A wild start to the season continues for the Cardinal which played its first nine games in 11 days. In addition, seven of those nine contests were against Top 25 opposition. It doesn’t get any easier for Stanford this week with No. 2 Vanderbilt coming to The Farm and weather wreaking havoc on the series schedule. The Pac-12 Network will air the final two games of the series on Saturday and Sunday.

Series History

Overall (first meeting in 1973): 6-7 (.462) | Streak: Vanderbilt, 1
Last Series: L, 6-11; W, 5-4; L, 5-12 at Vanderbilt NCAA Super Regional (June 6-8, 2014)
Stanford and Vanderbilt first met on March 30, 1973 at the UC Riverside Invitational. The Cardinal shut out Vanderbilt, 6-0.
Vanderbilt has won five of the last six in this series—all of which came in 2014. The Commodores swept the Cardinal in a three-game set in Nashville and then ended Stanford’s season in Game 3 of the NCAA Super Regional at the same site.
Prior to that season, Stanford had won four straight over the Commodores, including a three-game sweep in Vanderbilt’s last visit to The Farm. No. 2 Stanford put up 35 runs in the season-opening set to win by scores of 8-3, 9-5 and 18-5 against No. 10 Vanderbilt.

Stanford Stats

 Four of Stanford’s six wins have come against the Top 25, including two on the road.
Stanford leads the Pac-12 in fielding percentage (.991) and has the fewest errors (3).
Stanford leads the conference in ERA (2.20), strikeouts (74) and opposing batting average (.191), and has allowed the fewest home runs (2) and walks (16) in the Pac-12.
Stanford has outscored its opponents 20-1, and outhit them, 25-7, in the last two games.
 Stanford won its season-opening series for the first time since a three-game home sweep of Vanderbilt in 2012. 

Stanford Streaks

Junior catcher Alex Dunlap has reached base in all eight games he has played this season.
Junior shortstop Tommy Edman has played in 98 straight games (started 95 in a row).
Sophomore Colton Hock was named Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week, and Stanford has now won the award in each of the first two weeks of the season.

Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week

Colton Hock earned the award this week after throwing 5.2 scoreless innings in relief in the longest recorded shut out in the program’s history (since 1959). Hock finished with a career-high eight strikeouts and allowed just three hits at #23 Texas. Stanford went on to win, 1-0.
Tristan Beck earned the conference honor last week—he was the first Stanford hurler to win the award since 2013 MLB first overall pick, Mark Appel, did so in May of 2013.
Beck became the second Stanford freshman to start Opening Day since Mike Mussina in 1988 (teammate Cal Quantrill was the other in 2014).

2016 Schedule

 54 regular season games, 30 at Klein Field.
 More than half of the schedule (30/55, 54.5%) is against 2015 tournament teams: Cal (5), Texas (4), Cal St. Fullerton (3), UCLA (3), USC (3), Oregon (3), Oregon State (3), Arizona State (3), Vanderbilt (3).
 Though the Top 25 rankings vary, each has included at least 20+ games for Stanford against Top 25 opponents.
 11-day break from March 7-17 for finals.
 Longest homestand is seven games and 20 days long (March 1-20).
 Longest road swing is four games (four times).
 First eight games are in 10 days.

Last Time Out

An 11-3 series-ending rout earned Stanford a series split at #23 Texas on Sunday. The Cardinal began the series with the program’s longest shut out on record (since 1959)—a 1-0 win in 12 innings. Freshman Kris Bubic (4.1 innings) sophomore Colton Hock (5.2), and junior Chris Viall (2.0) combined to hold the Longhorns to just five hits. Hock garnered Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week accolades for his relief effort and career-best eight strikeout. Junior Mikey Diekroeger knocked home the winner on an RBI groundout in the 12th. 

The following night, Stanford fell behind 4-0, but chipped away and closed to within 4-3, but could not get the tying run across.
Texas won the third game, 9-0, but the Cardinal bounced back in a big way on Sunday. Seven players finished with multiple hits, and junior starter Brett Hanewich earned his second win of the season with four strikeouts and just one earned run in 6.1 innings.
On Tuesday, sophomore Andrew Summerville struck out a career-high nine batters in the longest outing of his career (7.0). Meanwhile, the offense tacked on nine runs to earn the win over Saint Mary’s at Sunken Diamond.

Up Next

Stanford returns home for all but two mid-week games between March 1-April 5.
The Cardinal does not play again until it hosts Kansas, March 18-20.
Stanford’s next overnight trip will be in 38 days—at UCLA, April 7-9.