Record: 36-15 | Home: 23-5 | Away: 13-10 | Neutral: 0-0 | Pac 12: 17-10
THE MASCOT(ish)
Let’s get the mascot out of the way first. The Cardinal (never plural) refers to the color, not the bird. Stanford actually does not have an official mascot and they are officially represented by the red color. The Stanford tree you see at times is part of the Leland Stanford Junior University Marching band and appears at events where the band performs. The tree, of course, references El Palo Alto, an iconic and historically significant redwood tree that is the namesake of Palo Alto, CA. So there you go.
THE HISTORY
You can see on the right that Stanford is one of the more storied programs of college baseball. Their CWS appearances in the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s were an incredible feat and Texas Tech was a part of one of those seasons. In 1995, the Red Raiders were the penultimate Southwest Conference Regular Season and Tournament Champions and appeared in their first NCAA Regional as part of the previous format. At that time, the field consisted of 48 teams all playing in six-team regionals with winners of regionals advancing to the College World Series. Texas Tech traveled to the Midwest I Regional in Wichita, KS at Wichita State University as the #1 seed. They opened with a 24-5 domination of Providence and took down former Southwest Conference foe Arkansas 14-10. Tech remained in the winner’s bracket with a 3-1 victory over red-hot Stanford. The Cardinal battled back through the loser’s bracket and with their final out, Eric Sees hit a go-ahead RBI single making a winner of Mario Iglesias, who pitched a 3-2 complete game. In the final matchup, freshman Kyle Peterson (who was named Regional MVP) struck out 11 Red Raiders en route to a complete game as well.
1995 Midwest I Regional (Wichita, KS)
The Super Regional series will also determine an all-time series leader as the Red Raiders and Cardinal are tied 2-2. Tech went 1-2 against Stanford in 1995 and defeated them #15 Stanford on February 22, 2020 at the Round Rock Classic. Bryce Bonnin (W) and Micah Dallas (S) combined for 15 strikeouts and Dylan Neuse, Cal Conley, Dillon Carter, Jace Jung, and Cole Stilwell all pounded extra-base hits with Stilwell, Neuse, and Conley turning in multi-hit days.
THE TEAM | Offense
In reality, the Cardinal bring an impressively well-rounded group to the plate with 7 players looking practically statistically interchangeable on paper. A combination of CF Brock Jones, 2B Tim Tawa, RF Christian Robinson, 1B Nick Brueser, C Kody Huff, 3B Drew Bowser, and DH Tommy Troy.
Jones who leads in multiple categories, is batting .295 but leads the team with a .574 slugging percentage and OBP of .450. His team-high 48 walks is 23 free passes more than the next closest player. He has pounded 13 dingers in 2021 and leads the way with 14 stolen bags, 47 RBIs, and 47 runs.
Second baseman Tim Tawa will be a name you hear often on the broadcasts. He and Robinson are tied with 55 hits, he has 37 RBIs, and he and Brueser are knotted up at 10 taters. Tawa drove in Stanford’s only two runs in their last meeting with Tech with an early home run, he hit 4 of their 9 dingers in the Palo Alto Regional as well.
Comparatively on the national level, they aren’t an epic offensive squad, but as you can see, they are consistent up and down the lineup. Their season batting average is .279 but they have ticked up in the postseason with a .310 in the Palo Alto Regional, in which they played 4 games and batted .361 in the decisive match with UC Irvine.
Jones is ranked 10th in the country with his 48 walks, which is tied with Jace Jung for the Red Raiders. They are also ranked 25th in the nation with 73 home runs.
THE TEAM | Defense
The Cardinal are ranked #14 in the country with a season fielding percentage of .980 and posted three errors over their four games in the Palo Alto Regional. Bowser has been a weak point at the hot corner with 8 errors this season, posting a fielding percentage of .885. For comparison, no regular Red Raider starter is turning in less than a .941 on the defensive side of the diamond.
THE TEAM | Pitching
The undisputed ace of this rotation is RHP Brendan Beck. The senior has an ERA of 3.00 in 93 innings of work this season and boasts an impressive .95 WHIP, good for 23rd nationally. He’s got 115 strikeouts (24th nationally) to 22 walks on the season and is holding opponents to a batting average of .193. Beck went 7.0 IP, 7 H, 2 R, 9 K in his 106 pitch start against UC Irvine in the Palo Alto Regional. In his final regular-season start against Oregon State, who lost a decisive Game 7 to Dallas Baptist in the Ft. Worth Regional, Beck started the Friday series opener. He posted a complete-game shutout going 9.0 IP, 3 H, 0 R, 1 BB, 10 K in 107 pitches.
Before you panic, however, things get murkier for Stanford behind Beck. They have tried a lot of combinations to string together starts and call on old Johnny Bullpen often. RHP Zach Grech is their closer and has posted 13 saves this season (#6 in the nation) in 30 appearances (#15). He went 4 innings in his first start of the season in the Oregon State series, going 4 scoreless. He also appeared in relief for 3.1 scoreless innings behind Quin Matthews in the 8-4 loss Sunday to UC Irvine in the regional.
THE COMPARISON
