OMAHA, Neb. - Playing in its third consecutive College World Series, No. 6 Stanford (44-20) dropped an elimination game to No. 21 Tennessee (44-21) 6-4 on Monday from Charles Schwab Field.
The Cardinal jumped out to an early 4-0 lead after scoring two runs in the first and two more in the third, but Tennessee reliever Chase Burns entered and shut the door on any further offense. Burns struck out nine over six scoreless innings of work while allowing just two hits.
Junior Alberto Rios, who finished 2-for-3, did the bulk of the damage for the Cardinal, lacing a run-scoring double in the first and contributing a sacrifice fly in the fourth.
Sophomore Braden Montgomery also had two hits, going 2-for-4 with an RBI-single in the fourth.
Stanford starter Quinn Matthews posted zeros in each of the first four innings, but Tennessee strung together six singles in the fifth inning to eventually knot the game at 4-4.
The Volunteers broke the stalemate in the seventh, plating a pair of runs to earn the 6-4 victory.
GAME NOTES (COMPILED BY THE EXCELLENT STAFF AT CREIGHTON FOR THE COLLEGE WORLD SERIES)
» Stanford was making its 19th all-time MCWS appearance, tied for the seventh-most ever and tied with LSU for the most of any 2023 MCWS participant.
» Stanford is now 41-35 all-time in MCWS play. The 41 wins are sixth-most ever, while the 76 games played are seventh-most ever. The .539 win percentage is 13th-best ever among those with 20 games played.
» Stanford is 165-90 all-time in 38 postseason appearances.
» This was Stanford's third consecutive MCWS appearance after not having been in Omaha from 2009-2020 ... the Cardinal are the fourth Pac-12 team to make three straight trips to Omaha, joining Stanford (1999-2003), USC (1970-74) and Oregon State (2005-07).
» Stanford is 1-6 all-time at Charles Schwab Field Omaha, scoring 14 runs in its one win and a combined 19 runs in its six losses.
» David Esquer is 2-8 all-time as a head coach in the MCWS.
» Including 10 punchouts today, Stanford pitching struck out a program-record 671 batters this season, far ahead of the previous mark of 605 in 1999.
» The Cardinal finished 5-9 this year when being held without a home run.
» Stanford has dropped five straight in Omaha, going 0-2 in the last two seasons.
» Stanford fell to 27-7 this year when scoring first and 16-10 when scoring in the first inning.
» Today marked Stanford's fifth straight MCWS game in which it scored in the first inning, but it's lost all five of those contests.
» The Pac-12 leads all conferences with 29 CWS titles, 268 CWS wins and a .606 (now 268-174) CWS winning percentage.
» Stanford is the only team in Charles Schwab Field Omaha history to lose multiple MCWS games after leading by four or more runs. They also dropped a 6-5 decision to Vanderbilt on June 23, 2021, after leading 4-0. That game was also an elimination game started by Quinn Mathews.
» Braden Montgomery extended his team-leading on-base streak to 28 with a single in the first inning. He added an RBI single in the bottom of the third, recording his 27th multi-hit game of the season.
» Alberto Rios hit his team-leading 24th double of the season, moving into a tie with Ryan Garko (2003), Carlos Quentin (2003) and Eric Bruntlett (2000) for third on Stanford's single-season doubles record.
» Stanford was 3-for-3 today on stolen base attempts and finished 4-for-4 in the MCWS. It was the 8th time Stanford has stolen 3+ bases in a MCWS game, the first since Game 3 of the 2002 MCWS. Stanford's four stolen bases in the MCWS this year are its most since recording five stolen bases in 2002.
» With six strikeouts today, Quinn Mathews moved into second on Stanford's single-season strikeout record list with 158 strikeouts this season. Mathew's 158 strikeouts are second most in the NCAA this season.
» Stanford hit 117 home runs this season and was chasing the program record of 118 which was set last year but did not have a round-tripper in its two MCWS games this season.
