Dream season ends
Uconn falls 1 win short of College World Series at Stanford
When the Uconn baseball team featuring six future major leaguers lost in an NCAA Regional in Norwich in 2010, coach Jim Penders ended his press conference vowing, “from now on, the last line of our schedule is going to say Omaha.”
He had big aspirations, despite the disadvantages of playing in the Northeast, and he built a program that has returned to the NCAA Tournament seven times since. This week, Uconn got closer to Omaha, Nebraska, where the College World Series is played, than it has since 1979, when the tournament was much smaller, the format much different.
But the quest continues, not yet fulfilled. The Huskies came up one win short, losing the deciding game of the Super Regional to Stanford 10-5 on Monday in Palo Alto, Calif.
After splitting the first two games, Uconn jumped out to a 3-0 lead on Ben Huber’s basesloaded double in the first inning in Game 3, but with a chance to break the game open, left the bases loaded and its pitching and defense couldn’t make those runs stand up against the Cardinal’s thunderous bats.
Stanford (47-16), the No. 2 seed in the field of 64, got 15 hits off seven Uconn pitchers, taking the lead on Adam Crompton’s two-run single in the fourth and, after a couple of Uconn miscues, breaking it open with Kody Huff ’s grand slam. The Cardinal hit 10 home runs in the three games, and after Uconn led 13-4 in the seventh inning of Game 1, outscored the Huskies 26-6 over the last 20 innings of the Super Regional, and will go to Omaha for the 18th time in school history.
The Huskies (50-16) set a school record for victories, breaking the 2010 team’s mark of 48. They won the Big East regular season and tournament titles, and as the No. 3 seed, emerged from the Maryland Regional to get to a Super Regional for the first time since 2011.
After winning 13-12 on Saturday and losing 8-2 Sunday, Uconn had to win a winner-take-all game at Stanford’s “Sunken Diamond,” where the Cardinal had won nine of nine previous winner-take-all games in its history. The Huskies jumped out to a 3-0 lead, but missed a chance for a first-inning knockout blow. David Smith and Erik Stock singled, Casey Dana was hit by a pitch and Huber
cleared the baes with a double into the left field corner. That sent Stanford coach David Esquer to the mound to replace Joey Dixon with lefty Drew Dowd. Bryan Padillo doubled, but Huber had to hold at third, and momentum changed. Korey Morton popped up, and after a walk, Matt Donlan hit into a double play to end the inning.
Stanford got one back quickly when Brock Jones doubled and scored on a sacrifice fly against Uconn starter Ian Cooke, the freshman from New Milford. After a walk, Kody Huff doubled in a run to make it 3-2. Cooke threw 32 pitches in the first and was replaced by Garrett Coe in the second, starting a parade of relievers.
Dowd and Coe settled the game down, but Stanford took the lead in the fourth with help of a muffed pick-off attempt that put two in scoring position. Crompton singled to drive in two, before Enzo Stefanoni relieved. The inning was extended when Bryan Padilla, about to throw to first for the third out, slipped. Then Stefanoni walked a batter and served up a grand slam to Huff and Uconn was down, 8-3.
Tommy Troy homered in the fifth to make it 9-4. Zach Bushling homered for Uconn in the sixth. Stanford tacked on a run in the seventh on a sac fly. Troy had four hits, Huff five RBIS.
Esquer used Drew Dowd, Ryan Bruno and Quinn Mathews for three innings each. Mathews also closed out Sunday’s game, pitching three innings.