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NewsvineYou never quite realize how great it is to be home until you have been gone for a while. Stanford baseball is wrapping up its season with two weeks away from the Farm and would love nothing more than to come home to Klein Field at Sunken Diamond for NCAA Regional play next weekend. But, to be awarded home field for the first round, the Cardinal is first going to have contend with the University of Washington in Seattle this weekend.
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“I’d say we probably need to take two out of three up there [to get home field advantage],” said junior second baseman Cord Phelps. “But it’s important not to get ahead of ourselves. We still have to finish the regular season and get our job done before we think too much about the postseason.”
Getting the job done will be very important for the Card, and not just to earn home field advantage. Stanford (31-20-2, 12-9 Pac-10) has struggled recently — dropping its last two series 1-2 after having won 12 straight series — and slid down to No. 16 in the national rankings after reaching a high of No. 3 at the end of April. The skid has essentially cost Stanford the Pac-10 title — the Card would need to sweep Washington and have Arizona sweep Arizona State this weekend to come out on top.
At this point, as Phelps said, Stanford just needs to forget about the conference and home field and simply get back to winning. Momentum is the key to the playoffs, and a winning series is the only way to advance.
It won’t be easy to start another series win streak in Washington, though. The Huskies (32-20, 10-11 Pac-10) were swept by conference-leading Arizona State in Tempe last weekend, but had won seven of their last eight previously and are 22-8 in Seattle. Their lineup boasts six players batting above .300 and is powered by junior outfielder Kyle Conley with 18 home runs and 55 RBI. The Huskies’ weekend rotation all hold ERAs below 3.60, and the entire pitching staff has held opponents to a batting average of just .252 on the year.
The problem Stanford had last week was not being able to hold down the Arizona offense — the team allowed 29 runs on the weekend, most of them coming in big innings.
“We take the attitude that if we allow 10 runs, we need to score 11,” Phelps said. “It is the same the other way as well. If we only score four, we need to hold them to three.”
That is the attitude of a team that truly plays together, but this team is going to have to allow less than 29 runs per series if they are going to be successful this weekend and beyond. One reason to believe those numbers will improve is the return of Stanford’s preseason ace, junior southpaw Jeremy Bleich.
“Jeremy is one of our best pitchers,” said Phelps. “Seeing him back out there was great. We know he is going to get the job done whatever the situation, and I look forward to being able to play behind him the rest of the way.”
Bleich came out of the bullpen on Monday at Arizona and got the final two outs before the game was called due to Stanford’s travel arrangements. It was his first appearance since being injured in late March and, while it remains to be seen how long of outings he will be able to make, his presence is a big boost to this team at a time when it really needs a pickup.
“All of us are pushing really hard to get to [the College World Series],” said Phelps. “That is our goal and has been since the start of the year. Even if we don’t make it, this has been a good season because we have improved so much from last year, but we aren’t satisfied with that. We want to go to Omaha.”
If Stanford can get back on a roll this weekend, that goal will be reasonably within reach. The first game is tonight at 6:30 p.m. while the Saturday game is set for 2 p.m. and the final regular season game Sunday at 1 p.m. All three will be broadcast on KZSU 90.1 FM.