Stanford Baseball Gets Back in the Win Column with Victory Over Santa Clara

Stanford is back in business. It has been a rough stretch for the Cardinal after a hot start to the season, with team enduring sweeps in their last two series'. Luckily on Tuesday night, the Cardinal took care of business against Santa Clara, beating the Broncos 6-5 thanks to extra inning heroics from Brandon Larson.

With the game tied at 5-5 in the 10th inning, Larson came in to pinch hit and came through in the exact way that he was needed, hitting a walk-off RBI single to score the runner and give the Cardinal the 6-5 win. In snapping the losing streak in that fashion, the Cardinal give themselves a massive boost of momentum heading into a pivotal weekend series.

"It's just momentum," Larson said. "The series didn't go the way we wanted this past weekend so we knew we had to come out here and get the ball rolling, get some momentum back and we were able to do that, so hopefully we take that into next weekend against a really good opponent."

Santa Clara started the game up ahead, taking a 4-0 lead in the first inning after Dylan Joyce hit an RBI single to make it 1-0 Broncos followed by Johnny Luetzow hitting a three-RBI double later in the inning to help the Broncos really pull away.

But after Stanford got on the board in the fourth inning via an RBI fielder's choice by DH, Cort MacDonald, the momentum really shifted, with the Cardinal scoring three more unanswered runs after that.

The Cardinal then tacked on two more in the fifth inning, with Jimmy Nati hitting an RBI single to score Tatum Marsh followed by Temo Becerra hitting an RBI single to bring in Nati, making it 4-3 Broncos. But in the sixth inning, a Trevor Haskins home run tied the game up at 4-4, giving Stanford a massive boost towards closing out the game.

But after Santa Clara got back ahead 5-4 in the seventh inning via an RBI single, the Cardinal found themselves playing catch up, but that did not faze them. Down by one heading into the bottom of the seventh, Becerra hit a sac-fly to right field that was deep enough to score Nati from third, tying the game up at five apiece going into the late innings.

The next couple of innings were scoreless, forcing a 10th inning and setting up Larson's heroics. Larson's hit came in his only at-bat of the game, but his approach at the plate during it, and waiting for his pitch helped him get the job done, while also snapping out of a mini slump.

"Great job by him," head coach Dave Esquer said. "He had been struggling just a little bit, and we had gone a little bit righty, lefty with the DH spot but after they pitched a couple of lefties the last two days, he has stayed ready. And as soon as we had the opportunity to get another right-hander in there, he was the guy to go to and just a big hit."

Stanford went with a whole slew of pitchers in the game, but it was Thomas Kassius that got the win, going 0.2 innings while striking out two and walking one.

In earning the win, the Cardinal snap a three game skid ahead of a big home series against No. 25 Georgia Tech, one that could really determine how the rest of the season goes for Stanford.

"It's pretty important," Larson said about the upcoming series. "They're a really good opponent [and] I think if we do really well, we could get back on track. We've just got to play our best brand of baseball. We know our work is cut out for us so we're just gonna prepare as best as we can going into this weekend."

The series will stem Friday-Sunday, with first pitch on Friday set for 6:05 p.m. (PT). All games will be broadcast on ACC Network Extra/ESPN.