"In all my years playing and coaching, this was one of the best pitching performances I have ever seen," said Cardinal coach David Esquer. "You saw what Kris had to get through in the first couple innings, so for him to settle in and take it to this lineup was really impressive."

The junior went a season-high 7 1/3 innings with a season-high matching nine strikeouts. Bubic's allowed an unearned run in the second inning, the first run plated with Bubic on the mound in over three weeks.

The Cardinal (19-3, 4-1 Pac-12) needed a strong start from Bubic (5-0) after its third loss of the season on Thursday night at the hands of the Ducks (15-10, 3-5).

Kris Bubic did not allow an earned run for his second straight start and Stanford evened the series with Oregon after a 5-1 Pac-12 Conference baseball win on Friday night at Sunken Diamond.

Kris Bubic allowed an unearned run on four hits over 7 1/3 innings to improve to 5-0 on the season. Photo by Bob Drebin/isiphotos.com.

Maverick Handley enjoyed an outstanding day defensively, throwing out both of the Ducks' stolen base attempts, also doubling up a runner at first to end the top of the sixth.

Jack Little replaced Bubic with one out in the eighth, earning his eighth save. Little has yet to allow a run in 18 2/3 innings of work this season.

Tim Tawa and Nico Hoerner finished with one hit and one run apiece, and Andrew Daschbach, Will Matthiessen and Kyle Stowers finished with one RBI each. After Hoerner was intentionally walked, Daschbach ripped one to left on the first pitch to score Tawa, stretching Stanford's lead to 3-1.

Branton finished 2-for-3, upping his average to .357. Branton's single to center tied it up in the third before his RBI single to left field in the fifth to make it 2-1, Stanford.

"We got off to a rough start so we just had to remind ourselves we're really going to have to earn it tonight," said Esquer. "Hats off to Nick and Beau tonight for stepping up when we need it most."

A lot of Bubic and Little bit of Jack equals baseball win