College baseball Super Regional: Stanford’s stunning collapse lets Texas steal game one
College baseball Super Regional: Stanford allows five runs in the ninth inning to blow game one against Texas
STANFORD – All Stanford needed was three more outs to win game one of the college baseball Super Regional against Texas.
Instead, it got a jaw-dropping collapse in the top of Saturday’s ninth inning, which started with a three-run Stanford lead.
First came two walks and a hit-by-pitch as closer Ryan Bruno loaded the bases. He was then yanked by coach David Esquer in favor of freshman Matt Scott.
When the righthander got light-hitting nine-hole hitter Mitchell Daly to fly out to right, he got no help from his team.
Right fielder Saborn Campbell muffed the running catch when center fielder Eddie Park flashed in front of him, committing the most notable of Stanford’s three errors and allowing two runs to score.
A groundout drove in another, and after a couple walks loaded the bases again, Texas left fielder Porter Brown completed the comeback.
He laced the ball into right field, dropping the pitch right in front of Campbell and driving in two more Texas runs.
“Coach says it only takes one,” Brown said. “I walked up to the plate thinking that I was going to put it all on the line for my team and come through.”
Longhorn reliever Zane Morehouse made quick work of the middle of the Cardinal order to close out the 7-5 victory.
Stanford will face elimination when the teams play on Sunday.
“Ryan has done a great job for us all year, so we’re willing to go down with our guys,” Esquer said. “If they beat our guys, that’s all we can ask of them. They played a good ballgame and hung in there till the end, and came up with the big hit when it counted.”
Stanford started almost as quickly as it imploded down the stretch, getting on the board in the first inning.
Malcolm Moore, the freshman from Sacramento, had hit a home run in his last two games, victories over Texas A&M that extended the Cardinal season.
But with the bases loaded in the bottom of the first, Moore didn’t even have to swing to drive in a run, drawing a walk on four straight balls.
“I’m confident in my teammates, and at the end of the day, I’m just trying to get the next guy up,” Moore said.
Following two more quick innings by starting pitcher Joey Dixon, the lefthander Moore did more damage against the Longhorns in the bottom of the third.
Braden Montgomery got on second with a standup double, and then Moore drove the Mississippi native in with an opposite-field double to give the Cardinal a 2-0 lead.
Texas equalized in the fifth inning, when Eric Kennedy belted a two-run homer over the right field wall. Dixon ended his day with 4 2/3rds innings pitched, six strikeouts, four hits allowed and no walks.
Bowser’s seventh home run, a solo shot in the sixth inning, put another Drew, relief pitcher and Serra alum Drew Dowd, in position to earn his team-leading 10th victory.
Moore’s two-run homer, his third in as many games, with two outs in the seventh inning padded the lead and gave the pitching staff wiggle room.
It turned out Stanford needed a mansion as the Longhorns stormed back and stole game one from the Cardinal.
Stanford (42-18) will play host to Texas (42-20) again tomorrow at a yet-to-be-determined time. If the Cardinal stave off elimination, the teams will play a winner-take-all game three on Monday.
This isn’t new territory for Stanford, which lost the first game to UConn in last year’s Super Regional.
The Cardinal won the final two matchups to advance to the CWS, something Esquer’s team will try to do again when senior lefthander Quinn Matthews takes the mound.
“If we make it out of here, we’ll certainly have earned it,” Esquer said.