Two former Merced County stars help Stanford baseball return to College World Series

Stanford pitching coach Thomas Eager called the decision to stick with his starting pitcher on Sunday the toughest move he’s had to make in his 11 years of coaching.

Eager, who graduated from Merced High School in 2004, said his heart was in his stomach as he opted to let Cardinal starter Quinn Mathews go the distance in an elimination game against Texas in a Super Regional.

Stanford kept its season alive with an 8-3 victory, but Mathews threw 156 pitches to seal the deal.

The Cardinal then went on to defeat the Longhorns 7-6 in dramatic fashion on Monday night when a Texas outfielder lost a fly ball in the lights, allowing the winning run to score in the bottom of the ninth inning to send Stanford to the College World Series for the third consecutive season.

“As a coach, you hurt when your players hurt,” said Eager, who has been the Stanford pitching coach for six years.. “The way it ended — the human nature side of you — feels bad for the Texas players. It was a great game. I’m never going to give a win back. I’ll take it, but at the same time you’re sympathetic for them.”

With Stanford returning to college baseball’s biggest stage, Merced County will be represented in the College World Series in Omaha by Eager and former Buhach Colony High School star Jake Sapien, who started 27 games for the Cardinal as a sophomore before being sidelined by an injury during the regional playoffs.

Sapien has hit .301 this season with three home runs and 16 RBIs.

Sapien suffered a broken nose when he was hit the face by a pitch in the Cardinal’s first game of the regional against San Jose State. Sapien had surgery on June 9 and can’t fly for 10 days, so if Stanford is still playing in Omaha on Tuesday, he’ll fly out and join the team.

“Injuries suck, but they happen in sports,” Sapien said. “We always say good luck, bad luck, who knows what you’re going to get. This is bad luck that I got injured, but it’s going to make me want to come back stronger and hungrier next year.”

Sapien said the pitch shattered his nose.

“It looked like a crumbled egg shell in the CT scan,” he said.

Even though Sapien couldn’t be on the field, he was still on the top step of the dugout cheering his teammates through the regional and super regional games.

“I still love watching my team play,” Sapien said. “We’re a family. The culture they’ve built at Stanford is amazing.”

Stanford went deep into their pitching staff to win the regional and super regional, using 11 different hurlers.

Eager seemed to juggle the staff perfectly, making the right moves at the right time, which allowed the Cardinal to battle through the loser bracket during the regional and then come back after losing the first of a three-game series in the super regional against Texas.

Stanford went 5-0 in elimination games during their run to Omaha.

Eager knew there would be backlash after he let Mathews throw 156 pitches.

“Everyone is allowed their opinion, but nobody knows what is going on in the program but us,” Eager said. “They may know what’s at stake, but they don’t know what our guys can and can’t do. Quinn Mathews came back to college to do this. He turned down a lot of money to come back here.”

That doesn’t mean the decision to stick with Mathews was easy. Even though Mathews, his family and advisors were fine with the move, Eager still wondered if it was the right move.

Eager said he had conversations with Mathews throughout the game and that the left-hander never really had any stressful innings. Mathews was dominant, striking out 16 hitters and walking just one in the nine innings against Texas.

“Do I wish the number (of pitches) was smaller? Yes, I do, but he came back for a moment like that and to be there for his teammates,” Eager said.

Still Eager thought it would be best to stay off social media for a couple days.

“People are going to say you have to be smart for the kids, but they don’t know our kids as well as I do,” Eager added. “He made the comment to me, ‘If I take him out of the game and we lose that he’ll never forgive me.’ It’s the toughest decision I’ve ever had to make in my 11 years of coaching, by far.”

Now for the third consecutive year Eager and Stanford are headed to the College World Series.

“As a baseball fan, it’s definitely a place you should go experience once in your life,” Eager said. “The first time we made it, you don’t know if you’ll ever make it back there. The second time we made it our team was on a mission to win. I don’t think we took the time to take it all in as we should have.”

“Hopefully this time we enjoy it but we’re there to win it,” Eager added. “I think if you don’t take the time to appreciate it, you’re missing out.”

Next up for the Cardinal is the No. 1 team in the country in Wake Forest (52-10).

Eager said he was standing out in the field with Stanford head coach David Esquer when Eager’s son Trey said he was rooting for Wake Forest to lose in its super regional so Stanford wouldn’t have to play them.

“So my 9-year old son knows they’re good,” Eager said. “They can pitch, they can hit, they’ve got power and they have one of the best arms in the country going on Saturday. When you get to Omaha, every team is good, it just matters who is going to show up and handle the moment.”