Stanford Cardinal eliminated from college baseball World Series by Tennessee Volunteers

Just when it appeared Quinn Mathews and Stanford had recaptured their elimination game magic, everything unraveled on Monday afternoon for the Cardinal in a 6-4 loss to the Tennessee Volunteers at the College World Series.

Mathews, the senior left-hander who gained national attention last week by throwing 156 pitches in a complete-game masterpiece to send the Cardinal to Omaha, Nebraska, shook off a shaky first few innings and had retired seven in a row when he took a 4-0 lead into the top of the fifth inning on Monday afternoon.

Mathews never got out of the inning, as the Volunteers rallied to tie the score with four runs, and then went ahead for good with two more in the top of the seventh. Mathews threw 89 pitches, allowing four runs on 10 hits and one walk.

Stanford had been 5-0 in elimination games this postseason. This was their third straight trip to the CWS and the second straight winless appearance. The Cardinal went 1-2 in 2021, also losing that opener but routing Arizona in its first potential elimination game of that tournament before bowing out.

The Cardinal provided Mathews with some breathing room in the bottom of the first. With two out, Carter Graham walked and Braden Montgomery singled. The pair executed a double steal, and Graham scored on a throwing error by Tennessee’s catcher on the play. Alberto Rios followed with an RBI double.

Stanford stretched its lead to 4-0 in the third on Montgomery’s RBI single and Rios’ sacrifice fly.

At that point, Mathews was rolling. He had allowed two hits in each of the first two innings, but avoided allowing any runs. Rios provided a huge lift in the first inning, throwing out Maui Ahuna at the plate for the third out.

He had retired seven in a row heading into the fifth, then allowed a seemingly harmless leadoff single. He struck out the next batter, his sixth of the game, then allowed two more singles to load the bases. Tennessee finally broke through with a sacrifice fly for the second out of the inning, but then Mathews yieled three successive singles and the game was tied at 4-4. One walk later, his outing was over.

Reliever Drew Dowd ended the rally with a strikeout, but the Volunteers finally took their first lead of the game in the seventh and held on to stay alive and send the Cardinal back home.

Stanford advanced to the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. by going 5-0 in elimination games earlier this month in the Regional and Super Regionals on its own home field. They opened the CWS with a 3-2 loss to No. 1 seed Wake Forest on Saturday.

Check back for more on this developing story.