Have You Seen This? Stanford baseball turns walk-off homer into wild walk-off double

OMAHA-BOUND — The Road to Omaha has been paved as Oral Roberts, TCU, Virginia, Florida, Stanford, Wake Forest, Tennessee and LSU advanced out of Super Regional play to earn a spot in the men's College World Series.

For the Cardinal, it came down to a game-winning moment in the winner-take-all third game of its series with Texas in the most memorable way — and some might argue, twice.

With two outs of a 6-6 game in the bottom of the ninth, Drew Bowser lifted a long fly ball to right-center field. The Stanford junior was cautiously approaching first base as Texas outfielders Dylan Campbell and Eric Kennedy and a couple other teammates all converged on the path.

But none of the Longhorn defenders came up with it; the ball dropped harmlessly between the two outfielders, lost in the lights of Sunken Diamond to allow Alberto Rios to score from second and secure the Cardinal's third-straight trip to college baseball's final-eight bracket in Omaha, Nebraska.

"Before you ask me a question, I'm going to ask you a question," Stanford coach David Esquer told the press after the win. "Have you ever seen an ending like that? Because I haven't."

The unreal play was the highlight of the night, but it almost didn't happen; Stanford nearly didn't need it.

The roller coaster of emotions — from Texas' relief in forcing extra innings to Stanford's jubilation — started earlier in the evening when the Cardinal thought it had won it before Bowser had stepped to the plate.

Moments prior, Rios doubled off the wall to set up the game-winning run. The Pac-12 Player of the Year ripped a ball toward the white Pac-12 sign in left field and rounded the bases thinking he had smacked the game-winning home run — many of his teammates even jumped over the dugout railing to celebrate his would-be walk-off.

The junior threw his helmet in the air in the disbelief — then quickly scurried to second, hair flapping in the still night air as he realized the ball was still in play. Freshman Malcolm Moore drew a walk one batter later, which set up Bowser's walk-off, ball-lost-in-the-lights (which was scored as an RBI double).

With the win, Stanford won its 14th consecutive postseason elimination game at home, a streak that dates back to the 2019 season and includes five in each of the past two years. The Cardinal will open their 19th College World Series with a 41-33 overall record Saturday against No. 1 Wake Forest in the third game of the tournament.

Bracket play begins Friday, when TCU faces Oral Roberts — the lowest seed to make it to Omaha since Stony Brook in 2012 in the Summit League squad's first CWS appearance since 1978. No. 2 Florida will face No. 7 Virginia later Friday, and Saturday will also include No. 5 LSU against Tennessee in an all-SEC affair.

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