Stanford is the highest-seeded team at the College World Series, but the second-seeded Cardinal are not the favorite in Omaha, Neb.
That distinction goes to 9 seed Texas, which rallied from a 1-0 series deficit to eliminate 8 seed East Carolina in a super regional last weekend at Greenville, N.C.
In odds released Tuesday by BetOnLine.ag, the Cardinal (47-16) is the third favorite in the eight-team field with a +500 money line, or 5-to-1 odds, to take the title. They are behind the Longhorns (4 to 1) and the University of Arkansas (9 to 2), which is the Cardinal’s opponent in Saturday’s 1 p.m. game at Charles Schwab Stadium.
Stanford did not have an easy path to Omaha as the Cardinal went 5-0 in elimination games after losing in the winner’s bracket of their home regional at Sunken Diamond in Palo Alto, Calif., and falling in their super regional opener to UConn last weekend.
Coach David Esquer, who helped guide Stanford to the 1987 College World Series (CWS) title as the starting shortstop, will be leading the Cardinal to their 18th appearance at the CWS and their second in a row during four seasons under his leadership. He also led Cal to an appearance at Omaha in 2011.
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“I’ve been emotional with happiness or emotional with sadness,” Esquer said after the Cardinal downed UConn 10-5 in the deciding game of the super regional Monday. “I was so emotional with pride for this team, what they did and what they’ve been through.”
Stanford, the Pac-12 regular-season and tournament champion, beat the Razorbacks 5-0 on the second weekend of the season in cold, wet conditions at the Round Rock (Texas) Classic. However, the Cardinal have undergone significant change, particularly on their pitching staff, since that game.
Left-hander Quinn Mathews, who held the Razorbacks (43-19) to singles by Zack Gregory and Michael Turner and four walks in six shutout innings on Feb. 27, has been Stanford’s closer for several weeks. Mathews has a 9-1 record, 2.62 ERA and 9 saves after working the final three innings in the clincher over UConn.
Arkansas is likely to see Pac-12 pitcher of the year Alex Williams (8-3, 2.88) in the opener. The 6-3, 220-pound right-hander has allowed 79 hits and 23 walks with 90 strikeouts in 97 innings, leading to a 1.05 WHIP that ranks 31st in the country. The Cardinal are 8-1 in his starts since March 25 and 11-4 overall.
The Cardinal’s calling card has been the long ball. They have hit a school-record 117 home runs to rank ninth in the country in that department.
Trailing Texas State 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth of the Palo Alto Regional final, Drew Bowser and Tommy Troy hit solo home runs to tie the game, and pinch hitter Trevor Haskins singled in Eddie Park with the walk-off run against the Bobcats.
Stanford has exhibited power up and down its order, with seven regulars hitting .306 or better, two more starters at .297, seven hitters with at least 11 home runs and six with 50-plus RBI.
The home run barrage is led by Carter Graham (.333, 22 HRs, 78 RBI) and Brock Jones (.327, 20, 56), and it includes Braden Montgomery (.297, 18, 57), Bowser (.297, 18, 50), Kody Huff (.325, 13, 51) and Brett Barrera (.355, 11, 52), the team’s leading hitter.
Troy had three of the Cardinal’s 13 hits in the win over Arkansas, while Huff, Barrera and Bowser had two each, including a home run by Barrera, his first of the season.
By contrast, the Razorbacks have two players hitting .300 or better in transfers Chris Lanzilli (.322) and Turner (.311), four players with double figure home runs — Cayden Wallace (.299, 15 HRs), Braydon Webb (.282, 15), Brady Slavens (.259, 15) and Jalen Battles (.293, 10) — among their team total of 100, and just two players with 50-plus RBI in Wallace (57) and Slavens (55).
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UConn Coach Jim Penders marveled over the depth of hitting and power in the Stanford lineup, which produced three six-run innings against his Huskies.
“I don’t think we’ve seen an offense like that,” Penders said. “I can compare it to maybe some Louisville offenses years ago. But to be honest with you, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen an offense as productive as theirs is.”
Esquer, also speaking at last weekend’s super regional, said his club was “as good as any offense I’ve ever had.”
The Cardinal entered the postseason on a 16-game winning streak that included regular-season sweeps of Cal, Utah and Southern California, plus a four-game title run at the league tournament in Scottsdale, Ariz. That included wins over Arizona State, Arizona, the Wildcats again, and a 9-5 victory over No. 4 Oregon State in the championship game.
Their 17-game winning streak was snapped in a 5-2 loss to Texas State. Afterward, the Cardinal started their five-game run of wins in elimination games.
Stanford’s starting pitchers have struggled in the postseason.
Williams was tagged with the loss after allowing 7 hits and 6 earned runs in 1 1/3 innings of a 13-12 loss in the super regional opener. Ty Uber (4-1, 4.99 ERA) gave up two hits, a walk and a run while getting two outs in the second game. But that was two outs more than Joey Dixon (6-3, 3.96) posted while giving up three runs on three hits in the top of the first inning on Monday.
Drew Dowd (6-0, 4.79), Ryan Bruno (6-1, 2.61) and Mathews combined to limit the Huskies to 2 earned runs on 8 hits and 5 walks while working 3 innings each to close out the clincher.