The #9 Stanford Cardinal (41-15) dominated the Texas Tech Red Raiders (39-17) in every facet of the game Saturday afternoon, handing #8 Texas Tech the first postseason shutout of the Tim Tadlock era, and only the third in the program’s history.
“To me, there was some good fortune in there [this season] for us to be in the position we’re in. Our league is a really tough league. I think in our league we came out on the right side of some series this year that our margin for error was very small. And our kids are to be commended for that,” said an emotional Tadlock. “That just says a lot about their makeup to me, you guys can go back and look at it, you know, there just wasn’t a lot of margin for error.”
For the second game in the weekend, a Stanford starter turned in a dominant performance, something Tadlock was quick to commend and give credit for. This time it was RHP Alex Williams who threw a 124-pitch two-hitter against Tech’s bats in the second complete game of his college career and matched a career-high with 10 strikeouts. The Red Raiders faced only three pitchers in the weekend as Friday’s starter Brendan Beck went 7.1 innings and was replaced by Austin Weiremiller for the final 1.2 of the day in that 15-3 victory. GAME 1 RECAP
For the Red Raiders, it was Patrick Monteverde with the start. Following a flyout and strikeout to start the game, center fielder Brock Jones took Monteverde deep to right center field for a solo home run. This was the first two-out run of the ballgame – but it would not be the last, nor would it be the last home run for Jones.
In the second inning, Monteverde appeared to have settled in following back-to-back strikeouts, but his first walk was followed by a two-run jimmy jack into the right field bullpen by 8-hole hitter Tommy Troy, giving Stanford a 3-0 lead.
Normally, with the explosiveness of the Tech offense, 3-0 doesn’t feel like an insurmountable deficit. But the effectiveness of Stanford pitching, their offensive prowess, and a mark of 1-14 this season when trailing by 3 runs or more, took the capacity crowd at Dan Law Field at Rip Griffin Park out of the equation on a 100-degree day that felt cool compared to Friday’s 108 convection oven scorcher.
Monteverde added two Ks to his line in the third, setting the Cardinal down in order, and tacked on two more in the fourth before a two-out double and a walk ended his day. The transfer from Seton Hill finished with 7 strikeouts in 3.2 innings pitched. His future with the Red Raiders is unclear as he has another year of eligibility remaining but the opportunity to pursue professional baseball is available to him.
Once in the day, Tech had Williams on the ropes. In the top of the fifth (with Tech playing as the visitor) he led off the inning plunking Cole Stillwell. The DH from Rockwall was a bright spot booking both of Tech’s hits Saturday following a 2-hit, 2-RBI day on Friday. Easton Murrell worked a full-count walk to follow Stilwell and Tech had two men on with no outs as Stanford sent a crowd scurrying down the left field line headed for the bullpen.
Williams responded with three straight outs as he fanned Nate Rombach, worked a foul fly out to the catcher from pinch-hitter Cal Conley, and Kurt Wilson went down looking to end the threat. The crowd seemed desperate to explode, but it was not to be and the Red Raiders never pressed again with only one hit, and one baserunner, the rest of the way.
“We knew that the crowd was going to be pretty rowdy and chirpy, and we talked a lot about just silencing the crowd. That was one of our main goals from the get-go of the game was to just silence the crowd,” said Jones after the game. “You saw that yesterday with the four-spot in the first and then today scoring runs early and getting a zero early out of Williams. I think that plays a huge role because Texas Tech is a great team and once they get their crowd involved they’re able to roll and get some momentum.”
Seven of Williams’ 10 strikeouts on the day were issued to the first four hitters in the Tech order, including a slumping Dru Baker who finished a great season (and potentially his Red Raider career) going a disappointing 0-16 at the plate with a walk and run scored dating back a week. Baker’s last hit was a leadoff double to start a game against North Carolina in the Saturday game of the Lubbock Regional.
Baker was not alone in struggles at the plate against exceptional Stanford pitching, as Easton Murrell went 0-for-6 with a walk, Braxton Fulford, who had the tall task of moving into the leadoff Saturday, went 0-for-7, and Kurt Wilson was 1-6 this weekend.
Micah Dallas, who entered for Monteverde in the fourth, faced two-out woes of his own in the fifth. Following a leadoff single and a strikeout, a fielder’s choice put a man aboard with two outs. An error from Conely, who according to sources gutted out playing through strep all weekend, added another duck to the pond. An RBI single extended Stanford’s cushion and further deflated the Red Raiders’ hopes for a comeback. In the postgame, Tadlock explained Conley didn’t practice Thursday fighting a very high fever and mentioned he vomited on the field Friday at shortstop.
The dagger for Tech, however, came off the bat of Jones in the sixth. Dallas issued a leadoff walk and a sac bunt moved the runner around. A one-out walk followed and a fielder’s choice to 3B that didn’t result in an out juiced the bases. Tadlock went to the bullpen again bringing in Ryan Sublette.
The fireballer struggled to find the zone early and Jones struck again turning around a 3-1 offering sending a tank out of the yard for a grand slam and an 8-0 lead for the Cardinal. Jones would also tack on the final run for Stanford in the eighth with another dinger, a leadoff solo shot against senior Connor Queen in his final appearance in a Red Raider uniform. Jones went 3-for-4 with 3 HR, 6 RBIs, and 4 R in this game, the second multi-home run game of his career and first time to hit three taters in a contest.
“There’s inevitably going to be adversity through a season, and we definitely had some,” said junior catcher Braxton Fulford. “Our first weekend we went 0-3 even though we competed really well. Then we go and we have some injuries to some key players, but we figure it out, guys step up. I think that’s a big takeaway from this season, we had a lot of guys step up who were ready to play and we really did have a great season. Maybe it didn’t end the way we wanted it to, but we played well.
I think we handled the blows that we were dealt well, however, I think at the same time we were capable of more. We just didn’t play our best baseball this weekend and Stanford arguably was playing some of their best baseball and that’s really all it comes down to,” continued Fulford. “We had plenty of talent that stepped up this year and I think they’ve done a fantastic job.”
This marks the first time Texas Tech has lost a Super Regional, as Tadlock had led the squad to a 4-0 record in the second weekend of the NCAA postseason prior to this 2021 opportunity. Stanford will make their 17th appearance in the College World Series and first trip to Omaha since 2008. The Cardinal has won two NCAA Baseball Championships (1987, 1988), and was runner up in 2000, 2001, and 2003. They improve to 4-2 all-time vs the Red Raiders and have now eliminated Tech from the postseason twice with a CWS appearance on the line, the first coming in 1995.
G2 – Stanford 9, TTU 0