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NewsvineWith the regular season quickly drawing to a close, No. 14 Stanford baseball is looking to regain some of the momentum that carried it through much of the season, to as high as No. 3 in the nation at the team’s peak. To be sure, it has not been easy, as the Cardinal is 5-6 over its last 11 games and 2-3 in its last five.
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With just six games remaining in the regular season — all against Pac-10 foes — Stanford looks to continue a recent surge that has seen it win its past two games by a combined 14 runs.
Helping the Cardinal (30-18-2, 11-7 Pac-10) stay afloat and even bounce back of late has been junior Brent Milleville, whose red hot bat has been a key component to the Cardinal’s offense, especially in the past week of play. Milleville is batting .471 over the past five games while notching a slugging percentage of 1.059 over that span. The first baseman and catcher has racked up three homeruns in his past four games and accounted for eight RBIs in the past five.
How has he done it? Even Milleville himself didn’t sound too sure.
“I don’t know,” he said when asked about his recent offensive surge. “I’ve just been reverting back to a swing I used to have in high school and just staying relaxed. I’m not thinking too much or trying too hard. Hitting a baseball is hard, and when you try and do too much you just make it a lot harder.”
The Wichita, Kan. native’s season stats have clearly spiked to the point where there can be no doubt of how much he means to the Stanford offense. His season slugging percentage of .630 is second on Stanford’s roster, behind only junior center fielder Sean Ratliff’s mark of .637. But Milleville not only brings power to the plate, but also discipline and a knack for getting on base as well. His .419 OBP is good for third on the squad, while his .353 batting average also ranks third among frequent starters.
But perhaps the scariest thing about Milleville from the perspective of Cardinal opponents has been his ability to come through with the game on the line. Most recently, Milleville’s grand slam in Sunday’s series finale against Cal proved to be the edge Stanford needed, as the team got an 8-5 win and staved off a Bears sweep. Though that particular shot came in the fifth inning, Milleville has been just as dangerous in the eighth and ninth.
“I’ve kind of been lucky and just gotten the opportunity to be up there late in the game,” he said. “You try not to approach it in a way different from any normal at bat and I’ve been lucky, got some lucky hits and things worked out in the late innings.”
Also of note for Stanford opponents is that despite playing a key role on an offense that has scored nearly 7.5 runs per game, Milleville believes that there is still room for improvement in the Stanford lineup.
“Our offense, we have our ups and our downs,” Milleville said. “We’ve had some games where we’ve shown what we can really do. Santa Clara [a game the Cardinal won 15-4] was a good example of that on Monday. And I really think that if we get hot these last two series then we’ve got a real good chance of making a run to the postseason. I’m just looking for our offense to show a little more consistency for the rest of the year.
“A big thing [to improve down the stretch] is just being consistent,” he went on. “We’ve slacked off in midweek games and played well usually on the weekends. Everyone’s pretty happy with how we have played on the weekends, and I think these next few series we’re playing a couple of good teams. And I think that we just need to approach it like this could be our last game and give it everything we have and just go out and play.”
As for how much improvement Stanford has shown a year after a disappointing .500 finish, Milleville singled out the leadership that has been provided by the team’s upperclassmen.
“This year we have a lot of juniors and seniors, a lot of experience, and [that] really helps out a lot,” he said. “You look at our lineup and we do have some freshmen in there and they’re doing well, but I really think it’s the juniors and seniors that have just [provided] the team leadership that has definitely improved from the first two years I’ve been here.”
In the awkward transition from college to the professional minor leagues, for juniors like Milleville — who are eligible for the draft but depending on how high or where they are selected, may also opt to return for their senior seasons — it can be difficult to sum up a collegiate career that may or may not be in its final stretch. But Milleville seemed content with the uncertainty in his near future as the MLB First-Year Player Draft rolls around on June 5.
“I really don’t know how the draft is going to work out — you never really know until the day you do get drafted,” Milleville said. “I think that coming to Stanford you get the kind of experience that really nobody else gets playing at a top level in baseball and going to such a great school.
“If this is my last year then I’ve loved it, I’ve loved every minute of it. But I’m not looking too far ahead and just waiting to see how everything pans out.”