their seats at beautiful Maloney Park. The principal blow came in the top of the 1st inning, courtesy of graduate backstop Caden Denning, who singled home Cooper Tenney and Donnie Raymond to open the scoring. The onslaught had only begun. When the dust finally settled, the Cardinal were up 10-0 and had nearly batted around twice - 16 batters came to the plate in the first! The scoring outburst immediately rendered the game so lopsided, in fact, that in the midst of a mid-inning pitching lesson from the game's only umpire, Gregory Block and Will Ogden Director of Baseball Evan Schieber sat down original starting pitcher Donnie Raymond and got junior OF/RHP Angel Villeraldo Amador hot. The move from the Cardinal skipper paid immediate dividends, as Villeraldo worked a clean bottom of the first-inning while striking out two. Needing only a 10-run lead to invoke the "slaughter rule", Stanford was already in a position to win after a single inning.
However, 5 full innings needed to be played before the game could be called. What proceeded afterwards could most positively be described as a very-stretched-out formality. The Card plated 11 in the second, 0 in the third, 4 in the fourth, and 7 in the fifth to stretch their advantage to a gaudy 32-0. On the mound, Villeraldo pitched efficiently with the lead. The righty struck out seven over four scoreless innings of work, only surrendering one hit and one walk. In the fifth, he gave the ball to freshman right-hander Miles Gumbs, who made quick work of the Dons to finally push the plodding game past the slaughter-rule threshold. He punched out one. There were eight Cardinal batters who recorded multiple hits. Jamie Baum and Miles Gumbs both picked up five hits - Baum with a 5-5, 5 R, 3 RBI, 2 BB effort, and Gumbs with an incredible performance: 5-5, 2 2B, 5 R, 4 RBI, BB, SB.
Stanford had to make sure not to let up in Game 2. USF trotted out a pitcher whose quality many Cardinal batters would attest was a significant step up from his Game 1 predecessors. Still, Stanford jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first after a Danny Gass groundout cashed in Cooper Tenney and a passed ball permitted Donnie Raymond to hurry home safely. However, an inspired USF asked questions of starter Joseph Seddon before he could settle in, putting their first three runners on base. After a strikeout, an RBI walk halved the deficit. After another strikeout, a catastrophic, bases-clearing throwing error saw the Dons surge in front, 4-2. Almost fatigued from scoring so much in Game 1, the Cardinal bats had to respond. And respond they did. After a scoreless second, Gumbs singled in Danny Gass to bring the game to 4-3 and Seddon provided some run support for himself on the mound with a two-RBI single to push the visiting Cardinal back ahead. They would go on to tally 11 more runs, seven of them coming in the 7th, to render any potential comeback hopeless.
Not that it proved to be necessary. From the first on, USF struggled to generate much offense. Seddon shut out the Dons over the next five innings before Jamie Baum slammed the door shut with a scoreless, one-strikeout seventh inning to lock in the 17-4 victory. The final line for Seddon: 6 IP, 6 H, 4 R, 1 ER, 5 BB, 6 K. Seddon had a big game. On top of his proficiency on the mound, he provided some punch out of the pitcher spot in the lineup, going 4-5 with 4 RBI and a run scored.
After the lengthy doubleheader, both units had a chance to rest before the ultimate game of the series. USF's Game 3 starting pitcher came out with a funky delivery and started off the game pounding the zone with sinkers. So, the Cardinal employed an unorthodox strategy of their own. A strategy synonymous with Stanford Club Baseball legend Jeremy "Choppa" Rubin. A strategy that had longstanding followers of the program reminiscing about Rubin's historical regional playoff walk-off against CMU Miramar.
After a walk and a Danny Gass infield single, Denning broke the deadlock with an RBI "choppa" down the third base line off of the Dons' sidewinder. Stanford continued to mercilessly pound high-bounding balls to the left side, challenging the Dons' defense. Eight of Stanford's 14 hits on Sunday didn't leave the infield dirt. The Cardinal scored 11. The choppa, once again, was bearing fruit. On the pitching side, graduate IF/RHP Donnie Raymond, coming off National Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week honors, cruised through the first three innings of Sunday's contest, allowing two hits. He struck out two. At the behest of Coach Schieber, he yielded to southpaw Tommy Kaufman, who tossed two innings while only giving up one run to secure the 11-1 triumph in five innings. A notable offensive performance for the Cardinal came via the bat of freshman Dean Perry, who went 3-3 with 2 R, 3 RBI, and 2 SB.
It was a true team effort, offensively, for Stanford. They rapped 58 hits and recorded 60 runs over 17 innings of play. They completely exhausted the USF pitching staff, who needed 455 pitches to get through the weekend. They stole 25 bases and did not get caught once. There were a plethora of Cardinal batters who individually had abnormally successful series. Two freshmen, in particular, set themselves apart. Miles Gumbs went 7-9 with 2 2B, 7 R, 7 RBI, BB, HBP, 3 SB, to the tune of a 1.818 series OPS, and Dean Perry notched a 6-8, 6 R, 6 RBI, HBP, 4 SB weekend. A Tenney leaping grab at short, Danny Gass to Thomas Ravel to Pavan Farrell 6-4-3 double play, and Caden Denning's erasure of all three USF baserunners that attempted to run on him highlighted the Cardinal's defensive efforts.
Stanford's second consecutive sweep to begin the year takes their record to 6-0 (6-0), while the Dons slide to 0-11 (0-8) on the young season. The Cardinal have a Saturday doubleheader against University of California - Santa Cruz next on March 7th.
**Update** Miles Gumbs earned NCBA Pacific North Region Player of the Week for his offensive contributions over the weekend.
