Quinn Mathews recaps 156-pitch performance, 'It wasn't out of the ordinary'

Quinn Mathews threw 156 pitches in a complete game on the mound, tying the series ahead of Monday’s Game 3 rubber match.

Defeating Texas 8-3, Stanford has Mathews to thank for keeping their season alive for at least one more day. He finished the game giving up three earned runs on eight hits and one walk. He struck out a whopping 16 batters during the matchup — good for the first 15+ strikeout game by a pitcher in an NCAA Super Regional since 2019.

“It’s a pretty special moment having my last Stanford start at the Sunken Diamond be a complete game in the Super Regional,” Mathews said during the ESPN broadcast of the Super Regional’s Game 3. “It’ll probably hit me a little more tomorrow once all this adrenaline and the weekend as a whole, win or loss, is over with it’ll definitely hit me more [on Tuesday].”

The high pitch count isn’t abnormal for Mathews this season, either. In fact, he said he wasn’t sure what his pitch count was during the outing. Mathews said the performance “wasn’t anything out of the ordinary” for him physically — he was just ready to step up in the biggest moment of his career so far.

Mathews revealed the moment he decided to turn on the jets, which came after giving up a solo home run to Texas’ Mitchell Daly, who belted an elevated 2-1 changeup over the fence. It was the only long ball Texas hit all night.

“That was the moment that I was like, ‘wow, that was a crummy changeup.’ I had thrown so many good ones throughout that game and I hung that one to the nine hole. Honestly, he had two really good swings off me. He put the one into the trees and then [he hit] a single on a 3-2 fastball that he hit the other way.

“Those were definitely the two moments where [Daly] got the better of me last night.”

Mathews joked with the broadcast team, telling him that he would be able to pitch in Monday’s Game 3 if need be. He says he feels good — but there’s no chance his coaches risk losing his arm ahead of a potential College World Series bid.

Catch the exciting series finale between the Cardinal and Longhorns live on ESPN. Before the matchup, Stanford was the betting favorite (-150) and the over/under run total was set at 10.5, per Caesars Sportsbook.