Stanford's season ends after falling to Auburn in Omaha

The Cardinal were unable to overcome the late inning push by Auburn to keep championship hopes alive

All season long, the Stanford Cardinal had redemption from last year's College World Series loss on their mind, but they were unable to avenge the devastating loss to Vanderbilt. 

After securing the No. 2 overall seed heading into the postseason, there was once a time where the country thought that the Cardinal would be able to make a deep push into Omaha. However, pitching staff issues hindered the Cardinal all offseason as regular season ace Alex Williams faltered in every postseason appearance, with the team went 0-3 in his starts. The rest of the starters were just as bad as it seemed that they all would fizzle out in the third inning if not sooner.

Despite the pitching woes, it was the offense that lifted the Cardinal to Omaha as they were putting up over 10 runs a game through the Regional and Super Regional rounds. However, the bats that we saw hit eight home runs in a game against UConn, hit back to back home runs to come back against Texas State to win, and that had pitchers all over the country fearful while facing  anyone in the order sadly fizzled out in Omaha. 

After being boat raced by Arkansas, the Cardinal were matched up with Auburn who Stanford had an all-time record of 4-0 against in Omaha. 

The game started off really strong for the Cardinal, scoring a run in the first two innings to go up 2-0, and for what seemed like the first time all postseason a Stanford starting pitcher was doing well. Drew Dowd threw four scoreless innings, and was pulled in the fifth after letting a couple Tigers on. Quinn Mathews, who has been the Stanford savior out of the bullpen came in and got the Cardinal out of the jam and the thoughts of Stanford advancing began to rise.

While Mathews has done well all postseason, he just didn't have his best stuff today. The Tigers were able to break open the game scoring six runs combined in the sixth and seventh innings, which quickly took the wind out of Stanford's sails. He gave up a postseason high six hits and six earned runs through three innings of action.

The Cardinal did show signs of fight, loading the bases with Brett Barrera at the plate, but Auburn closer Blake Burkhalter came in to strike him out. A scene that the Cardinal lineup became familiar with very quickly, as Burkhalter struck out five Cardinal and gave up just one hit in his 2.1 innings of relief helping the Tigers secure their 6-2 win. 

Stanford simply wasn't able to get timely hits during this game, and the middle of the order that were the hero's of the Regional and Super Regional rounds Brayden Montgomery, Kody Huff, and Drew Bowser were held hitless going a combined 0-for-11. 

It also seemed that Stanford head coach David Esquer left Mathews on the mound too long, but with a bullpen as thin as their's he wasn't left with many options.

The biggest Achilles hill of this Stanford team during their two games in Omaha was closing out innings. Similar to when Arkansas found their success, Auburn did a majority of their damage with two outs. Auburn scored four of their six runs with two outs, and Arkansas scored seven of their 17 with two outs, combining for 11 runs given up with two outs. 

This marks the second straight year the Cardinal have fallen short of their ultimate goal in Omaha, and will look to have more success next season. They will likely have to do it without three key players in Brock Jones, Kody Huff, and Quinn Mathews all of which are eligible for the MLB Draft. 

While it wasn't the fairytale ending the Cardinal had hoped for, they still accomplished a ton this season being the Pac-12 regular season champs, Pac-12 Tournament champs, and of course a trip to Omaha.