Well, things are going quite nicely on our end.

We’ll get to that in a minute, though. First, let’s talk about the game that happened before ours: Michigan State and Fresno State.

Both teams swapped runs early in the game – by the end of the first inning, it was 2-2, and the score stayed that way through five until Fresno State’s Trent Garrison broke through and drove in a run in the sixth on a two-out double. Fresno State tacked on another run in the seventh (the fourth run they scored with two outs in this game), then survived a scare in the bottom of the inning when the Spartans had two men on but failed to score.

Oh, and then there was a triple play. Strange things were happening tonight at Sunken – there was an oddity in the Stanford game, too. But we’ll get to that later. Fresno State scored a run before that triple play, then added three more in the top of the ninth to make the score 8-2. That was the final. Michigan State is done for the year with a 37-24 record.

And then…it was our turn.

» Continue reading “Palo Alto Regional: Day Two”

Members of the Cardinal team celebrate Austin Wilson's walkoff home run. (Photo: Mac)

The weather cooperated with baseball for once this weekend in the Bay Area.

Saturday’s game against the University of Southern California Trojans was rained out and a doubleheader was scheduled for Sunday, Mar 25.

The series marks No. 3 Stanford’s first meeting with a Pac-12 team this season.

» Continue reading “Stanford Sweeps Double Header Against USC”

Austin Wilson after his fourth inning three-run home run. (Photo: Mac)

No. 2 Stanford hosted the Rice Owls on Mar 10 at Sunken Diamond.

Iron Chef Brett Mooneyham took the mound for his 4th start of the season, opposing righty Austin Kubitza.

» Continue reading “Mooneyham, Offense Cook Rice”

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”

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”

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!

Stanford now has three Preseason All-Americans. Check out this press release!

TUCSON, Ariz.– Stanford Baseball added to its preseason resume on Tuesday when Collegiate Baseball named righthander Mark Appel to its first team and infielder Kenny Diekroeger to its second team.

Third baseman Stephen Piscotty was named a first team preseason All-American by the National’s Collegiate Baseball Writers earlier this month.

All three preseason All-Americans hail from the Bay Area, Diekroeger prepped at Menlo School in Woodside, while East Bay natives, Appel and Piscotty, played at Monte Vista and Amador Valley High.

Appel as the team’s No. 1 starter a year ago was 6-7 with a 3.02 ERA over 110.1 innings. He is projected as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2012 June Draft. Also a potential first round pick, Diekroeger hit .293 with 31 runs and 31 RBIs as the team’s shortstop. As a freshman third baseman he hit a team-best .356 and carries a .324 career average into the season.

On Monday, Collegiate Baseball rated Stanford No. 3 nationally in its preseason poll. Stanford opens the season February 17-19 with Vanderbilt. Texas and Rice are also on the pre-conference home schedule in February and March. Tickets are available at 1-800-STANFORD.

Other Pac-12 members of Collegiate Baseball’s preseason team include: Deven Marrero (1st team, Arizona State), Brady Rodgers (2nd, ASU), Tony Renda (2nd, Cal), Kurt Heyer (3rd, Arizona), Adam Plutko (3rd, UCLA), Tony Bryant (3rd, Oregon State), Shaun Cooper (3rd, Utah).

I think that’s pretty darn awesome.

Also, if you know where the title comes from for this quick hit, you get a cookie.

Mark is cooler than you, even though he goes to a nerdy school.

We have three! Three! And one of them is the projected number one pick!

Mark Appel, as predicted, is the first choice to go to the Astros next June. I’ve already congratulated ‘Stros writer Terri Schlather just in case she gets him, because he’s hard to beat. He’d be able to work with fellow Cardinal Jason Castro in Houston, too. I’m a huge battery fan (don’t get me started on it), so having a battery that can communicate intellectually as well as emotionally – that’s a real winner.

Anyway, let’s not get carried away. I’d love to see Mark go first overall – with Andrew Luck probably going first in the NFL, as well, we’d have two first overall picks in drafts if this goes down. I don’t think we’ve ever had a first overall pick in baseball. This is really exciting, actually.

Mark isn’t the only player on the list, either. Kenny Diekroeger landed the 21st overall spot, and Stephen Piscotty is at number 37. The Class of 2013 is insanely talented, people. I wouldn’t take my eyes off them if I were you. We’re definitely going to Omaha this year, at least. I can’t see us being stopped.

And hey, everyone on this team will also succeed in life. A degree from Stanford goes a long way.

So we swept Cal this weekend. That means they didn’t beat us at anything this year that involved playing baseball. Isn’t that awesome? We think so.

Anyhow, here’s some important things so you can see us on TV. We look cool on TV.

• Regionals. You can catch us on ESPNU on Friday, presuming you get that channel. We’ll be playing at 4 pm, which I’m pretty sure is in Pacific time because we’re playing at Fullerton. Please be excited for us and cheer us on so we win. We also like being reminded we are smart.
• People who won awards. Piscotty was First Team All Pac-10. Ragira was Pac-10 Freshman of the Year. Ragira, Kenny Diekroeger, Tyler Gaffney, Chris Reed, Jake Stewart and Austin Wilson all made honorable mention, as well. So we win things. We are cool besides being smart.

Now that you’re all excited for us and stuff, the next big event after the postseason is the MLB Draft, which is a week from now. Less than that, even, since it starts on Monday. So maybe some of these boys will become professionals in something other than neuroscience.

This greeted me this morning when I went to the Stanford website to prepare my recap for you all. I squealed with happiness over the sheer adorableness of it.

On a night when Jim Harbaugh was at the game watching us, we basically decided to haul ass, winning 11-4.

The stars of the game were the brothers Diekroeger – Kenny and Danny each had two RBIs in the contest. Only Stephen Piscotty had more in the game with three of his own on two hits, but the fact that both siblings were playing sort of overshadowed that. Everyone loves when siblings play together, right?

(Ironically, this makes me miss my younger brother. I’ll see him in a couple of weeks, but still.)

We’re off to Oregon for a three game set this weekend, so wish us luck. Hopefully, we’ll play better against their baseball team than against their football team, which is extremely good.  Fingers crossed, fellow smart people!

(If you want to buy that picture of Kenny and Danny, it’s on sale here.)