Déjà vu filled the air in Palo Alto as No. 21 Stanford stormed the field following its second-straight walk-off victory over Texas on Saturday. And the player who came in clutch for the Cardinal was no different, either.
Junior center fielder Quinn Brodey strolled up to the plate in the bottom of the ninth with the score deadlocked at 2-2.
Brodey drove a pitch right up the middle. The ball rolled into center field as the runner on second rounded third and slid safely into home plate for the walk-off win in game two.
He had even more in store for the Longhorns in game three.
The crowd at Klein Field witnessed a mid-game chess match on the mound between both starting pitchers in the third game of the series Saturday afternoon. Junior right hander Kyle Johnston settled in to throw five consecutive hitless innings.
Johnston’s counterpart, freshman left hander Erik Miller, also had a five-inning streak of hitless pitching. But even in a tight pitching duel, Brodey still won the day.
Although Johnston kept the Cardinal at bay for the majority of his career-high 8.2-inning outing, Stanford chased him away in the ninth as the Cardinal tied the score at 2-2.
Head coach David Pierce finally made a call to the bullpen, bringing in sophomore pitcher Chase Shugart. He got the out he needed to send the game into extra innings.
Brodey worked his magic yet again, this time in much more dramatic fashion.
Texas sat in the same predicament as game two: two outs, runners on first and second and Brodey at the plate. Texas needed one more out to send the game to the 11th inning. Instead, Brodey ended it with one swing — again.
The Cardinal only needed one runner to score to secure another win, but the junior decided to clear the bases with a two-out, three-run homer that soared over the left field fence.
The three-run jack sealed Stanford’s second consecutive walk-off win, 5-2.
Cardinal fans cheered following the back-to-back thrillers, while traveling Longhorn fans headed for the exits after another disappointing loss.
The Longhorns had less than an hour to prepare for their second game of the doubleheader, which was also the fourth and final game of the series.
Mental and physical fatigue may have set in as Texas struggled tremendously at the plate.
The Longhorns didn’t record a hit until the sixth inning after freshman Austin Todd’s triple bounced off the left field wall. Todd would eventually score after a relay throw to the plate sailed over the catcher’s head. But, that’s all Texas mustered in the final game.
Texas didn’t lack any opportunities, however. The Longhorns loaded the bases in the eighth inning and had a lead-off double in the ninth, but were unable to send the game-tying runner across the plate in the 2-1 loss.
Texas broke Stanford’s six-game winning streak as well as its 12-game home winning streak after defeating the Cardinal in game one Thursday. However, that’s the only victory the Longhorns came home with.
