247Sports predicts Stanford will be eliminated in semis of the College World Series

By no means has Stanford's journey to the College World Series been pretty, but all that matters is that the Cardinal made it to the dance.

Stanford has been suffering from arguably their worst stretch of appearances from their starting pitchers that they have seen all season. The average outing per starter is less than three innings, which is putting a ton of pressure on what has been viewed as a shaky bullpen and the team's offense.

On the bright side, Stanford's offense is second to none as they have been lighting up the scoreboard over the past few games.

Even with the offensive success, Robbie Weinstein from 247Sports is not convinced that Stanford can continue to win with inferior pitching and having to rely on scoring 10 runs a game.

Here is why he believes that Stanford will lose to Arkansas in their opening matchup of the College World Series:

"Despite entering the CWS as the highest-ranked team remaining, Stanford has not played its best baseball lately. The Cardinal eked past Texas State in a home regional, then had to rally against UConn in Supers after the Huskies won the opener. Something has been just a tick off with Stanford during the postseason."

He continued with expressing how Arkansas is built for Omaha saying:

"Arkansas, on the other hand, boasts a great roster with experience and an elite head coach in Dave Van Horn. Last year's loss in Super Regionals as well as a team-wise slump in the regular season have the Razorbacks highly motivated and playing with an edge. Connor Noland dominated North Carolina in his start last weekend, and he should put on a similar performance here."

Weinstein has not been high on the Cardinal this postseason, as he also projected them to lose the Super Regional to UConn.

However, he did go on to predict that after losing their first game against Arkansas that the Cardinal will go on to beat and eliminate both Auburn and Ole Miss, setting them up for a rematch against Arkansas for a spot in the championship. Here is how Weinstein believes that will go:

"Neither team will be likely to have their top starters available, as Noland or Williams would have a Saturday-Wednesday turnaround. So that further enhances Arkansas' advantage of having more time off in between games to rest its bullpen."

"Considering that factor as well as Arkansas' recent form, the Hogs feel like the pick here. Stanford has a high-quality bullpen with guys who are stretched out for long relief, but this is not the deepest group of relievers in terms of numbers. That could be a big issue in this spot."

Somehow, even as the highest ranked seed in Omaha, Stanford has found themselves in an underdog role.

Add us as a preferred source on Google