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Titans, Cardinal Back At It…

By CB360 Contributor Jack Blanchat

(Jack will be at the Fullerton Regional all weekend. Look for his post-tourney analysis here next week.)

Preview: Fullerton Regional

Once again, the NCAA schedule makers couldn’t resist the allure of a Stanford – Cal State-Fullerton matchup – but if the Cardinal and Titans are to square off for a trip to the Super Regionals, they must slip past a sneaky good Kansas State team and Big Ten Champion Illinois.

The Favorite:

The Fullerton is definitely the favorite to advance to the Supers this weekend – they’re a 40-win team with some eye-popping stats. The Titans have the nation’s 13th-best team ERA (2.85) thanks to a phenomenal pitching staff, but they also play a brand of small ball that can be confusing and frustrating to teams – the Titans’ 75 sac bunts are ninth in the nation – and they don’t need many runs to win games thanks to their pitchers.

Junior Noe Ramirez (8-3) has a 1.74 ERA and his opponents’ batting average is just .183, and junior Tyler Pill (6-1) has a 2.08 ERA and 99 strikeouts this season. Third starter Colin O’Connell has a 2.42 ERA and a 7-3 record – and he’s walked just 6 batters all season. To cap it all off, closer Nick Ramirez has 16 saves this year and a 1.12 ERA – on top of his .285 batting average and nine home runs as a first baseman.

The Challenger:

Stanford and Fullerton are familiar rivals – the teams usually play every year, and this is the second consecutive time the Cardinal have played in Fullerton’s regional. In 2008, Stanford sent Fullerton home in the Super Regional in SoCal, but in 2010, Fullerton returned the favor by knocking out the Cardinal. Hence why the NCAA wanted to see these teams go at it again, and why this regional will be televised.

Stanford is a legitimate threat to knock off the Titans this weekend because it can counter an excellent pitching staff. Stanford has a .298 team batting average, and sophomore Stephen Piscotty leads the squad with a .361 batting average. After that is Pac-10 Freshman of the Year Brian Ragira, who hits .321, and sophomore Tyler Gaffney, who is hitting .320 and riding a 17-game hit streak. Even Stanford’s “weakest” hitter is a threat – senior catcher Zach Jones, who has a .268 batting average, is actually batting .323 in his last 36 games after starting the season hitting .130 in his first 16 games. Jones also leads the team in extra-base hits. Stanford has a pretty solid pitching staff to boot – it’s 3.50 team ERA is 47th best in the country, and closer Chris Reed has a 6-2 record and eight saves of his own. It all adds up to one thing: don’t count out the Cardinal this weekend.

The Others:

Kansas State and Illinois will certainly be overlooked this weekend, but these are two solid squads who are both riding hot streaks. Illinois won the Big Ten Tournament by beating Michigan State by a combined 13-2 in two games, and the Fighting Illini are 16-4 in their last 20 games. However, Illinois doesn’t have a scary pitching staff – all of the Illini starters have an ERA over 4.00.

The story is almost the same for Kansas State, which staved off elimination once in the Big 12 Tournament before eventually losing to Texas A&M in extra innings in the Big 12 Championship game in Oklahoma City. The Cats can count on the big bats of brothers Jason and Jared King, who combined for 18 home runs this season, and have a combined slugging percentage of .577 (Jared’s is .547, Jason’s is .608). The Cats also have some small ball of their own to compliment the Kings’ power, with 2010 Big 12 Player of the Year Nick Martini swiping 24 bags to compliment the team’s 62 sac bunts. The pitching staff is a weakness for the Wildcats, though, as no starter has an ERA under 4.00. The back end of the pen does have closer James Allen, who has 17 saves, but all signs suggest that the Wildcats will be looking to win a slugfest this weekend.

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Rivals Both Headed To Regionals…

Stanford once again utilized its great pitching to take the first two games in the series up in Berkeley by scores of 3-2 on Friday and 4-2 on Saturday. The Stanford bats woke up in the third game, part of a Saturday doubleheader, and the boys in red and white were leading 7-1 in the bottom of the fourth when foul weather set in and ended the game for good.

With the series victory, Stanford finished the season on a high note by beating two top-25 Pac-10 teams in back to back weeks (Arizona and Cal). Cal, on the other hand, hobbled across the finish line with three consecutive series losses in the Pac-10, albeit against three of the better teams in the conference (Oregon State, UCLA and Stanford).

Once again, pitchers Mark Appel, Jordan Pries and Chris Reed all pitched very well, and for the second week in a row, the Cardinal didn’t need much offense to have a winning weekend.

Appel went seven and one-third innings while only giving up one earned run and walking nobody in Friday’s 3-2 win. Reed gave up a hit and a walk, but he closed out the final one and two-thirds innings with the game on the line to seal the victory, which helped Appel’s record to 5-6 and earned Reed his seventh save of the year.

The story was the same in the first game of the scheduled doubleheader on Saturday, but this time Pries was the winner, as he went seven and one-third innings, giving up two unearned runs, one walk and just six hits. Reed closed out the game after he came in during the 8th with a 4-2 lead, runners on the corners and one out. Reed got a fielder’s choice groundout on a dramatic play at the plate and a flyout to rightfield to squash the Bears’ rally, and got a double play in the ninth to end the game.

Despite the losses, Cal’s pitching staff did well over the weekend also, with Erik Johnson striking out 11 Stanford hitters in Friday’s game, and Justin Jones settling down after giving up four runs in the first four innings to finish eight full innings with the Bears down just 4-2 before Reed closed things out for the Cardinal.

Despite the Bears’ solid arms, the offense is a major concern for the boys in blue and gold. Cal has scored just 33 runs in its last 14 Pac-10 games, an average of just 2.3 runs a game. They have been facing off against some excellent teams in that time span – Arizona State, Oregon, Oregon State, UCLA and Stanford – but the offensive struggles will most likely mean an early exit for the Bears unless they can turn things around in the batting cages before the NCAA regionals.

Stanford’s offense didn’t score a ton of runs either – just enough to get the victories – but a couple key cogs in the Cardinal offense had good weekend. Sophomore Tyler Gaffney extended his hitting streak to 17 games this weekend with consecutive 2-for-4, one run, one RBI days at the plate. Fellow sophomore Stephen Piscotty went 2-for-4 with an RBI on Saturday and had a double, a single, and a walk in the second half of the doubleheader before the game was called due to rain.

Senior catcher Zach Jones went 3-for-5 on Saturday and scored three runs in two games (he also had a double and a single in the rainout game) to raise his batting average to .268 this year. This was a particularly impressive feat because Jones was hitting .130 through 16 games, but Jones has finished the regular season by hitting .323 in the last 36 games, and he leads the team in extra-base hits with 31.

Both these teams will be interesting to watch in the regionals – the Pac-10 has been strong this year, and the Cardinal and the Bears both have some nice pieces going into the postseason, both teams have a tough draw with Stanford heading down to Cal State Fullerton and Cal traveling to Rice, but with a little bit of luck, and the offense,
defense and pitching to syncing up, the Bay Area rivals could find themselves advancing to a Super Regional.

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Cardinal, Wildcats Preparing For NCAA Bids…

Mark Appel (courtesy Gostanford.com)

No starter went fewer than six innings all weekend, and Friday night saw two sophomore starters battle in a dramatic fight to the finish. For Stanford, righty Mark Appel went eight innings with nine strikeouts, one walk, and no runs, and for Arizona, righty Kurt Heyer went nine innings with ten strikeouts, no walks, and no runs.

Appel got a no decision even though his team won, but he tied a career high in strikeouts, and had his second-longest outing of the year in the aces’ duel. Appel had excellent command of his change-up and his curveball all night, and the youngster continues to add diabolical off-speed pitches to compliment his mid-to-upper nineties fastball.

Heyer was fantastic as well, as his accuracy with his running two-seam fastball and rapidly sinking change-up propelled him through nine solid innings before the bullpen eventually gave up the loss.

The two pitchers will undoubtedly be Friday night starters next year as well, but, more importantly, they give each team a chance against any squad going in to the postseason.

Appel continues to raise eyebrows, particularly because he has gone against a ton of tremendous Friday starters this season – Sonny Gray, Taylor Jungmann, Gerrit Cole, and Sam Gaviglio to name a few – and he has continued to get better as the season has gone along.

Heyer doesn’t have Appel’s overpowering stuff, but he is very hard for hitters to hit squarely, and he hits the strike zone so often that batters cannot afford to sit back, because he will strike you out (he has 122 K’s already this year).

Starters Kyle Simon and Konner Wade were also fantastic for the Cats on Saturday and Sunday, respectively. Simon went seven and one-third inning and kept the Stanford offense to three runs en route to a 7-3 win, stretching his record to 10-3 on the season. Wade threw six and one-third innings of shutout ball Sunday, gave up only one walk, and caused the Cardinal to hit into several double plays.

Kyle Simon improved to 10-3 with Saturday's win.

The Cats’ pitching rotation is solid top to bottom (perhaps it’s not just a coincidence that their names all start with the letter K), but the bullpen leaves some room for concern, particularly Bryce Bandilla, who got saddled with two losses this weekend. The setup man struggled with control in both of his appearance out of the pen, and even though he passed the ball to closer Matt Chaffee in both of those games, the damage was already done by the time Chaffee came in.

The Wildcat offense was uninspiring for most of the weekend, and except for DH Josh Garcia’s two-run home run and shortstop Alex Mejia’s 3-for-4 day on Saturday, the Cardinal pitchers had their way with the Wildcat offense, which currently has the second best team batting average in the nation.

One pitcher who had a bit of breakout weekend against the Wildcat offense was righty Jordan Pries, who had an exceptional start on Sunday for Stanford. Pries went seven innings with six strikeouts, and only gave up one run on a solo home run. The junior has gotten the loss or no decision in his last eight starts, but he finally looked like the Jordan Pries who beat Cal and Vanderbilt in the same week earlier this season. Pries threw all four of his pitches for strikes
and generally confused Wildcat hitters, showing the stuff that powered him to a no-hitter this past summer in the Cape Cod League.

The Cardinal also got an excellent performance from junior closer Chris Reed, who vultured two wins this weekend thanks to late-inning victories on Friday and Sunday. He extended his record to 6-3 this season (which nicely compliments his six saves), and he had great off-speed pitches as well as the nasty, breaking, mid-90s fastball that has been unhittable so far this season.

Tyler Gaffney

Stanford’s offense got a boost from sophomore Tyler Gaffney, who now has a 14-game hitting streak after reaching base in all three games this weekend, and right fielder Austin Wilson, who continues to show how much he has matured at the plate over the course of this season. The freshman hit two seeing-eye singles on Sunday, including the hit that scored the winning run, and he showed that he has adapted to college pitching by no longer swinging for the fences in every at-bat.

Sophomore centerfielder Jake Stewart also returned to the lineup after missing the last several weeks with appendicitis. Stewart was leading the team in extra-base hits and stolen bases when the illness struck, and the capable leadoff hitter will likely provide a big boost to an offense that has seen its stalwart hitter – shortstop Kenny Diekroeger – stuck deep in a rut. The sophomore went 0-for-3 on Sunday to drop his batting average below .300 for the first time all year after he was batting over .400 for the first third of the season.

Stanford ends up with a big series win to keep it at .500 in Pac-10 play, but this series was so close that it very easily could have gone in Arizona’s direction. Keep an eye on these two teams coming into the postseason – I expect them to both be two seeds in regionals, and they most certainly could upset a one seed due to their powerful pitching staffs.

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Another Tough Test Awaits Cardinal…

Mark Appel

Stanford’s pitching has been solid, if unspectacular, the last few
weeks, and a lot of different players have had very good performances
on the mound. Mark Appel got a win over a conference opponent last
Friday, which was important for a guy who only had one win as a Friday
starter, mostly by virtue of going up against great pitchers like
Vanderbilt’s Sonny Gray and Texas’ Taylor Jungmann. I fully expect
Jordan Pries and Dean McArdle to bounce back from their losses this
weekend – they have both done it before – but getting Appel over the
hump with a win was very important.

Out of the bullpen, the story has been the tale of two lefties, with
Scott Snodgress not playing particularly well over the last few weeks
and Chris Reed becoming a dominant performer. Snodgress’ ERA has risen
to 3.48, while Reed’s ERA in the last three weeks is just below 1.00.
Reed’s four saves lead the team, and he pitched two perfect innings on
Tuesday to get a win against Pacific.

While pitching has got their side of the job done, the Cardinal
offense has fizzled lately. Stanford has score six runs in their last
three games, a surprising result for a team that clobbered Washington
State for 22 runs two weeks ago.

Kenny Diekroger

Especially puzzling was shortstop Kenny Diekroeger’s silent bat last
weekend at USC, as he went just 2-for-12 in the series after he came
in hitting .422 – the second best batting average in the Pac-10. Of
course, Diekroeger’s struggles could just be a larger issue with the
Trojans – he went 2-for-11 against USC in a weekend series at home
last year.

If the Cardinal wish to improve as it heads into the heart of the
Pac-10 schedule, it must show better plate discipline. Stanford hit
into four double plays in Tuesday’s game against Pacific, and
strikeouts have plagued the lineup. Highly touted freshman Austin
Wilson now leads the Pac-10 with 30 strikeouts, and centerfielder Jake
Stewart and designated hitter Ben Clowe both have 26 whiffs.
One bright spot has been senior catcher Zach Jones, who has 15 RBI
since March 29th, and has brought in runners in eight of the last ten
games.

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