Stanford punches ticket to CWS in Omaha
After taking the hard route to get through to the Super Regional, the Stanford Cardinal again made things challenging on themselves losing game one of the Super Regional against UConn.
This forced them to win two games in a row that had the stakes of win or go home, but the offensive juggernaut that is the Cardinal did just that winning 10-5 over UConn.
In what seems to be a horrific trend which will not bode well in Omaha, the Cardinal starting pitchers have struggled all postseason. Joey Dixon was given the nod on the bump in what was a very brief outing for him. He didn't record a single out, and gave up three runs in the first inning putting the Cardinal in a position they have been in every game but one this postseason, trailing.
The trio of pitchers: Drew Dowd, Ryan Bruno, and Quinn Mathews came through for the Cardinal as they each pitched three innings to help Stanford win.
Like seemingly every Stanford game this postseason and more specifically the Super Regional, they had one very explosive inning of offense that helped them pull away. Today that inning happened to be the fourth inning, after what proved to be a critical error by the UConn shortstop.
With two outs and trailing by just one run, UConn's shortstop fielded a ground ball ranging towards his left, and when he went to throw to get the third out he slipped and fell which loaded the bases. This brought up Kody Huff who three pitchers later sent a pitch into orbit for a grand slam.
Huff had himself a day going 3-for-4 finishing just a triple shy of the cycle, and also knocked in five runs.
With the win, the Cardinal are now 10-0 in elimination games all-time at the Sunken Diamond. The huge win also punched their ticket to Omaha will take on Arkansas in their opening matchup of the College World Series on either Friday or Saturday.
This marks Stanford's second straight trip to Omaha, where they hope to avenge their loss against Vanderbilt last season that sent them packing with one out away from a win.