By Cate Camara on May 3, 2017

A streaking No. 13 Stanford Baseball (28-12, 11-7 Pac-12) earned its ninth consecutive victory when the Cardinal came away with a 4-3 win against San Jose State (15-27-1) at Sunken Diamond on Tuesday evening.

Tuesday night’s victory earned Stanford the season’s two-game series sweep, a second win against San Jose State this season. They previously won 9-3 while on the road at Municipal Stadium.

Freshman Daniel Bakst started the scoring early for the Cardinal, singling into left field. That play led to a score from junior Matt Winaker, giving Stanford a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first. However, the Spartans retaliated in the top of the second when junior David Campbell recorded San Jose’s first run off a Corey Olivet single down the left line that tied the match at 1-1.

The Spartans grabbed the lead in the top of the third when Williams accelerated to home off a fielder’s choice from Campbell with the bases loaded. The two combined for another scoring play for the Spartans in the top of the fifth as a Campbell single to right center brought Williams home to grab a 3-1 lead.

Stanford turned their fortunes around late, though, coming alive in the bottom of the sixth. Junior Mikey Diekroeger grounded out to second base, allowing sophomore Duke Kinamon to score from third and put Stanford back within one.

Then, with two outs and two strikes, junior Quinn Brodey hit a towering drive off the center field wall for an inside-the-park home run, allowing both him and Handley to score. Brodey’s blast launched the Cardinal ahead 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning. This was Brodey’s seventh home run of the season.

“This gave me flashbacks to University of Arizona last year where the ball bounced off the wall and I carved into third. You see it kick off the wall, and that’s when I kick it into high gear,” Brodey commented postgame. “I didn’t see it when I reached second base; I just saw our third base coach give the wheel, so I put my head down and kept going.”

Brodey continued, “Mid-week slumps can come back to bite at the end of the year, and it’s part of the reason we didn’t make the playoffs last year. It’s important for us to get these wins, and so far, we’ve done well.”

Head coach Mark Marquess remained positive about his team’s ability to break through a tough defense: “It’s a win, but you have to give their defense credit. It’s something we can work with, but it’s not easy.”

Heading into the final stretches of the season, Brodey kept his focus on winning: “Every game matters. We did well against Oregon and Arizona, and we’re taking it one game at a time, doing the best we can to win all three games.”

Junior Keith Weisenberg picked up the win for the Cardinal and junior Colton Hock came in the ninth inning to register his 12th save.

Stanford will face Arizona State in a three-game series at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, May 5 at the Sunken Diamond.

Live updates and stats can be found at gostanford.com.

Contact Cate Camara at ccamara2 ‘at’ stanford.edu.