ROUND ROCK, Texas – Kody Huff helped No. 4 Stanford overcome an early deficit with a two-run home run and Alex Williams struck out six batters in five innings of work to lead the Cardinal past Louisiana, 5-1, in the opening game of the Karbach Round Rock Classic on a frigid Friday at Dell Diamond.
Louisiana (3-2), which had its three-game win streak snapped, will return to action on Saturday when it faces Indiana in an 11 a.m. contest. The game will be streamed live on FloBaseball.com (paid subscription required) and aired in the Lafayette area on KPEL FM (96.5).
Stanford (4-1), which has allowed two runs in its four victories, trailed 1-0 in the top of the first inning as Max Marusak led off with a triple and scored on Tyler Robertson’s RBI single to third. Robertson moved to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third in Kyle DeBarge’s sacrifice bunt, but Williams (2-0) was able to get out of the inning as he fanned Carson Roccaforte and got Connor Kimple to fly out to center.
Huff, who was 2-for-4 in the game, gave the Cardinal a 2-1 lead in the bottom half of the inning when he hit his first home run of the season – a two-run drive to left off Louisiana starter Tommy Ray (0-1).
Stanford added a run in the third after Adam Crampton and Eddie Park led off with singles to put runners on the corners before Crampton scored when Tommy Troy hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Huff led off the fourth inning with a double down the left-field line, moved to third on a balk and scored on Carter Graham’s sacrifice fly to center to extend the Cardinal lead to 4-1.
Louisiana, which had five hits off four Stanford pitchers, attempted a comeback in the fifth after Warnner Rincones ripped a one-out double down the left-field line. After moving to third on a wild pitch, Rincones was stranded at third as Williams fanned Julian Brock before Troy made a diving stop of Bobby Lada’s hard liner to second to end the threat.
Brock and Heath Hood each added singles for Louisiana while Lada was credited with his second stolen base of the season.
Ray, making his first start for the Ragin’ Cajuns, scattered five hits and struck out four batters in four innings of work. Dylan Theut fanned three batters in 3.1 innings for the Ragin’ Cajuns while Bo Bonds and Chipper Menard closed out the eighth inning.
Huff, Park and Brett Barrera each had two hits for Stanford, which recorded eight in the game. Williams allowed three hits and struck out six in five innings of work before Joey Dixon, Cody Jensen and Braden Montgomery closed out over the final four innings.
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