A.J. Vanegas pitches against the St. Mary's College Gaels. (Photo: Mac)

Tuesday afternoon, the Cardinal team ventured to Moraga, Calif. to face the Gaels at St. Mary’s College of California.

RHP A.J. Vanegas pitched five strong innings, giving up only three hits and allowing no runs.

The Card offense proved, once again, that they can get things done.

» Continue reading “Stanford Shuts Out St. Mary’s”

Well. Look at that box score. Stanford beats Texas 15-1, bringing the season record to 7-0.

The nerds have clearly been bringing the best game they can to the field since opening day and it’s showing.

Freshman pitcher John Hochstatter went 6 1/3 innings in the Sunday matinee, giving up only one run. He walked three and struck out four.

Though Texas had tied the game in the top of the 4th inning, the Card had no problem rallying.

The scored 13 runs in the bottom of the 4th.

You read that right folks, 13 runs.

Junior third baseman Stephen Piscotty had a big day at the plate, going 2 for 5, walking once, and driving in 4. As did sophomore shortstop Lonnie Kauppila, who went 2 for 4 with 2 walks, 2 runs scored, and a triple.

In other words, the Stanford offense did this:

And it is a very, very fun thing to see this season.

Iron Chef Brett Mooneyham clearly has not let his kitchen mishap affect his pitching skills.

Clearly in control of the game, Mooneyham went the distance and pitched eight strong innings, giving up only one run.

» Continue reading “The Streak Keeps Going: Stanford Defeats Texas Again”

Getting the obvious out of the way: Mark Appel had a pretty line last night.

Even better? He was throwing a no-hitter into the fifth inning.

In short: Appel be beastin’.

Also, offense is good. This offense should stay like this. Scoring runs is good.

The only negative things I can say about this game are that AJ Vanegas struggled early (he gave up 4 runs in the 2nd) and Tyler Gaffney’s 25-game hit streak ended.

Here, have a box score:

Screencapped from CBSSports.com GameTracker.

Photo by Camille Debreczeny of the Danville Patch.

Looks nice, right? I mean…there were innings where Stanford scored  8 runs and 7 runs respectively. That’s kind of a lot, y’know. I can attribute part of it – especially in the 2nd inning, where the team scored 8 – to Vanderbilt’s defense falling apart, but a lot of it is just the sheer power of this team’s offense. Stephen Piscotty had a grand slam in the 6th, the inning in which the team tacked on 7 more runs.

The unsung hero of this game is freshman hurler John Hochstatter. Coming on in relief of Vanegas, Hochstatter went 6.1 incredible innings, holding Vanderbilt scoreless until he was removed from the game and Sam Lindquist pitched the 9th. He only struck out two batters, but he also only walked two – and that’s out of 23 faced. This man is the model of consistency. We’re lucky to have him, I think.

A few other notes from the offensive side, by the way:

• Piscotty had 7 RBI today. Seven. That’s kind of a lot, you know – and yet in this game, Piscotty’s output was only equal to the team’s output in one of its two huge innings.
• Christian Griffiths, rebounding from an injury that kept him on the sidelines for all of 2011, had 4 RBI of his own, which is a great sign. We’re happy to have you back, Christian!

In short, the best way to sum up this team’s offense is with a quote, I think. As a wise man once said, “Pretty. What do we blow up first?”

See this cartoon here to the right? Remember how I drew it last year because Iron Chef Mooneyham had a kitchen mishap and was out for the year?

Now it’s irrelevant because Mooney is back and better than ever.

He’s technically a red shirt junior now even though he’s in his senior year of college due to his injury last season, but we’re not going to hold that sort of thing against him. He’s good at baseball, and that’s what matters.

He may or may not also be working on a senior thesis, and as a fellow history major I know how much time those consume, so be especially nice to him, okay? He may be under pressure right now if he didn’t do his thesis last semester.

If he is under pressure, though, he didn’t show it during the six innings he pitched today. He gave up three runs – two on a homer in the sixth, his last inning – and struck out eight. It was a return to his former glory.

We missed you, Mooney. You’re the best history major in the world besides me.

Here, check out this box score via CBSSports.com GameTracker (which I prefer vastly to having a Baseball Boyfriend, although if I had one I’d pick Mooney since we have things in common). Look at how dominant Stanford is. It’s insane.

This is a screencap. I took it. If you click on it, it will enlarge and become more legible.

Yeah. We’re good at baseball this year. Utter domination.

Here’s that Battle of Yavin .gif again, since I know it’s more likely than not that people reading this site know what the Battle of Yavin actually was:

It’s two games into the college baseball season and Stanford’s bats have been on absolute fire. Yesterday, there were lots of homers – three of them, including an inside-the-parker from Eric Smith (Stanford’s first since Cord Phelps did it against Texas in 2008). Stanford won 8-3, with Mark Appel going seven innings and giving up a run on two hits.

Here is my dramatic reenactment of this game.

Stanford’s offense:

Vanderbilt’s defense/various baseballs hit by Stanford’s offense/etc.:

File from GIFSoup.com.

I’m a good writer, guys.

As I write this, it’s the bottom of the seventh in game two, and Stanford is again up on Vanderbilt by a lot, this time 9-3. My favorite pitcher, Brett Mooneyham, went six innings and racked up eight strikeouts. Stanford is still firing on all cylinders, and I absolutely love it, especially given that Vanderbilt has a great track record of its own and is ranked 10th nationally. (We’re ranked 2nd nationally, but whatever. Vanderbilt’s a good team and you can’t overestimate your enemies.)

I really, really like the look of this team this year. A full recap of this game – game two – will come later, once it’s actually over, but for now I just wanted to point out that I like what I’m seeing from these guys. They’re hungry, offensively potent, and they know how to pitch. Color me impressed, boys.

I guessed all three. You can probably guess them, too, if you’ve been paying even the slightest amount of attention to this team.

If you don’t feel like guessing, it’s Mark Appel, Kenny Diekroeger, and Stephen Piscotty. Shocker.

Anyways, check the Golden Spikes Award’s official website out here and read the press release for the full list of student-athletes. Florida has the most on there – seven total – but several schools, including Stanford, follow that up with three candidates of their own.

Now let’s try to win this award! Season starts tomorrow – thankfully – so we’ll have stuff to talk about!

The Cardinal and White teams before the game. (Photo: Mac)

On a gloomy-then-sunny day in Palo Alto, Stanford took the field at Sunken Diamond.

Those familiar with Stanford sports know that their football team plays an annual Cardinal and White game every spring.

On Feb 11th, it was Stanford baseball’s turn. Their first ever Cardinal and White game took place at Klein Field at Sunken Diamond.

» Continue reading “The First Ever Stanford Baseball Cardinal And White Scrimmage”

College Baseball Daily comes through yet again, this time with full coverage of Baseball Media Day, an annual event in Northern California in which six major college baseball teams meet up and talk about the upcoming season. Stanford hosted the conference this year, which I would have loved to go to except I kind of live in New Jersey.

Anyways, here’s CBD’s interview with our beloved Mark “Nine” Marquess: