June 21, 2008
Saturday, June 21: Omaha, NE -- Rosenblatt Stadium-- Post-Game
For a team that was picked seventh in the Pac-10, pre-season, finishing third or fourth nationally isn't a bad way to end your season. While the sting of today's 10-8 loss to Georgia is going to be tough for all associated with the program, the accomplishments of this year's Stanford baseball team should not go unnoticed. The team returned to the College World Series for the first time since 2003 and fell just four victories short of a national championship. This was after a 2007 season where they rode a late season winning streak to finish 28-28 after spending most of the year under .500.
It was a season with many adjustments, as the schedule was condensed by three weeks while the number of games was unchanged. The Cardinal often had four or fives games a week, a stark contrast to the three per week schedule that it was used to in previous seasons. It was the 20th 40-win season in the program's history and the team finished with an overall mark of 41-24-2.
Today the Bulldogs were able to jump on starter Jeremy Bleich for six earned runs in just 3.1 innings pitched. The six runs were more than Bleich had given up all season, in 44 previous innings of work. The game came down to the Bulldogs getting the bounces and the Cardinal just unable to catch a break throughout the contest.
Randy Molina sent a ball up the middle in the second inning that Georgia's Miles Starr was able to lay out and knock down to prevent a run. Joey August sliced a ball to left that would have cut the Georgia lead down to one until outfielder Lyle Allen made a great play that prevented the two runs. Georgia third baseman Ryan Peisel hit a three-run home run that snuck over the fence and landed in the very front row.
"This game definitely had a lot of plays that could go either way," said The Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball Mark Marquess. "Georgia is playing very well now and they deserve to still be playing for the plays they made. They are a very good team."
This season can be typified by the inspiring ninth inning comeback against the "Stopper of the Year" in Joshua Fields. Colin Walsh and Ben Clowe came up with huge hits after being on the bench the whole afternoon and showed the fight in this group down to the very last out. There have been so many times where Stanford could have folded in the postseason, but continued to fight to make it as far as they did.
Brent Milleville's home run against UC Davis and Dan Sandbrink's inspiring complete game against Pepperdine come to mind as highlights of this postseason. Stanford beat a lot of good teams along the way in this run to and at Omaha and should feel proud for putting Cardinal baseball back on the national radar.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, June 21: Omaha, NE -- Rosenblatt Stadium-- Pre-Game
The two teams have taken the field for warm-ups and game time is about 20 minutes away. The lineups are out and as follows:
Georgia:
3B- Ryan Peisel -- .338
RF- Matt Olson -- .320
SS - Gordon Beckham -- .402
1B - Rich Pythress -- .365
C - Bryce Massanari -- .342
CF - Matt Cerione -- .309
DH - Joey Lewis -- .249
LF - Lyle Allen -- .284
2B - Miles Starr -- .200
SP - Nathan Moreau
Stanford:
2B- Cord Phelps -- .350
LF- Toby Gerhart -- .246
C - Jason Castro -- .380
1B- Brent Milleville -- .290
DH- Randy Molina -- .330
CF - Sean Ratliff -- .294
RF- Jeff Whitlow -- .273
3B- Zach Jones -- .254
SS - Jake Schlander -- .231
SP- Jeremy Bleich
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, June 20: Omaha, NE -- Creighton University --
Well it looks like the Omaha CWS experience is going to last for at least another day. The Cardinal was scheduled to play today against Georgia but yesterday's thunderstorm, which quickly dumped a foot of rain, halted the North Carolina-LSU game already in progress. The coaches of both teams were offered the option to resume their game at either 1:00 p.m. or 6:00 p.m. today, local time, and they chose 6:00 p.m. The problem with that decision was that another flurry of rain hit the Omaha skies on Friday and the game is currently in another rain delay.
While it looks like this storm is going to pass rather quickly, it has had a profound effect on all the teams involved. For Stanford it means that the team will now have to win five games in five days to capture its third national championship. The schedule had given the team two full days of rest, after Wednesday's win over Miami, which is the one plus. Georgia has now had four full days off and they should be more than ready to go, after not playing since Monday night.
The Bulldogs have switched their starting pitcher tomorrow from ace Trevor Holder to left-hander Nathan Moreau. The thinking behind this is unclear, and a change this late in the process is definitely a strange development for the Bulldogs. Holder would most likely start a second game on Sunday if the Cardinal was able to win Saturday's contest. Stanford is still sticking with Jeremy Bleich in Saturday's contest.
The fallout from the Miami loss here in Nebraska has been profound as the local Omaha media has paid a lot of attention to Stanford's wins over Florida State and Miami. With only four teams left in this tournament, whenever the LSU-North Carolina game finally finishes, the intensity of the coverage has escalated for all the remaining teams.
The team has been able to have two productive practice sessions at Creighton University. They also enjoyed a team dinner at Sullivan's steak house that was fancy and definitely excited the restaurant staff. The team surprised Jason Castro and Jeremy Bleich, who both were celebrating their birthdays.
The team is loose and their mindset never seems to change despite whatever obstacles are placed in front of them. The Miami win has now pushed the Stanford record to 5-0 in elimination games in the postseason and the most recent one was the most impressive to date.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, June 18: Omaha, NE -- Rosenblatt Stadium -- Post-Game
In a season full of surprises, none was larger than the performance that was put on by Stanford tonight. With the number one team in the country in the other dugout, the Cardinal took it to the Hurricanes after a brief 1-0 deficit and scored eight unanswered runs en route to an 8-3 victory.
Georgia now await in a situation where the Cardinal will have to defeat the Bulldogs twice in order to advance to the national championship series which begins on Monday. Georgia has been off since Monday and will have had three full days off when they take the field on Friday afternoon.
Freshman Dan Sandbrink was given the assignment to try to contain the Hurricane bats and he came through with four strong innings of one-run ball. Sandbrink also just gave up two hits and struck out seventh overall pick Yonder Alonso in both at-bats against the righty. Sandbrink pitched for the first time since his complete game against Pepperdine on June 1st and got the Cardinal out of another elimination match.
Erik Davis was the second hero of the night for the Cardinal when he came in for four strong innings of his own and only gave up two earned runs. Davis has had a couple shaky outings in a row, but shook it all off tonight and really attacked the Miami hitters, who were noticeable more aggressive when the lead started to grow.
"You need to attack the hitters when you get spotted a lead like that," said Davis in the post-game press conference. "You want to make them earn what they get and not let them get free passes on base."
One thing that stands out when looking at the Miami statistics is how little they strike out as a team. All of their batters put the ball in play and have a lot of speed on top of it. This makes Davis' six strikeouts on the evening even more impressive as it took Miami out of their running game, which is something they like to do to the opposition.
Another amazing sequence in the game was to watch Sean Ratliff's home run in the fifth inning. He said that Hurricane starter Enrique Garcia hung a splitter over the plate and he was able to get good wood on it. We would like to thank Ratliff for being humble, but that ball drew many reactions in the press box and it was said by more than one person that it was one of the longest in quite awhile at Rosenblatt Stadium. Ratliff crushed the offering over the right-center field seats and all the way to the front of the upper section in the bleachers. It was eerily reminiscent of his home run in the first game of the Fullerton series, where the ESPN cameras gave up on the ball as it disappeared into the vegetation behind the Fullerton center field wall. This time Miami centerfielder Ryan Tekotte took two steps towards the wall and immediately surrendered, as the ball sailed over the wall. It was a remarkable home run, but something that Ratliff has treated the Stanford fans to on more than a couple occasions now. The home run was Ratliff's fourth of the postseason.
It is noteworthy how much the Nebraska fans dislike University of Miami sports. It has been said that Nebraska football followers have had some unpleasant bowl game experiences at the hands of Miami fans and that has not been forgotten here at the College World Series. The fans here were very supportive of Stanford throughout the game and definitely gave the team a boost when they got in a couple tight spots on the field. When Stanford recorded the last out, the crowd burst into one of the loudest cheers of the tournament thus far. It is very evident that many Cornhusker followers will not lose much sleep over this Miami defeat.
Finally, notice must be made of junior Cord Phelps' performance this evening. He was a home run away from the cycle and provided a couple of very strong plays in the field after having a tough game Monday against Georgia. His triple was also an eight-pitch at bat that moved the Cardinal lead from 5-1 to 7-1.
The focus now shifts to the Georgia Bulldogs and a chance to see both teams trot out their top starter as Stanford will throw Jeremy Bleich and Georgia will throw Trevor Holder. Holder is 8-4 on the season with a 4.45 ERA and has made a team high 17 starts. The game will be televised on ESPN2 with its early west coast start time of 11:00 a.m.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Wednesday, June 18: Omaha, NE -- Rosenblatt Stadium -- Pre-Game
Tuesday provided the Cardinal with a practice opportunity at local Creighton University and a chance to regroup as they head into today's elimination game against Miami (53-10). The Hurricanes are the top-seed in the NCAA Tournament and have been at the top of the college baseball rankings for most of this season. Stanford will be the designated home team this afternoon since they have been the designated visiting team for the first two games of the College World Series.
The Hurricanes are going to send right-handed pitcher Enrique Garcia (7-2, 4.56 ERA) to the hill and Stanford will counter with right-hander Danny Sandbrink (2-1, 2.85 ERA). Sandbrink threw a complete game in the 13-1 victory over Pepperdine, which propelled the Cardinal to a second Regional championship game that they won 9-7. In the game, Sandbrink gave up six hits and only walked one.
Looking at Garcia, he has struggled with control this season as he has a team-high 34 walks this year in 81.0 innings pitched. His last start came against Arizona in the Coral Gables Super Regional where he went 6.0 innings pitched against Arizona and gave up just one earned run. Garcia has compiled a 1.52 WHIP (Walks + hits divided by innings pitched) this season, which shows that he is prone to being in the stretch a lot. While he has given up a lot of base runners, he has kept the ball in the ballpark, with only two home runs given up all season-long.
The key for the Cardinal is being able to shut down the high-powered Miami offense. They hit .321 as a team this season and slugged .543, led by first baseman Yonder Alonso, who hit .368 this season with 24 home runs.
Miami:
3B - Blake Tekotte -- .354
2B - Jemile Weeks -- .362
1B - Yonder Alonso -- .369
3B - Mark Sobolewski -- .316
SS - Ryan Jackson -- .363
LF - Adan Severino -- .323
RF - Dennis Raben -- .291
DH - Jason Hagerty -- .293
C - Yasmani Grandal - .231
P - Enrique Garcia
Stanford:
2B- Cord Phelps -- .345
LF- Joey August -- .322
C - Jason Castro -- .379
1B - Brent Milleville -- .289
DH- Randy Molina -- .337
CF- Sean Ratliff -- .293
RF - Toby Gerhart -- .246
3B - Zach Jones -- .257
SS - Jake Schlander -- .229
SP - Dan Sandbrink
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, June 16: Omaha, NE -- Rosenblatt Stadium -- Post-Game
The good news is that the College World Series is a double elimination tournament. Beyond that it is tough to come up with positives this time of year after a loss like this. The Cardinal once again went toe-to-toe with another highly-ranked opponent and fell just short.It was a well played game by two very good teams, but a game the Cardinal had a strong chance to win. The task does not get any easier Wednesday when Stanford will have to challenge top-seed Miami in an elimination game.
The day began with the selection of Jeffrey Inman as the starting pitcher, his first start since the 5-1 victory over Arkansas in the Regional round back on May 31st. Inman did not show any signs of rust in the game, though as he went 5.1 innings pitched and gave up just two earned runs. He was rescued in the sixth inning by Austin Yount though who inherited a bases loaded one out situation and minimized the damage to just one run. The sequence included a 13-pitch at bat with Bulldog left field Lyle Allen, who eventually struck out, to the delight of the Stanford rooting section.
Early on it looked like the Cardinal was in fine position in this game. Jason Castro hit his 14th home run of the season, which gave Stanford an early 3-0 lead. The bats seemed to go silent after that point and Stanford didn't find the scoreboard again after the blast.
A key point in the game though was in the fourth inning when Randy Molina led off the inning with a single and moved to second on a Sean Ratliff walk. Toby Gerhart tried to bunt the runners over but got under on a bunt attempt and fouled out to first. Zach Jones then grounded out and Jake Schlander popped out to follow, and Stanford got no runs out of the situation. At the time it didn't seem too important, but with a 3-0 lead the Cardinal had an opportunity to really put the Bulldogs in a hole, which they obviously weren't able to do.
After that point it felt like Stanford was on pins and needles the rest of the night. The Bulldogs had lengthy at bat after lengthy at bat and really put the Cardinal defense on their heels. With single tallies in the fourth and sixth innings, the lead had shrunk to 3-2 and the momentum was seemingly shifting to the Bulldog side of the field.
The real excitement came in the seventh inning however when a marathon bottom of the seventh inning proved to be the Cardinal undoing. It started in a very nondescript fashion with two quick outs, but All-American Gordon Beckham singled to give the Bulldogs some hope in the inning. A walk set the controversial stage as Bryce Massanari as he sent a shot down the right field line heading right towards the foul pole. The ball hit off the yellow padding on the top of the fence, but not quite high enough to hit the foul pole itself.
First base umpire Mitch Mele looked fairly confused on the call because the ball looked fair, but clearly hit the padding to the right of the yellow line that runs up the outfield wall. After looking at it closely, the replays showed that the line on the outfield wall does not line up with the foul pole, which shows why Mele had some confusion. The call was nearly impossible to make as both sides had legitimate arguments and there was no real rule to determine how the ball struck against the outfield wall. After Georgia head coach David Perno had a lengthy discussion with Mele, the ball was deemed foul and play finally continued.
The very next pitch that was thrown hit Massanari, who along with Yount had to sit around and wait for the varied discussions on the field to end. The big hit came from center fielder Matt Cerione, who lined a two-RBI single to give the Bulldogs their first lead of the game at 4-3.
Georgia then threw out Alex McRee and All-American closer Joshua Fields to finish off the 4-3 victory. The Cardinal was able to get Fields into a 1st and 2nd situation in the ninth inning, but could not get pinch runner Wande Olabisi around to score in the frame.
It was a tough loss for the Cardinal, but one in which they could not get their bats going on a consistent basis. The team was hitless after the fifth inning and squandered prime opportunities to score in the fourth and fifth inning.
The team has a date now with the Miami Hurricanes and their starting nine that includes two first round draft choices in Jemile Weeks (12th overall, Oakland) and Yonder Alonso (7th overall, Cincinnati). The Hurricanes have had hurdles themselves in Nebraska, with closer Carlos Gutierrez having a hard time finding the plate and getting hit rather hard for a first round draft choice. Talent is boundless on this Miami squad though, as they start a lineup comparable to Florida State with better pitching to go with it.
While this is official by no means, in his postgame press conference, Miami head coach Jim Morris said that they were going to start senior right- hander Enrique Garcia (7-2, 4.56 ERA) in the Wednesday game. Stanford's pitcher is still TBA.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, June 16: Omaha, NE -- Rosenblatt Stadium -- Pre-Game
Game Two Against The Bulldogs
Miami tried its best to cough up another ninth inning lead, but they held on for a 7-5victory and will now face the loser of the Stanford-Georgia game that will begin in about 40 minutes. Closer Carlos Gutierrez entered with a five-run lead, but gave up three runs and had the winning run on first base for Florida State before retiring cleanup hitter Jack Rye on a fielder's choice to Jemille Weeks. Florida State is now the first team eliminated from the 2008 College World Series after an impressive 54-14 season.
The winner of this evening's game will have a huge advantage as they will be able to rest until Friday while the loser has to fight it out with the Hurricanes on Wednesday. The Bulldogs are led by All-American Gordon Beckham, who was the 8th overall selection to the Chicago White Sox in the 2008 MLB First-Year Player Draft. They also have the "Stopper of the Year" in Josh Fields, which annually honors the top closer in college baseball. Fields sports a 2.55 ERA and is holding opposing batters to an absurd .121 batting average-against. He also has a 0.53 ERA in save situations. Simply put, the Cardinal do not want to fall behind the Bulldogs and look to win another late inning game with this guy at Georgia's disposal.
Stanford has named sophomore Jeffrey Inman (7-2, 4.34 ERA) as its starter and Georgia is going with right- hander Nick Montgomery (4-2, 4.06 ERA, 57.2 IP 51 hits, 15 walks, 56 K's).
The complete lineups are as follows:
Georgia:
3B- Ryan Peisel -- .339
RF- Matt Olson -- .325
SS - Gordon Beckham -- .400
1B- Rich Poythress -- .368
C - Bryce Massanari -- .342
CF - Matt Cerione -- .304
DH - Joey Lewis -- .251
LF - Lyle Allen-- .285
2B- David Thoms -- .189
RHP Nick Montgomery
Stanford:
2B- Cord Phelps: -- .350
LF- Joey August -- .318
C - Jason Castro -- .376
1B - Brent Milleville - .295
DH - Randy Molina -- .338
CF - Sean Ratliff -- .297
RF - Toby Gerhart -- .252
3B - Zach Jones -- .256
SS - Jake Schlander -- .233
RHP Jeffrey Inman
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, June 15: Offutt AFB, NE -- Offutt Air Force base
After an exhilarating 16-5 victory over the Florida State Seminoles, the Cardinal was able to enjoy a day off from games, take a tour of the Offutt Air Force base and get a behind-the-scenes look at the inner workings of the base. The day featured assault rifle training, a tour of an Air Force plane, and a special dog attack presentation with equipment manager Matt Ritson.
The day began with a speech from General Jim Jones, whose unit hosted the team to a lunch, about the Air Force and specifically the base in Omaha. The team soon moved over to the Air Force planes for a full tour of all the devices and equipment in the planes. It was shocking to see how intricate all the devices were and how trained one needs to be to run all the controls. The security on the base is also second to none as we were greeted by security trucks questioning the group even though we were accompanied by members of the base.
After the tour of the plane the team was moved to a simulation room of combat in foreign battles. Groups of five were given empty assault rifles and they engaged in a simulation against imaginary troops that would shoot at you from a large projection screen. The exercise was an eye-opener which suggested most of the players should stick to baseball, as shots were fired all over the screen and often far away from the target.
The third part of the tour, a demonstration of how police dogs attack a criminal, was perhaps the most memorable. The dogs, who were very disciplined, wrestled a "criminal" by latching onto its arm and tugging it to the ground. The demonstration also showed how, at the sound of a command, the dog can transform from a vicious rage to sitting quietly and waiting for its next command.
The highlight of the afternoon, though, came when Ritson put on a attack suit (similar to a sumo wrestling suit) and was attacked by one of the police dogs. On the second attack demonstration the dog brought Ritson down in a heap and got loud laughter from the entire team, who were watching in bleachers safely behind a metal fence. It was all in good fun at the end of the day as no one was hurt. PitcherMax Fearnow also participated in the demonstration by being attached by the dog while wearing an upper body suit.
Moving onto baseball, the Cardinal now has a surprising second game against the Georgia Bulldogs who shocked top-seeded Miami 7-4 in yesterday's night game. The Hurricanes had many mental errors in the last inning as they allowed Georgia to score four runs in the ninth inning to take the lead. Miami closer Carlos Gutierrez took a comebacker and threw it probably ten feet wide of first base, allowing two unearned runs to score which sent the Bulldog batter all the way to third base.
This now sets up a big elimination game between Florida State and Miami tomorrow in the early game, as one of those two major programs will be two and out in this tournament. The Stanford game will begin at 4:00 p.m. PST and both starting pitchers are still TBA.
New photos from yesterday and today will be on the website soon.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saturday, June 14: Omaha, NE -- Rosenblatt Stadium
A Wild, But Productive First Game
Not too much you can say about today's game except it was an exceptional show of guts and courage against a very good Florida State baseball team. The Seminoles put out a lineup where the LOWEST on-base percentage in the starting nine was .426 and hitting third was probable national player of the year Buster Posey. Stanford tied a College World Series record by scoring 11 runs in the top of the ninth inning, just moments after Jason Stidham tied the game with a dramatic three-run homer in the bottom of the eighth inning. There were many storylines and heroes throughout the contest and the Cardinal now find themselves in the winner's bracket against the winner of the Miami/Georgia game tonight.
The Clark and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball Mark Marquess has said all week that Posey has "little league numbers" and that statement is entirely true. Posey hit a staggering .460 this season and led the nation in home runs (26) and RBI (92). The biggest key in this game was limiting the all-American to just one hit in four at-bats. When he has gotten going this year the Seminole offense this year has been unstoppable and nearly impossible to stop. This is shown by their average of 13.83 runs per game in the postseason and a .385 team batting average.
A second key to the game today was the continued effectiveness of starting pitcher Jeremy Bleich, whose scoreless inning streak ended today at 25.2 innings. Bleich threw five innings, but kept the high powered Seminole offense off balanced for his entire outing. The lone run was a solo home run to start the sixth inning by Dennis Guinn, but Bleich tied a career-high for strikeouts with seven and kept the Cardinal in the game early. For Bleich to miss nearly two months of the season and come back into the lead starter's role and not miss a beat has put the team in the position they are right now.
The last underlying key of the game was the performances at the plate and in the field by freshman Zach Jones and Jake Schlander. The announced crowd of over 20,000 was many more fans than these two have ever played in front of in their careers and they really came out and had big games. Jones and Schlander each had two hits and Schlander came within feet of hitting his first career home run. The duo also made a lot of big plays in the field as they have all season long.
To the aspects of the game that were more obvious, the 11-run inning was just as painful as it was beautiful for Stanford fans to see. After Cord Phelps and Toby Gerhart each reached base, Jason Castro lined a ball that skipped off of the chalk down the first base line almost at a 90 degree angle. First base umpire Mike Conlin seemed to signal that the ball was fair as he pointed down at the chalk, but signaled towards foul ground which threw off the Seminole players in the field. Home plate umpire David Wiley also clearly signaled a fair ball, but it didn't help the Cardinal in the end. Phelps had come around to score on the play and Gerhart went to third, but Florida State head coach Mike Martin went out to argue the play and Wiley overruled the whole play and called the ball foul. This brought all the runners back to their original bases and drew the ire of the Stanford rooting section and Marquess, who debated the call with Conlin for a good couple of minutes.
After the delay, the runners returned to their bases and the inning looked like it went from bad to disastrous. Castro hit the very next pitch and provided a tailor-made double play ball to Seminole shortstop Tony Delmonico, who booted the ball and left the bases loaded with no outs instead of a runner on third with two outs. This was the first of two errors for Delmonico in the inning, who has evidently had a history of struggling in the field this season as shown by his 32 errors. The frame seemed to last forever and contributed this game to being the third-longest in CWS history at four hours, 11 minutes. The details of this frame can be found in today's recap, but the team has said all postseason that hitting is contagious and they certainly showed it in the ninth.
There also has to be a mention for the job that Drew Storen has done for this team today and for all of the postseason. He saved both games in Fullerton and came in today and inherited a 1st and 2nd, no out situation and put out the fire. His first batter was Posey, who worked the count to 3-2 before taking a very close pitch to load the bases. Storen then got the next two hitters to pop out to the infield, and struck out the final batter in a game-saving performance. He has really been so instrumental to this team's success and has become a very reliable arm in the bullpen. While his line today doesn't look impressive on paper (2 IP 3 hits, 3 runs), he was the reason they had a chance to win this game for his huge seventh inning.
Stay tuned to more coverage of Stanford's run in the 2008 College World Series on www.gostanford.com.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Friday, June 13: Omaha, NE -- Rosenblatt Stadium
Cardinal Arrives in Omaha
The Stanford men's baseball team arrived in Omaha, along with the seven other rival programs that will look to win the 2008 NCAA Baseball national title. The team flew in on two separate flights, with the hitters arriving a little earlier than the pitchers as they took batting practice at nearby Creighton University.
The first day in Omaha didn't provide any game action, but that didn't mean the team wasn't busy on the opening Friday.
The day began with a practice session at Rosenblatt, which enabled the team to get acquainted with the surroundings they will inhabit for the rest of the season. A crowd of about 2,000 watched the Cardinal prepare for the Florida State Seminoles, who had the practice session preceding Stanford's.
After the practice the team proceeded to an autograph session that lasted nearly 45 minutes and fulfilled the requests of over 500 people. The first fans in line said they waited nearly two hours to see their favorite Stanford players up close.
The Clark and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball Mark Marquess then went to a press conference with all eight College World Series coaches and was upbeat about his team's chances and praised all the other teams that also made it to Omaha.
"There is so much parity in the college game today," said Marquess. "It is a testament to these seven other coaches that have made it to Omaha as the game has changed a lot in the last 30 years. You used to be able to pick out of a group of only four or five teams that had a chance to win the national title, but now there is a group of probably 40 to 50 teams that could easily win the title and you wouldn't be surprised.
The team had a little downtime in the afternoon back at the hotel, but quickly had to make it back to Rosenblatt Stadium for a dinner with all eight teams and opening ceremonies to kick off the two-week tournament.
Heavy metal band "Candlebox" blasted away with a lot of songs that were hard to distinguish, and a local Omaha catering company treated the out of town teams with an Omaha BBQ dinner.
The teams proceeded to the opening ceremonies and each had a highlight video as they were paraded across the field to cheers of the Omaha faithful. Miami was the lone team to get booed in the event, and North Carolina had the loudest cheers of any of the teams.
A presentation for academic excellence followed with Stanford's own David Stringer picking up the award for highest GPA of any participant in the College World Series. His 3.92 GPA in Mathematical and Computational Sciences beat out all the other competitors to pick up the plaque.
"It is hard sometimes to balance schoolwork and Division I baseball," said Stringer. "But I have worked hard through my four years and just want to enjoy being here in Omaha."
The night concluded with an elaborate fireworks show that lasted nearly 15 minutes long. It ended with many fireworks going off to the "1812 Overture", which concluded the busy first day for the team.
The Cardinal will now prepare for national number two-seed Florida State, who won their own Regional and Super Regionals and boast a team batting average of nearly .350. They are led by one of the top players in the country in Buster Posey, who was the fifth overall selection by the San Francisco Giants in the 2008 MLB First-Year Player Draft almost two weeks ago. The game is set to begin at 11:00 a.m. PST on Saturday, June 14.
The photo gallery is courtesy of marketing guru Andy Sikic and Stanford baseball SID Aaron Juarez.