By Jose Saldana on April 12, 2017

No. 18 Stanford baseball (18-10, 4-5 Pac-12) used a five-run second inning to defeat San Jose State (12-18-1) 9-3 on Tuesday night at Municipal Stadium in San Jose.

Freshman Erik Miller got the nod on the mound for the Cardinal. He blanked the Spartans through three innings, gave up only an infield single, and struck out one batter.

Fellow freshman Will Matthiessen took over for Miller in the fourth and pitched two strong innings in relief. He continued the shutout of the Spartans, giving up only two hits.

Freshman Daniel Bakst got the five-run second inning started as he continued his hot streak by delivering a single to left field. Junior third baseman Mikey Diekroeger then moved Bakst to second on a hit-by-pitch. In the next at bat, senior left fielder Alex Dunlap was hit by a pitch to load the bases.

A walk, two singles and a sacrifice fly would score five runners before junior right fielder Quinn Brodey flied out to end the inning.

In the top of the sixth, Stanford scored two runs on the strength of sophomore Nico Hoerner’s single and Brodey’s double to right field.

The Spartans remained scoreless until the sixth and seventh inning when runs were scored by base hits off junior reliever Keith Weisenberg.

The Cardinal retaliated in the eighth with a two-run inning of their own. An error by the Spartans allowed a Cardinal runner to score, and then Brodey doubled for the second time to right field, giving Stanford the 9-3 lead.

Stanford accumulated nine hits and nine runs, and the pitching staff struck out seven Spartans. Stanford batted .400 (4-for-10) with runners in scoring position and had a leadoff hit in four of the innings.

Bakst, whose 11-game hitting streak ended in last weekend’s series against USC, has gotten on base in 14 straight games, including 13 hits.

Freshman catcher Maverick Handley’s five-game hitting streak is the Cardinal’s longest active streak. His MVP performance against the Spartans included an RBI, a hit, two walks and three runs scored.

Stanford returns to Sunken Diamond for a three-game series against UCLA (14-15) starting on Thursday.

Contact Jose Saldana at jsaldana ‘at’ stanford.edu.