Rios’ grand slam propels baseball to collection victory over UCLA

No. 8 Stanford baseball (28-13, 15-6 Pac-12) escaped the weekend with a collection win over the UCLA Bruins (24-15, 10-9-1 Pac-12), profitable two out of three video games to take care of their first-place place within the Pac-12 standings. After dropping a collection on the street in Eugene, Ore., final weekend, the Cardinal have been in a position to rebound and stay in a powerful place to host a brilliant regional.

Stanford was in command all through a lot of the first recreation, main in any respect factors throughout the recreation. However UCLA wouldn’t fail to make it a scare. After the Cardinal tallied runs within the second, fourth and fifth innings to make it a 3-0 recreation, the Bruins drove in two runs within the prime of the seventh inning to chop into the lead. Nonetheless, because of the skilled bats of junior outfielder Eddie Park, junior first baseman Carter Graham and sophomore outfielder Braden Montgomery, the Cardinal have been in a position to carry residence three extra runs to offer themselves a four-run cushion.

Nonetheless, the Bruins would as soon as once more reply on the prime of the eighth, getting on prime of senior pitcher Quinn Matthews early within the inning. UCLA would rating two extra runs to make it a 4-6 recreation, and after a scoreless backside of the eighth by the Cardinal, it was setting as much as be an exhilarating end. After a strikeout to start the ninth, UCLA hit back-to-back singles to get males on first and third with only one out. Stanford head coach David Esquer determined to make a change, substituting junior aid pitcher Ryan Bruno in for junior aid pitcher Drew Dowd. Bruno drew a fly-out to proper subject, which introduced residence one run, earlier than forcing one other pop-out to finish the sport. 

Within the second recreation of the collection, UCLA was in a position to generate offense all through your entire contest, scoring runs in 5 totally different innings. Regardless of some early offense by the Cardinal, together with a solo residence run by freshman catcher Malcolm Moore, the Bruins put runs on the board with a bevy of walks, singles and sacrifice flies. After 5 innings UCLA have been in entrance 5-2, and later elevated their result in 5 on the prime of the eighth inning. The Cardinal began to crawl their method again into the sport with a well timed residence run by junior third baseman Drew Bowser and an RBI single by Carter Graham, however the Bruins refused to relinquish their lead, including an additional insurance coverage run on the prime of the ninth inning to win by a rating of 9-6. 

The third recreation of the collection began out very like the second recreation. UCLA took an early lead because of an array of singles, walks, and extra-base hits. In the midst of the fifth inning, the rating stood at 7-3 in favor of the Bruins. Nonetheless, the Cardinal responded with two runs within the backside of the fifth, slicing the lead in half. After an RBI single by Graham within the backside of the sixth, the rating stood at 7-6. After a scoreless seventh inning by each groups and a scoreless prime of the eighth by UCLA, the power within the ballpark was palpable, as followers waited for Stanford to interrupt by means of.

After a few walks and a single, the bases have been loaded with one out and junior Alberto Rios as much as bat. All Rios wanted to see was one pitch, as after being down 0-1 within the depend, Rios unloaded on a ball within the zone, knocking it out of the park to make it a 10-7 recreation. That was all she wrote for the Bruins, as they have been unable to muster sufficient offense to comeback and the Cardinal have been in a position to clinch yet one more Pac-12 collection win.

Up subsequent, Stanford will head to Tempe, Ariz., to tackle the Arizona State Solar Devils (29-15, 14-6 Pac-12). The Cardinal and Solar Devils are the highest two groups within the Pac-12 rankings, and the collection might decide the Pac-12 standings chief for the foreseeable future. The primary recreation of the collection begins at 5:30 p.m PT on Friday and might be televised on the Pac-12 community.