STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Braden Montgomery and Drew Bowser each hit a home run in Stanford’s six-run second inning, and the Cardinal defeated UConn 8-2 on Sunday night to avoid elimination and a crucial Game 3 at the Stanford Super Regional to force .
Stanford (46-16) and the Huskies play again Monday, and the winner advances to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Stanford starter Ty Uber gave up a singles, a doubles and walked two with a wild pitch and allowed a run before being drawn with two outs – both strikeouts – at the end of the first. Brandt Pancer defeated Korey Morton with a swing to end the inning before Montgomery hit a three-run homer and Bowser added a solo shot to cap a six-run top-of-the-second that made it 8-1 made.
TC Simmons went to lead from the end of the second and hit with a two-out double from David Smith to reduce UConn’s deficit to 8-2, but the Huskies had just six baserunners on it – none of them over came out on second base.
Pancer (3-0) gave up a hit with two walks and hit three over 3 1/3 innings for the win. Ryan Bruno threw two scoreless innings and Quinn Mathews walked three and had four strikeouts over three no-hit innings for his eighth save of the season.
Kody Huff hit the at bat’s 10th pitch midway for a two-out-two RBI single to make it 2-0 on top of the first, and Stanford never fell behind.
UConn (50-15) finished with just four hits after collecting 17 – including 10 for extra bases – in Game 1 of the best-of-three series. The Huskies went 9-0 in the second inning of that game but have since been outplayed 20-6.
Bowser has hit at least one home run in each of the last four games, and 10 of his 18 home runs this season have come in Stanford’s 11 postseason games (including the Pac-12 tournament).
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