Cardinal done in heartbreaking fashion
VANDERBILT 6, STANFORD 5
OMAHA, Neb. — Stanford led nearly the entire game against Vanderbilt and was one strike away from surviving in the College World Series.
That elusive strike turned into a tworun rally in the bottom of the ninth that let the Commodores live for another day.
Spencer Jones scored from third on Brendan Beck’s wild pitch with two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning, allowing Vanderbilt to stay alive in the College World Series with a 65 victory Wednesday night.
The reigning national champions were down to their last strike before the shocking finish against the Pac12 pitcher of the year, who had been dominant since beginning his rare relief appearance in the seventh.
“One of those classic World Series games,” Stanford coach David Esquer said.
Brought on to protect a 54 lead in a rare relief appearance, Beck (93) had struck out his first five batters and ended Vanderbilt’s eighth inning with a groundout. He then retired the first two batters in the ninth before Javier Vaz walked on a 32 pitch.
Jones hit a pinch infield single, and Vaz ended up on third on shortstop Adam Crampton’s offtarget throw to first. Enrique Bradfield Jr. then singled to right to bring home Vaz to tie it 55 and send Jones to third.
On a 10 count to Carter Young, Beck threw a curveball that slipped out of his hand, sailed high and glanced off catcher Kody Huff ’s glove. Huff gave chase, but Jones was able to score easily as the Vanderbilt dugout emptied for a celebration at home plate.
“We’ve done some crazy things this year, down in the last inning, two outs,” Bradfield said. “Nobody’s on to start the inning. We get to two outs, we get a baserunner, another base hit follows. So we knew it was always possible.”
Bradfield said when he saw the way the ball came out of Beck’s hand, it was game over.
“I know curveballs like that for a catcher, any catcher — doesn’t matter elite or whatever level — are hard to catch,” he said.
Stanford left the bases loaded in the fourth and eighth innings and stranded a total of 11 runners.
“You get in those late innings and you have a magical ending for one team or the other,” Esquer said. “No regrets on our side.”
The Commodores (4716) were uncharacteristically sloppy against Stanford (3917) until the middle innings and pulled within 54 after being down 40.
They will play North Carolina State in the Bracket 1 final. They would have to beat the Wolfpack on Friday and again Saturday to reach the bestofthree championship series a second straight time.
Vandy won the national title in 2019. There was no CWS last year because of the pandemic.
Three of Stanford’s first four runs were unearned, with Vanderbilt committing three errors for the second time in three CWS games after having three errors in only two of their previous 60.
Errors by third baseman Jayson Gonzalez and second baseman Parker Noland led to Stanford’s first run. After Brock Jones’ homer in the third, the Cardinal went up 40 in the fourth after Young’s error at short loaded the bases and reliever Nick Maldonado walked in a run before Tim Tawa’s RBI infield single.
Dominic Keegan launched a 400plusfeet homer to left to cut Stanford’s lead to 42 in the fourth, and RBI singles by pinchhitter Tate Kolwyck and Noland got Vandy within a run in the sixth.