The No. 2 ranked Stanford Cardinal showed why they are the best team in the Pac-12, coming back from a two-run deficit and defeating Arizona 8-2 on Friday April, 20 at Hi Corbett Field.
In what looked to be a pitchers duel between Arizona’s Cody Deason and Stanford’s Tristan Beck, it was Stanford who ended up flexing its muscle more and getting the best of the Wildcats.
Deason finished the night pitching 6 ⅓ innings, but gave up three earned runs off of four hits and striking out three. The three earned runs came in the seventh inning with the Wildcats up 2-0 and that’s when Deason was eventually pulled from the game.
“It just got away from me a little bit and they got to me,” Deason said.
Junior Alfonso Rivas continued to dominate at the plate as he got the ‘Cats on the board early with a double to center field scoring Cameron Cannon. Freshman Donta Williams added a RBI to his stat sheet with his single to center field allowing for Tate Soderstrom to score from second giving Arizona a 2-0 advantage.
Stanford blew an opportunity to tie the game in the sixth stranding Tim Tawa at third with no outs and allowing for Deason to get out of a jam.
However, the Cardinal made up for it in the seventh inning, none bigger than Alec Wilson’s home run off the Terry Francona Hitting Center in right field giving the Cardinals a 3-2 lead which was the final blow to Deason’s night. Stanford picked up five more runs in the game with two of those being back-to-back home runs in the ninth.
Things got a bit heated in the eighth inning after Stanford’s Christian Robinson slid into Nick Quintana, forcing Quintana to land awkwardly and resulting in the ball falling out of his glove and Robinson being called safe at third.
UA manager Jay Johnson came storming out of the Wildcats dugout furious with what had transpired which led to Stanford’s skipper David Esquer to come out of the Cardinal dugout also.
“Nick Quintana is one of the best players in the Pac-12. He’s a very honest and trustworthy person, he’s one of our best players, he’s a great human being I just wanted to make sure he’s alright,” Johnson said.
Deason who was in the clubhouse when the incident occurred felt the play was uncalled for.
“I think that was outrageously dirty,” Deason said. “It’s just bush league honestly.”
Johnson doesn’t feel there will be repercussions from the Pac-12 for either team.
“I’m sure they’ll look at it. The umpires have full discretion I don’t know if they ejected anybody on their side, they didn’t eject anybody on our side,” Johnson said.
Arizona will look to even the series Saturday evening as Michael Flynn (5-2) takes the mound for the ‘Cats. First pitch is scheduled for 7 p.m.
Follow Alex Munoz on Twitter
