Stanford Defeats Nebraska; Advances to CWS

Stanford, Calif. - Nebraska saw its bid for the first College World Series appearance in school history fall one game short, losing to Stanford, 5-3, in the deciding game of the Super Regional in front of a crowd of 3,682 at Sunken Diamond Sunday afternoon.

The Cardinal, who improve to 47-15 on the season, came back to win the final two games over the Huskers, who close their season with a 51-17 record. Stanford will face Louisiana-Lafayette in the first round of the College World Series in Omaha this weekend. Game times will be announced Monday afternoon. Lafayette defeated top-seeded South Carolina 3-2 earlier Sunday.

Brian Segar pitched seven solid innings for the Cardinal, allowing two runs on five hits to improve to 6-1 on the season before Jeff Bruksch pitched the final two innings for his 12th save of the season, sending Stanford to the CWS for the second straight season.

The Cardinal broke out of the gate quickly, scoring single runs of Nebraska starter Jamie Rodrigue in each of the first two innings to take a two-run lead. In the first, a single by Eric Bruntlett and a double by Edmund Muth put runners at second and third with one out. John Gall's sacrifice fly scored Bruntlett, but Rodrigue struck out Joe Borchard to end the inning. In the second, Chris O'Riordan tripled off the left field wall and scored one batter later on a sacrifice fly by Andy Topham to give Stanford a two-run advantage.

Bruntlett went 4-for-5 with two runs scored to pace the Cardinal attack, while O'Riordan and Muth each went 2-for-4 on the day.

In the fourth, Stanford increased its advantage to 3-0, scoring an unearned run. Gall walked, advanced to second on a sacrifice fly to deep center by Borchard and advanced to third on O'Riordan's sacrifice fly to center. With two outs, Andy Topham hit a slow roller to second, but Dan Johnson dropped the throw from second baseman Will Bolt, allowing Gall to score with the Cardinal's third run of the day.

Rodrigue, who went 8 1/3 against Wichita State in the Huskers' 8-1 win on Monday, lasted just 3 1/3 innings, allowing three runs (two earned) on three hits in his shortest start since April 8.

The Huskers turned to reliever Chad Wiles, who kept the Huskers in the game, holding the Cardinal scoreless until a two-run homer by Muth in the top of the eighth provided Stanford a 5-2 cushion. Wiles pitched well, going 3 2/3 innings and allowing two runs on two hits to keep Nebraska within striking distance.

Nebraska responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth, trimming the Cardinal lead to 3-2. Jamal Strong led off with a single to center, the first hit allowed by Seger. Adam Stern's high chop of the plate advanced Strong to second before Dan Johnson, who had been 0-for-8 with five strikeouts in the series, singled to right, moving Strong to third. Sager's wild pitch scored Strong and moved Johnson to second, before Matt Hopper's RBI single to center plated Johnson with NU's second run. Hopper, who was also 0-for-8 in the series before his RBI single, his 71st of the season, putting him 11th on NU's single-season RBI list.

Strong went 2-for-3 with a run scored, as Nebraska managed only six hits on the day.

Nebraska Coach Dave Van Horn was proud of how his team preformed throughout the season and during the Super Regional, the first in school history for the Huskers.

"We are not overly talented and we are not blessed with great power or pitching like Stanford," Nebraska Coach Dan Van Horn said. "We just find a way to stay in games. Stanford has a roster full of all-stars, yet we still played hard enough to hang in for three games."

Nebraska had an opportunity to tie the game at three in the fifth, putting a runner on third with one out, but were unable to capitalize. Adam Shabala drew a one-out walk and advanced to third after Segar threw the pickoff attempt down the first base line. Josh Hesse attempted to squeeze, but popped the bunt attempt to Thompson for the second out. Two pitches later, Sager's pitch went behind Cardinal catcher Damien Alverado, giving Shabala a chance to score, but Alverado found the ball and threw to Segar, who tagged out the sliding Shabala at home, ending the inning.

In the eighth, Brunlett singled to left to lead off the frame before Muth hit a 2-0 offering from Wiles over the fence in left center for his 18th homer of the season, giving Stanford a three-run advantage. The Cardinal looked to break the contest open, but Husker closer Thom Ott, who replaced Wiles after Gall's double, ended the threat, striking out Arik VanZandt with runners on second and third.

Nebraska closed to within 5-3 on Cowan's 10th homer to lead off the ninth, but the Huskers could not get the tying runner on base as Bruksch retired the final three Huskers to send the Cardinal to Omaha.

Nebraska Postgame Notes
*- Nebraska falls to 8-10 all-time in five NCAA appearances, while Coach Dave Van Horn's NCAA record drops to 4-4. Nebraska made back-to-back NCAA appearances for only the second time in school history (also 1979-80).

*- Nebraska's game this afternoon is the 68th this season, marking only the fourth time Nebraska has played 68 or more games in a season and the first time since 1990.

*- With the Huskers' six hits today, the team set a single season record for base hits in season with 762, surpassing the school record of 758 set in 1985. Other team records set this season included wins (51), Division I wins (48) at bats (2,349) and strikeouts (484), while NU's final ERA of 3.13 ranked seventh all-time and is the best since the 1984 team recorded a 3.07 ERA.

*- Jamie Rodrigue's 3 1/3-inning performance was his shortest starting assignment since allowing three runs and four hits in 1/3 of an inning against Kansas on April 9.

*- With Adam Shabala's three walks today, he moved into an eighth-place tie with Marc Sagmoen on the Husker single season walk list with 59.

*- Reliever Thom Ott has now pitched 11 2/3 scoreless innings of relief in his last eight appearances, dating back to April 29. In addition, he has allowed just one earned run in his last 20 relief appearances dating back to March 14.

*- Justin Cowan's homer in the ninth inning was the 76th home run hit by a Huskers this season, tying for fourth on NU's single season chart.

*- NU's seven two-year seniors (Jim Bailey, Justin Cowan, Scott Fries, Adam Shabala, Jamal Strong and Brandt Vlieger) finished their Husker career with a 93-35 record. In addition, today's game marked the final game for four-year senior Chad Wiles and Trevor Bullock, who transferred to NU from Nebraska-Kearney