Stanford survives against UConn in game two

After falling behind the literal eight ball yesterday thanks to poor pitching and horrendous base running, for the first time in both the Regional and Super Regional the Cardinal were the team that scored first.

However, similarly to practically every outing we have seen from a Stanford starting pitcher this postseason, Ty Uber was unable to provide any sense of consistency on the mound. Uber was only able to manufacture two outs in the first inning before coach David Esquer had seen enough and pulled him.

It turned out to be the right move, as the the Cardinal bullpen just gave up one run the rest of the way containing a UConn offense that had double digit extra base hits in game one.

All of the game's runs came in the first two innings, as the bats that were electric yesterday for the Cardinal in their last inning push stayed hot. Brock Jones was robbed of a three-run shot that turned into a sacrifice fly, Braden Montgomery smacked a three-run homer, and Drew Bowser added a solo shot off the reliever to extend the lead to 8-1.

With pretty much all of the damage coming off of UConn's best pitcher Austin Peterson except for the Bowser solo shot, Peterson was pulled and ejected after just 1.1 innings the Huskies also had to turn to the bullpen very early. The ejection appeared to come as a result of frustration of some of the calls earlier in the inning.

The combined efforts of Stanford's Bandt Pancer (winning pitcher), Ryan Bruno, and Quinn Mathews (credited with 3.0 inning save) were enough to hold the Huskies scoreless for the rest of the game giving Stanford the 8-2 win.

The Cardinal and Huskies will square off tomorrow at unknown time yet, as they are awaiting the result of the Oregon State-Auburn game occurring as I write this. The believed times are potentially 1 p.m., 4 p.m., or 4:30 p.m. (PST).

The winner of this game three punches their ticket to Omaha, and the loser's season is over.