If Stanford wins the Pac-12 baseball title and makes the NCAA Tournament, the Cardinal might look back at Quinn Brodey's inside-the-park home run to beat Arizona as the play of the season.
Brodey's run around the bases with two outs in the ninth inning produced a 6-5 road win Sunday that allowed the Cardinal to avoid a sweep in the three-game series and stay within a game of conference-leading Utah.
Stanford (19-11, 7-5) is trying to bounce back from a 2015 season in which it won only 24 games and missed the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in nine years. From 1981-2006, the Cardinal were in the tournament all but two years.
Strong pitching has always been the program's identity in Mark Marquess' 40 years as coach, and he's getting plenty of it this season with freshman Tristan Beck leading one of the nation's top staffs. The problem has been inconsistent offense for a team with five one-run losses.
The Cardinal were held to a total of two runs and 11 hits in losing the first two games this past weekend, and they were down 5-1 in the eighth inning Sunday. It was still 5-4 with two outs in the top of the ninth when Brodey came to bat. He sent Cody Moffett's first pitch to the deepest part of the cavernous Hi Corbett Park. The ball ricocheted off the angled wall, and Nico Hoerner easily scored the tying run from second.
"As soon as I saw it hit the wall and saw him not catch it, I put my head down and picked up the third-base coach and kept on running," Brodey told the Pac-12 Network. "He was waving me when I was halfway between second and third, so I put it in full gear."
With the Pac-12 having a down year and Stanford sitting No. 66 in the RPI, the Cardinal need a strong finish to make the NCAA Tournament. They control their fate, though, with series remaining against the teams now tied and ahead of them in the standings.
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A look around the country:
CARDINALS FLYING HIGH: Louisville (29-7, 13-5) went 5-0 last week, following a convincing win over in-state rival Kentucky with a three-game sweep of Clemson. The Cardinals won 9-8 Sunday on Corey Ray's ground-rule double in the bottom of the ninth inning, moving them into first in the ACC Atlantic Division.
GOING SOLO: Georgia extended its crazy stretch of consecutive solo home runs to 20. The Bulldogs hit six this past weekend against South Carolina, including four in Sunday's series-clinching 5-3 win. The Bulldogs have hit 29 home runs, with March 8 being the last time a runner was on base at the time.
ASCENDING AGGIES: Texas A&M (29-7, 10-5 SEC) is as high as No. 3 in the polls after an eyebrow-raising road sweep of Mississippi State. The Aggies outscored the Bulldogs 30-14 and now have scored 10 or more runs in five straight conference games for the first time since 1987. Mississippi State hadn't been swept at Dudy Noble Field since 2010.
BEST IN WEST: As high as No. 9 in this week's polls, UC Santa Barbara (24-7-1, 5-1 Big West) is the only top-10 West Coast team. The Gauchos swept Cal State-Northridge to extend their home win streak to 12 games, the longest since a 14-gamer in 1986. Now 16-1 at Caesar Uyesaka Stadium, they've matched the program record set in 1984 for best record through 17 home games.
STUPENDOUS STUPIENSKI: UNC-Wilmington's Gavin Stupienski homered three times, including a grand slam, in a 16-11 win over East Tennessee State on Sunday. The junior catcher has nine homers for the season and became the first UNCW player to hit three in a game since 2008. His career-high seven RBIs were most by a Seahawk since 2007.
