By Laura Anderson on April 19, 2017

Coming off a disappointing weekend series loss against UCLA, Stanford baseball (20-12) came back in a big way on Tuesday, taking down rivals Cal Golden Bears (16-18) by a final score of 6-4 at the Sunken Diamond.

The Cardinal delivered during a big third inning to take a commanding five-run lead that established a Stanford lead for the remainder of the game. The five runs were enough for the pitching staff, as freshmen Erik Miller and Will Matthiessen combined for four scoreless innings to open the game. Cal showed some life in the seventh and eighth innings, tallying four runs over the two frames, but junior Colton Hock was lights out in the ninth, shutting down any hope of a Golden Bear comeback by striking out all three batters he faced and to earn his 17th career save.

The save moved Hock into second place on Stanford’s all-time career saves list.

Stanford’s bats exploded in the third inning, during which the team recorded five runs on five hits, which included three consecutive singles to start the frame. Junior Quinn Brodey once again got the offense going, notching an RBI to score junior Matt Winaker from second base. After two RBIs from junior Mikey Diekroeger and sophomore Duke Kinamon brought the Cardinal lead to 3-0, senior Jack Klein cemented the advantage with a two-RBI single to end the inning.

With the lead cut to 5-3 in the bottom of the seventh, freshman Daniel Bakst drove a double to right field to bring his hitting streak to six games and get on base. Stanford benefitted by two Cal errors, a wild pitch and another error by the pitcher, which scored Bakst from second.

This win marks the final home game against rival Cal for head coach Mark Marquess. The Cardinal also finished off a weeklong homestand with the matchup, where they went 2-2. Stanford will now travel to Eugene, Oregon to take on the Ducks for a three-game series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Contact Laura Anderson at lauraand ‘at’ stanford.edu.