Husky Baseball: Stanford Preview
April 5nd – 7th at Husky Ballpark
Husky Record: 16-9
Husky Home Record: 9-3
Stanford University
Location: Stanford, CA
Mascot: Cardinal
Enrolment: 8,000
Conference: Pacific-12 Conference
National Ranking: 9th (RPI)
Record: 17-6
Road Record: 4-4
PAC-12 Record: 2-4
2011 Record against Huskies: 3-0
Preview: Stanford fell from 2nd in RPI rankings to 9th after last weekend’s sweep in Arizona. Despite their setback, this Cardinal team in stacked with talent. They will throw Mark Appel and Brett Mooneyham in the first two games of the series. Appel is generally expected to be the first overall pick in the MLB draft this year, and has allowed batters to hit just .201 off of him this season. Mooneyham will likely be picked in the first couple of rounds as well, and has posted an impressive 1.96 ERA in 41.1 innings pitched. On offense, Stanford brings two more first round MLB draft prospects in Stephen Piscotty and Kenny Diekroeger. These two aren’t the only big bats in Stanford’s lineup; they have eight batters who have homered this year and seven batters who have double digit RBI totals.
The Huskies, who are ranked 35th in RPI rankings, won’t be able to make any mistakes this weekend, because Stanford will take advantage of them. The Dawgs will also need to work the Stanford pitchers, because both Appel and Mooneyham have tendencies to walk batters. This will be a great challenge for Washington, but a good showing this weekend could land them in the top 25. Expect Stanford to be on their game. So far this season, they have played very well after suffering losses like they did in Tucson last weekend.