Stanford knocks top seed Miami out of World Series
The Cardinal face Georgia next
Thursday, June 19, 2008 12:36 PM PDT
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| Ted Kirk | Associated Press
Stanford’s Sean Ratliff (right) celebrates with Brent Milleville (25) after Ratliff hit a two-run home run against Miami in the fifth inning of an NCAA College World Series baseball game in Omaha, Neb., Wednesday. Milleville scored on the play. |
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — With a potent lineup and deep pitching staff, Miami was largely considered the most complete team in college baseball.
None of that matters now.
The top-seeded Hurricanes are heading home without a national championship after Stanford eliminated them from the College World Series with an 8-3 victory Wednesday night.
‘‘It’s a shock to everybody,’’ Cardinal coach Mark Marquess said. ‘‘It’s not a shock to the coaches.’’
Many coaches have said all week that it isn’t necessarily the best team that wins it all in Omaha. The Hurricanes were 18-5 in the regular season against teams that made the NCAA tournament. At the CWS, they went 1-2.
It’s all about who gets hot, coaches say, and the Hurricanes were not.
‘‘They outplayed us tonight,’’ Miami coach Jim Morris said of Stanford. ‘‘They outplayed us, I guess, in every phase of the game: in pitching, defense and hitting.’’
North Carolina and Rice made it to the CWS for the third straight year, and familiar names from past years such as LSU, Florida State and Georgia joined Miami and Stanford here, too.
But surprising Fresno State has crashed the party and is one win from playing in the championship series.
‘‘They weren’t even ranked,’’ Marquess said. ‘‘They’re here.’’
Marquess promises there will be more teams like Fresno State in the future.
‘‘And that’s parity. It’s out there and it’s not going to change,’’ he said. ‘‘It’s not going to go away. That’s healthy for our game, that’s healthy for Omaha, but it’s not healthy for coaches who coach a program where the expectation level of their fans is that they’re going to get here every year. It’s not going to happen.’’
Miami (53-11), ranked No. 1 for most of the season, failed to join the 1999 squad as the only No. 1 national seed to win the College World Series. The Hurricanes have been eliminated in three games in each of their four CWS appearances since 2003.
‘‘I don’t think there is big advantage to be the first seed or eighth seed,’’ Morris said. ‘‘The bottom line is that every team has played well to get here.’’
LSU (49-18-1) meets North Carolina (52-13) in an elimination game Thursday in Bracket 2. The winner meets Fresno State (44-29), needing two wins to keep the Bulldogs out of next week’s best-of-three finals.
The pitching tandem of Danny Sandbrink and Erik Davis and a Stanford offense that produced timely hits were too much Wednesday night for a Miami club that played nowhere near midseason form late in the year.
The Cardinal (41-23-2) now must beat Georgia (43-23-1) twice to win Bracket 1 and reach the finals for the first time since 2003.
