Stanford wins, earns trip to College World Series
Stanford's baseball team won its fifth elimination game in the last nine days Monday, using a 10-5 win over Connecticut in a Super Regional at Sunken Diamond to earn a trip to the College World Series.
The second-ranked Cardinal (4716) will head to Omaha, Neb., favored to win the school's third national title after prohibitive favorite Tennessee was ousted in shocking fashion Sunday by Notre Dame.
After playing its way out of the losers' bracket in last weekend's regional with a win over UC Santa Barbara and back-to-back wins over Texas State, the Cardinal won consecutive games against the Huskies to earn their 18th trip to the College World Series, which begins on Friday.
On Monday, for the third time this series, a high-powered Stanford offense produced a six-run inning as the Cardinal came back from an early 3-0 deficit to defeat the Huskies. Sophomore starting pitcher Joey Dixon didn't record an out as UConn's first four hitters reached base, but lefty Drew Dowd (Serra High, San Mateo) entered and threw some of the most important innings of Stanford's season.
Despite allowing an RBI double to kick off his outing, Dowd quieted the Huskies offense, induced an inningending double play and didn't allow a run over three innings. His efforts coupled with strong work from fellow relievers Ryan Bruno and Quinn Mathews gave the Cardinal lineup the chance to engineer a comeback.
In the fourth inning, the gamewinning rally materialized.
Adam Crampton (Oakland Tech) gave the Cardinal the lead with a two-run single before catcher Kody Huff launched a grand slam that broke the game open and put Stanford back on the path to Omaha.
After an epic six-run ninth-inning rally on Saturday night came up just short in a 13-12 loss to the Huskies, the Cardinal needed to win back-toback games to advance. Coach David Esquer's team scored six runs in the second inning on Sunday en route to an 8-2 win that forced a winner-takeall Game 3 on Monday.
Tennis
FEDERER, NADAL, DJOKOVIC NOT RANKED IN TOP 2 >> None of the socalled Big Three of men's tennis — Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic — was in the No. 1 or No. 2 spots in the ATP rankings, the first time that's been the case in nearly 20 years.
Daniil Medvedev rose one place to return to No. 1, where he briefly spent time earlier this season, and Alexander Zverev moved up to No. 2.
Djokovic slid from No. 1 to No. 3, because his points for winning the French Open in 2021 dropped off his record. The ATP rankings are based on a player's top 18 tournament results over the preceding 52 weeks (19 if he participated in the ATP Tour Finals).
EX-OLYMPIC CHAMP PUIG RETIRES >> Rio de Janeiro Olympics gold medalist Monica Puig announced her retirement from professional tennis at age 28 via a post on social media.
Puig became the first athlete to win gold for Puerto Rico in any sport at an Olympics with her women's singles triumph in 2016.
Basketball
GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS MEET WITH GRINER'S TEAM >> State Department officials met with representatives of Brittney Griner's WNBA team about the Phoenix Mercury star's monthslong detention in Russia and the Biden administration's efforts to secure her release.
The State Department confirmed the meeting, which involved officials from its specialized office that advocates for hostages and wrongfully detained Americans, but offered no additional details.
The administration has previously said that its working to bring Griner and another American, Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, home from Russia.
Soccer RAPINOE, MORGAN BACK FOR U.S. FOR CUP QUALIFIERS >>
Former Cal star Alex Morgan and Megan Rapinoe have been included on the U.S. roster for next month's CONCACAF W Championship, which will determine four of the region's teams in the 2023 Women's World Cup.
Rapinoe and Morgan have not been named to a U.S. roster since last October as coach Vlatko Andonovski looked at younger players in the runup to qualifying. Twenty-three players were named to the qualifying roster, and three others — Sam Coffey, Carson Pickett and Jaelin Howell — were added to the training camp in advance of a pair of friendlies later this month against Colombia.
The W Championship is set for July in Monterrey, Mexico, and it will determine the region's four teams for the 2023 World Cup, which will be co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
AUSTRALIA EDGES PERU TO QUALIFY FOR WORLD CUP >> Australia qualified for a fifth straight men's World Cup after a 5-4 penalty shootout win over Peru in their playoff in Qatar.
The final place at the World Cup will be filled today when Costa Rica meets New Zealand.