Sterling season ends abruptly on big stage
In 17 College World Series appearances before this one, Stanford had not gone 2-andout.
This season, though, the Cardinal will leave Omaha, Neb., without a win. Auburn eliminated Stanford with a 6-2 decision Monday afternoon.
Two days earlier, Stanford got waxed 17-2 by Arkansas. The Cardinal (47-18) had not lost consecutive games since getting swept in a three-game series at Arizona, March 19-21.
“It hurts here at the end,” Stanford head coach David Esquer said in a postgame Zoom news conference. “I think you see your team hurting when the game’s over because the season’s over and they don’t get another chance to play with each other.
“And that kind of makes you proud that you had that type of locker room and you had that type of camaraderie.”
Stanford, the No. 2 national seed, won the Pac-12 regularseason and tournament titles, put together a 17-game winning streak from May 3 to June 3 and won five elimination games in the regional and super regional at Sunken Diamond. That earned the Cardinal a trip to Omaha for the second straight season.
“To be part of a team like this and the team last year as well, it’s something I’m going to tell my kids about and it’s something that we’re all going to be able to share for the rest of our lives,” said lefty Drew Dowd, who started Monday and pitched four-plus scoreless innings. “And I’m going to be friends with these guys until the day I die.”
Fellow lefty Quinn Mathews replaced Dowd with two on and no outs in the top of the fifth and Stanford up 2-0.
“Going to Quinn, I think I speak for the whole team, there’s no one else we’d rather have on the mound,” Esquer said.
Mathews had been a key to the Cardinal’s surge since early May. That’s when he became a full-time reliever after splitting time as a starter and reliever. He came into Monday with a 9-1 record, 2.62 ERA and nine saves.
He escaped the fifth inning unscathed, but the Tigers (43-21) responded in the sixth. With one out, Mathews walked home a run. The lefty struck out Brooks Carlson for the second out, but Cole Foster then cleared the bases with a double to the wall in leftcenter. Just like that, Auburn led 4-2 and was ahead to stay.
Down 6-2, the Cardinal loaded the bases with two outs in the seventh. Auburn then brought in closer Blake Burkhalter. He struck out Brett Barrera swinging at a 3-2 cutter. Burkhalter entered Monday with 66 strikeouts and seven walks in 44 innings this season.
Burkhalter got the final seven outs — five by strikeout — to earn his 16th save. Stanford struck out 16 times. The only man in its lineup to not register at least one K was No. 9 hitter Adam Crampton, who went 3-for-3 with an RBI double.
Auburn, the No. 14 national seed, will play another elimination game Tuesday against Arkansas, which lost 13-5 to Mississippi on Monday.
A junior shortstop from Oakland Tech, Crampton reflected on the fact that the Cardinal didn’t look anything like a CWS team after getting swept in that March series in Tucson.
“We started Pac-12 1-5 and turned it all the way around and came here. I don’t think anybody thought we were capable of doing that . ...
“We should be proud of this accomplishment and we made it back-to-back years” to Omaha. “And so I’m happy and proud of everybody else. And I think we’re leaving in good hands. I think we’ll be back here.”
Said Esquer: “When time passes, no one is going to remember what the score was of any of our games or what our record here at Omaha was. I think what I will remember is I had a chance to go to the College World Series with a team I love and spend about a week trying to play for the national championship . ...
“There’s no shame in our showing here at Omaha. And I love these guys. That’s the part that I’ll remember.”
Briefly: Former A’s and Giants pitcher Tim Hudson is a volunteer assistant coach with Auburn, his alma mater. Hudson was the 1997 SEC Player of the Year as a two-way player. He went 15-2 with a 2.97 ERA and hit .396 with 18 homers and 95 RBIs. … Stanford had won all four of its previous meetings with the Tigers, prevailing twice in the 1967 CWS and twice in the 1997 CWS.