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Stanford sends No. 1 Miami packing
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More from SportsOMAHA, Neb. — Sean Ratliff homered and Cord Phelps tripled in Stanford's four-run fifth inning, and the Cardinal ousted top-seeded Miami from the College World Series with an 8-3 victory Wednesday night.
The Cardinal (41-23-2) advanced to the Bracket 1 finals against Georgia, needing to beat the Bulldogs twice to return to the best-of-three championship round for the second time since 2003.
Starter Danny Sandbrink and reliever Erik Davis held the potent offense of Miami (53-11) in check. The Hurricanes failed to join the 1999 squad as the only No. 1 national seeds to win the College World Series.
Miami, ranked No. 1 for most of the second half of the season, has been eliminated in three games in each of its four CWS appearances since 2003.
Ratliff's 22nd homer of the season and fourth in 10 NCAA tournament games ended Miami starter Enrique Garcia's night after 413 innings. Garcia (7-3) had worked at least five innings in eight of his nine previous starts, but was tagged for five runs on eight hits — the last being Ratliff's high fly into the stands in right-center.
Toby Gerhart reached on Sobolewski's error at third and Jake Schlander singled before Phelps sent a pitch from Anthony Nalepa into deep center for a two-run triple.
Davis, a 13th-round draft pick by the San Diego Padres, earned a measure of redemption with his performance. He had been a starter in all 16 of his appearances before the CWS but landed in the bullpen after three straight poor outings. He had allowed 11 earned runs in his previous 13 innings coming into Omaha, and pitched an inning of relief against Florida State on Saturday and allowed a run on two hits.
In his four innings against Miami, Davis gave up two runs on seven hits and two walks. He struck out six.
Sandbrink, a freshman, allowed two hits and a run in the sixth start of his career.
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