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Stanford's Rintaro Sasaki Hits First Two Home Runs, Including Walk-Off Blast

Jason Burke

Mar 1, 2025; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal first baseman Rintaro Sasaki (3) bats against the Xavier Musketeers during the fourth inning at Sunken Diamond. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images
Mar 1, 2025; Stanford, CA, USA; Stanford Cardinal first baseman Rintaro Sasaki (3) bats against the Xavier Musketeers during the fourth inning at Sunken Diamond. Mandatory Credit: Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images / Darren Yamashita-Imagn Images

Stanford first baseman Rintaro Sasaki has been the talk of the Cardinal program since he decided to join the team last spring. This year, he made his debut, and while the boom stick hadn't been brought out entering Saturday's game, he'd still been providing plenty of hits, hitting safely in 13 of his first 17 games, and has reached base in all but one of those.

Facing off against Duke, Sasaki, who set the high school home run record in Japan, launched his first collegiate home run in the bottom of the fifth inning off reliever Max Stammel.

That swing is gorgeous, and Sasaki hitting balls into the trees in right field isn't going to get old. We can tell, because he did it again in the bottom of the eighth inning, and that one was arguably even more spectacular.

The second homer came with two on and two out, and ended the game in a run-rule win for the Cardinal, who took home the victory 11-1.

With Stanford taking the first two games of the series, they have already captured yet another series win. After last weekend's series victory against No. 4 North Carolina, it's impressive that this club has come out and continued to just collect dubs.

This series against an unranked Duke program would have been a great trap series for the Cardinal to run into, but they have outscored Duke 16-2 through the first two games. You can chalk that up to some tremendous coaching.

Including Sasaki’s two, Stanford launched a season-high five home runs in the victory. Junior Jimmy Nati homered in the bottom of the second to break a scoreless game, Tatum Marsh connected for a two-run blast that highlighted a four-run fourth inning, and Brady Reynolds added a solo homer of his own in the fifth.

Obviously Sasaki's home runs were the big story of the day, but Stanford pitching has been terrific this season, including Christian Lim's outing yesterday. The left-hander went six innings, gave up just four hits and one run, walking three and striking out two.

Ryan Speshyock came on for the final two frames and allowed just one hit while striking out a pair.

No. 18 Stanford will look to take home the series sweep on Sunday afternoon, with first pitch against Duke scheduled for 1:05 p.m. (PT). Joey Volchko is the probable starter for the Cardinal.

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Jason Burke
JASON BURKE

Jason has been covering the A’s at various sites for over a decade, and was the original host of the Locked on A’s podcast. He also covers the Stanford Cardinal as they attempt to rebuild numerous programs to prominence.

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