Stanford rallies, will host UConn

Three outs from having its season ended Monday night, Stanford now sits two wins from reaching the College World Series.

The Cardinal put together a stirring rally in the ninth inning to stun Texas State 4-3 on Monday, thus advancing to a best-of-three super regional against Connecticut that begins Saturday evening at Sunken Diamond.

Stanford, the No. 2 national seed, had lost 5-2 to the Bobcats on Saturday night, forcing the Cardinal to win three elimination games to take the regional.

After 8-4 victories over UCSB and Texas State on Sunday, Stanford met Texas State again Monday evening. Each team squandered multiple chances through the first eight innings. It was 1-1 heading to the ninth.

With two outs and the bases loaded, Texas State’s Wesley Faison stung a two-run single to center off freshman Braden Montgomery, the fifth of six Stanford pitchers. Montgomery spent the first seven innings as a right fielder before making his first pitching appearance since May 17.

The Cardinal quickly responded in the bottom of the ninth. Drew Bowser drilled his 15th homer of the season over the left-field wall, and Tommy Troy followed with his fifth of the season (and third of the regional), a drive to center that tied the game.

Eddie Park then singled to left; the sophomore outfielder went 4-for-4 Monday night and was 10-for-11 (not a misprint) over the final three games.

After Adam Crampton’s sacrifice bunt moved Park to second, an intentional walk to Brock Jones and a wild pitch set up freshman Trevor Haskins, who had all of 12 at-bats this season before that moment.

And that moment ranks among the most significant in Stanford baseball history.

Haskins ripped a 3-2 pitch from Levi Wells into left field, and sending home Park with the game- and regional-winning run. It also sent all of the Cardinal players onto to the field to celebrate an improbable, thrilling victory.

Stanford (45-15) has won 20 its past 21 games. Monday night’s victory will be remembered for quite some time.

Briefly: UConn (49-14) won the College Park Regional, beating host Maryland 11-8 on Monday in the championship game. The Huskies won the Big East regularseason and tournament titles . ... A leg injury limited Stanford’s Carter Graham, a first baseman who leads the Pac-12 in homers with 22, to DH duty the final two games.