Baseball

Stanford Defeats California to Advance to Second Round of ACC Baseball Championship

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (theACC.com) – Playing for the fourth time in six days, No. 12 seed Stanford scored at least one run in five innings straight to down No. 13 California 11-4 on Tuesday in the first round of the 2026 ACC Baseball Championship at Truist Field in Charlotte, North Carolina.
 
Stanford will take on No. 5 seed Miami in the second round on Wednesday, May 20, at 1 p.m. ET. The game will be broadcast live on ACC Network.
 
The Cardinal offense was led by three RBIs each from Charlie Bartes (1-for-3, HR, BB, 3 RBIs, 2 runs) and Jimmy Nati (3-for-4, HR, 2B, 3 RBIs, run), while Teddy Tokheim (1-for-5, 2B, 2 RBIs, run) finished the day with two RBIs.
 
The Golden Bears offensively were led by Hideki Prather, who was 2-for-5 with a home run, two RBIs and a run scored, while Ethan Kodama (1-for-3, HR, BB, 2 RBIs, run) drove in the other two RBIs.
 
Stanford’s Aidan Keenan (1-3) picked up the win out of the bullpen, giving up two hits, one walk and striking out five hitters over 2.0-scoreless innings. The Cardinal used six pitchers in the win.
 
Cal got on the scoreboard first in the top of the third inning on an RBI single from Prather but saw the lead last less than one inning as Nati led off the bottom of the third inning with a solo home run to center field to tie the game up at 1-1.
 
One inning later, Stanford took its first lead of the game on a sacrifice fly by Eric Jeon before Nati delivered again with an RBI single to center field to put the Cardinal in front 3-1 after four innings of play.
 
The Cardinal continued to add to its lead with a three-run home run off the bat of Charlie Bates in the fifth inning and a trio of RBI doubles from Nati, Teddy Tokheim and Cort MacDonald in the sixth frame to put the score at 10-1 heading into the seventh inning.
 
Cal got one run back in the top of the seventh on a solo home run from Prather, before Stanford added a run in the bottom half of the inning with the help of a Golden Bears’ fielding error.
 
The Golden Bears put up two more runs on an Ethan Kodama two-run home run to right field in the top of the ninth, but it wasn’t enough as the Cardinal moved on with the 11-4 tournament win.