College World Series: Stanford’s upset bid vs. top-seeded Wake Forest falls just short

OMAHA, Neb. — Sanford was five outs away from stunning No. 1 national seed Wake Forest when the Demon Deacons’ powerful offense come to life just enough to hand the Cardinal a 3-2 loss in their opening game at the College World Series on Saturday.

Stanford (44-19) led 2-1 before Danny Corona hit a go-ahead two-run single with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning in the Demon Deacons’ first CWS appearance in 68 years.

Stanford will play In an elimination game Monday when it faces the loser of Saturday night’s game between LSU and Tennessee. The Deacons (53-10) will play the winner of that game on Monday.

“I think that if we can fight together and scratch a couple of elimination wins and hang here long enough,” Stanford junior first baseman Carter Graham said, “I think we can get our rhythm and get hot and really surprise a lot of people.”

Stanford grounded into a double play to end the game, prompting Wake Forest closer Camden Minacci to pump both of his fists and dance in front of the mound while infielders did jumping chest bumps.

Stanford stranded five runners in scoring position against Wake Forest ace Rhett Lowder. The Cardinal lost other chances to add to their lead when reliever Sean Sullivan picked off Temo Becerra and Tommy Troy at first in the sixth and seventh innings.

Stanford used two hits and a walk to load the bases in the first inning, and Lowder was on the verge of getting out of the jam when he hit Malcolm Moore with a 2-2 pitch to force in a run.

After Wake Forest’s Wilken hit his 31st homer of the season on his 21st birthday, tying him with Florida’s Jac Caglianone for the national lead. Graham singled in a run in the third to put Stanford up 2-1, but that’s all the offense Stanford could muster.

“We had plenty of opportunities throughout the day with runners in scoring position,” Stanford coach David Esquer said. “Could have got that same hit and widened the gap or extended the lead.”

The game was delayed for 1 hour and 28 minutes in the seventh inning because of storms in the area.

The Deacons were able to use the delay as an opportunity to reset. Esquer went to a concourse concession stand to buy a hotdog, and the players kept things loose in the clubhouse.

The No. 1 national seed Deacons were held to three hits and one run before the weather delay. When play resumed, the Deacons were able to squeeze out enough production to win their first game in Omaha since they won the national championship here in 1955.

“We obviously don’t want to point the finger at any delay or any single play,” Graham said. “We tried to keep our rhythm and momentum. We were playing hacky sack in the locker room, trying to stay together and have a good time because that’s what we’re here to do.”

For four innings, Stanford starter Joey Dixon held down an offense that outscored its first five NCAA Tournament opponents 75-16 — the biggest run differential ever for a team heading into a CWS — and averaged 9.4 runs per game for the season.

Dixon, who gave up a homer to Brock Wilken and two singles, got out of a bases-loaded situation before he turned the game over to Drew Dowd at the start of the fifth. Dowd retired all six batters he faced, but he didn’t come back out after the delay.

Seth Keener (8-1), the third of four Wake Forest pitchers, struck out four of the five batters he faced and earned the win.

Nick Dugan got out of a mini jam in the seventh, but he walked Nick Kurtz to start the eighth. Left-hander Ryan Bruno (2-2) came on and walked Wilken. Both moved up on Justin Johnson’s sacrifice before Corona ripped a grounder up the middle to score both and give him 19 RBIs, most in the tournament.

“I told our team at the end, if we break it down to the smallest level, they got two guys on, they got a bunt down and a base hit,” Esquer said. “They executed in order to win that ball game. You’ve got to give them credit for doing that.”

Wake Forest improved to 18-0 when Lowder starts. Lowder struggled with his command, but still had six strikeouts against one walk and limited Stanford to two runs before he left with one out in the sixth.