NCAA Men's College World Series - Game 9 Notes (#1 Miami vs. Stanford)
June 19, 2008
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Stanford will advance to face Georgia in the Bracket 1 Championship Friday afternoon at 1 p.m., and will need two wins over the Bulldogs to advance to the MCWS Championship Series. Stanford will be the home team on Friday.
Tonight’s game was the seventh come-from-behind win in the 2008 MCWS and sixth straight dating back to Sunday night’s win by North Carolina.
The team that has scored first is now 3-6 in the MCWS and has lost five of the last six games
Eight of the nine games in the 2008 MCWS have lasted longer than three hours with the only other game – between LSU and North Carolina – taking 2 hours and 59 minutes.
Of the nine games so far in the 2008 MCWS, seven have been won by relievers following Erik Davis’ win for the Cardinal on Wednesday.
Stanford is making its 16th MCWS appearance and has a 40-28 all-time record and are assured of its 11th top-3 finish at the event and first since 2003 – the last of four consecutive MCWS appearances.
Stanford is now 8-1 in its last nine contests following its opening-round loss to UC Davis in the NCAA Palo Alto Regional. The Cardinal have scored at least eight runs in six of its last nine NCAA Tournament games.
Stanford improves to 3-2 all-time against Miami in the NCAA Tournament
Cord Phelps went 3-for-5 with two RBIs and fell a homer shy of the cycle, as his three hits were one of his career high. He now has 30 multi-hit games on the season, trailing only Jason Castro’s team-best 32. There has been only one cycle in MCWS history and that was by Jerry Kindall of Minnesota against Mississippi on June 11, 1956.
Sean Ratliff belted his team-best 22nd homer of the season against Miami, which is the most homers by a Cardinal hitter since Edmund Muth belted 22 homers in 2000
Stanford was 5-for-9 with runners in scoring position between the third and sixth innings, as the Cardinal scored all eight runs in those frames.
Erik Davis pitched in relief for just the second time of the season, with both appearances coming in the MCWS. He collected his first win since April 26 with 4.0 innings of relief, allowing two runs and scattering seven hits.
The Cardinal improve to 5-1 in elimination games this season, as they also won four games at the Palo Alto Regional after dropping their NCAA Tournament opener to UC Davis
The top three hitters in the Cardinal lineup went a combined 7-for-15 with four RBIs and two runs scored.
Stanford has committed only one error in its three games (.990 fielding pct.) and has turned a series-best four double plays.
Miami ends its season with a 53-11 record, as the 53 wins matches the Hurricanes’ most wins under Jim Morris.
With the loss, Miami falls to 47-38 all-time in 23 appearances at the MCWS
The loss by Miami tonight marks the ninth straight year that the No. 1 National Seed failed to win a national title. The Hurricanes in 1999 are the only No. 1 National Seed to win a national title since the tournament was expanded to 64 teams. The six No. 1 National Seeds to reach the MCWS are a combined 12-12 since 1999, including just 8-12 since 2000.
The last three No. 1 seeds to reach the MCWS (Tulane in 2005; Clemson in 2006 and Miami in 2008) have all failed to reach the bracket championship games, going 1-2 in the process
Miami’s three runs is the fourth time in the last six games the Hurricanes have been held to less than five runs.
The five-run loss to Stanford is the Hurricanes’ largest margin of defeat this season.
Yonder Alonso struck out three times for the third time in his career and first time since March 4, 2007, vs. Fordham.
Miami hit just .156 (5-for-32) with runners in scoring position during the Men’s College College World Series and hit just .245 with runners on base (.320 with the bases empty).
The Hurricanes, who entered the MCWS with a .322 batting average, hit just .276 in three games in Omaha – the lowest of the eight tournament teams.
Kyle Bellamy saw his streak of 14 straight appearances end on Wednesday, as he finished the year with a national-best 43 appearances.
With Yasmani Grandal’s homer, Miami finished with 106 homers, its best total since belting a school-record 139 homers in 1998.
Miami had two errors tonight, marking only the 17th time this season that the Hurricanes had two errors in a game.
Miami fell to 8-11 when being out-hit this season, and finished 45-0 when having as many hits or more than their opponents.
