STANFORD, Calif. (AP) — Braden Montgomery and Drew Bowser each hit a home run in Stanford’s six-run second inning and the Cardinal beat UConn 8-2 on Sunday night to avoid elimination and force a decisive Game 3 at the Stanford Super Regional.
Stanford (46-16) and the Huskies play again Monday with the winner advancing to the College World Series in Omaha, Nebraska.
Stanford starter Ty Uber gave up a single, a double and walked two with a wild pitch and allowed a run before being pulled with two outs — both strikeouts — in the bottom of the first. Brandt Pancer struck out Korey Morton swinging 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.
T.C. Simmons walked to lead off the bottom of the second and scored on a two-out double by David Smith to trim UConn’s deficit to 8-2, but the Huskies had just six baserunners thereon — none of which advanced beyond second base.
Pancer (3-0) gave up one hit with two walks and struck out 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 10th pitch of the at bat up the middle for a two-out two-RBI single to make it 2-0 in the top of the first and Stanford never trailed.
UConn (50-15) finished with just four hits after racking up 17 — including 10 for extra bases — in Game 1 of the best-of-three series. The Huskies jumped to a 9-0 lead in the top of the second inning of that game but have since been outscored 20-6.
Bowser has hit at least one home run in each of the last four games and 10 of his 18 homers this season have come in Stanford’s 11 postseason games (including the Pac-12 Tournament).
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