No. 12 Baseball downed by Stanford, 5-3

Friday, March 6

Palo Alto, Calif.

8 p.m.

University of Texas

8-6

Stanford

9-6

Texas

Stanford

03.06.2015 | Baseball

Box Score

Taylor Stell homers in loss

STANFORD, Calif. -- Taylor Stell hit a three-run home run and No. 12 Texas held an early lead over Stanford, but the Cardinal rallied for five unanswered runs to take game two of the four-game series, 5-3, Friday night.

Stell's blast came with two on and two outs in the second inning, and marked the first hit of the season for the redshirt junior, who was in the lineup as the designated hitter. Texas, though, was unable to score again as Stanford starter Chris Viall followed with four straight scoreless innings and three Cardinal relievers closed it out.

The Longhorns (8-6) got a solid performance from starting pitcher Kacy Clemens, who went 5 1/3 innings and allowed just three hits, surrendering three runs to an opportunistic Stanford club.

The Cardinal (9-6) struck back right after Stell's homer, plating two runs in the bottom of the second on a RBI infield single and a RBI groundout. The game stayed 3-2 in favor of Texas until the sixth, when with one down Clemens hit third baseman Mikey Diekroeger with a pitch.

That prompted a move to the bullpen for lefty Kirby Bellow, who retired the first batter he faced on a groundout. Stanford, however, put together a two-out rally with Austin Barr sending a run-scoring single through the right side to tie it up. Quinn Brodey followed with a double down the right field line to score Barr and give the Cardinal a 4-3 advantage.

Texas had a chance to strike in the seventh when it had runners on second and third and two outs, but what looked to be a wild pitch that got away from catcher Bryce Carter turned into a 2-4-5 pickoff that ended the threat.

In the bottom of the eighth, Stanford again struck with two outs on a RBI single from pinch hitter Jack Klein that made it 5-3. Texas was unable to mount a comeback, going in order in the eighth and ninth.

Bellow (0-1) took the loss while Viall (1-1) got the win after going 6 2/3 innings and surrendering three runs on six hits. Colton Hock picked up his third save of the year with a perfect ninth.

The Longhorns will look to senior RHP Parker French (1-1, 1.76) for game three of the series. Stanford will start sophomore RHP Brett Hanewich (1-0, 1.35).

QUOTES FROM COACH AUGIE GARRIDO

On not being able to score after Stell's home run: [Stanford] settled down. They really did a good job from the mound. I thought our kids played a lot better game – if we would've played this game last night we would have won. We're just going through a real weird, difficult time right now. The spirit of the team is good, the execution is not great because we're losing by one or two runs. You look at everything under the microscope and try to dissect it, think 'Why did we lose,' and the main thing is to not let your attitude turn into one of being a loser. Not to think that you are jinxed, all those kinds of things.

On getting right back at it tomorrow: I don't think a championship team ever goes through the season without getting its face rubbed in the dirt; it's just part of the process. We don't like it, we don't want it to happen, but we played much better tonight than we did last night, and that's a step in the right direction. We were very much ourselves tonight, very competitive tonight, hit some balls hard right at people.