It wasn’t quite what the Cardinal had hoped for, but considering that preseason predictions had pegged Stanford baseball as just the sixth best team in the Pac-10, finishing among the four best teams at the College World Series in Omaha, Neb. has to be seen as a tremendous accomplishment.

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Rising senior Jeremy Bleich led the Cardinal pitching staff deep into the postseason after returning from an injury that kept him sidelined for well over a month in late May. But Bleich and his teammates ran into a wall against Georgia. The Bulldogs defeated Stanford twice in Omaha, Neb., 4-3 and 10-8. #gallery http://stanforddaily.com/image/full/9338
Jeff Keacher

Rising senior Jeremy Bleich led the Cardinal pitching staff deep into the postseason after returning from an injury that kept him sidelined for well over a month in late May. But Bleich and his teammates ran into a wall against Georgia. The Bulldogs defeated Stanford twice in Omaha, Neb., 4-3 and 10-8.

After advancing through the double-elimination regional the squad hosted at Sunken Diamond and sweeping the Titans in a best-of-three series in Fullerton, Calif., the Cardinal was one of eight teams to earn a trip to the Mecca of collegiate baseball, Johnny Rosenblatt Stadium. There, the Cardinal faced another double-elimination bracket in which it was paired with No. 4 Florida State, No. 1 Miami and No. 8 Georgia.

Stanford got off to a rollicking start, demolishing the fourth-ranked Seminoles and their potent offense 16-5, thanks to an 11-run rally in the ninth.

“This was one of those games, you talk about a roller coaster . . . “ longtime FSU coach Mike Martin said in a postgame press conference. “We were excited as can be when we tied it up in the home run, but then the wheels came off. But you have to give credit to Stanford — they hit the ball around and got it done in that last inning.”

Stanford starter, rising senior Jeremy Bleich, drafted in the First Supplemental Round by the New York Yankees just a week earlier, largely shut down perhaps the nation’s most effective offense, allowing only one earned run on six hits through five innings of work. But the Cardinal bullpen allowed three runs in the bottom of the eighth to tie the game at 5-5 heading into the ninth.

The Stanford offense came alive, however, thanks to a flurry of six hits and a pair of Florida State errors. Capping the Cardinal rally was rising senior Brent Milleville’s three-run home run, which put an exclamation mark at the close of the top half of the inning. Rising sophomore Michael Marshall closed out the game for the Cardinal with a scoreless ninth, and Stanford moved on to face Georgia in the second round of College World Series play.

The Bulldogs proved to be a tougher opponent for the Cardinal, and the 4-3 defeat they handed the Stanford squad on June 16 proved to be a devastating blow to the team’s championship hopes.

Stanford jumped out to an early lead with a three-run third inning, making the most of three big hits. Rising sophomore Zach Jones led off the inning with a triple and was driven in by fellow rising sophomore Jack Schlander’s groundout to short. Rising senior Joey August’s two-out double was followed by rising senior Jason Castro’s homer to right, putting the Cardinal on top, 3-0.

But the Dawgs would chip away at Stanford’s lead, scoring one run in the fourth and another in the sixth when Georgia’s Robbie O’Bryan drew a walk with the bases loaded. The deciding blow, however, came in the seventh, as the Bulldogs mustered all of their offense with two outs, riding a single, a walk, a hit batsman and another single to a pair of runs and a one-run lead. The Georgia bullpen, meanwhile, held solid, allowing just one hit and no runs following the Cardinal’s third inning offensive outburst.

The loss meant that the Cardinal was bounced into the loser’s bracket, and would have to defeat Miami once and Georgia twice in a row in order to advance to the Finals. Georgia, meanwhile, got an opportunity to rest for a few days and would only need to defeat the winner of the Stanford-Miami contest once. It was an advantage the Cardinal ultimately proved unable to overcome.

“It’s a huge advantage to win this winner’s game because you sit for three days,” Stanford coach Mark Marquess said in a postgame press conference. “You just take it game-by-game. If you look at how difficult it is to come back, it becomes impossible. Especially after this season, the number of games isn’t going to bother us.”

Stanford took a solid first step towards redemption on June 18 against the Hurricanes, pounding out an 8-3 win on the strength of eleven hits, four of them for extra bases. Among the offensive leaders for the Cardinal were rising senior and second baseman Cord Phelps, who went 3-for-5, scored a run and collected a pair of RBI, as well as fellow rising senior Sean Ratliff who swatted a two-run home run — his 22nd blast of the season.

On the mound, meanwhile, rising sophomore Danny Sandbrink was solid yet again, allowing just one earned run through four innings. Davis in relief was somewhat of a high-wire act, as the Cardinal senior allowed seven hits and walked a pair in his four innings of work, but he limited Miami to just a pair of runs over that span before Storen came on for a scoreless ninth.

Stanford’s success against Miami meant a second shot at Georgia, but this time the Cardinal would have to win two in a row to advance. The Dawgs jumped out to an early 9-4 lead through the first five innings and added another run in the top of the eighth, putting a six-run cushion between themselves and Stanford.

But the Cardinal offense would put forth one last gasp before the end of its season, rallying for four runs in the bottom of the ninth against vaunted Georgia closer Josh Fields before Stanford’s 2008 season would come to a close. Rising sophomore Ben Clowe hit a two-out, three-run homer to put the Cardinal just two back before Phelps flied out to center to end the game. The Bulldogs would go on to the College World Series Finals, where they fell to Fresno State, two games to one.

“[Georgia is] a great team,” Marquess told GoStanford.com following the game. “They were too much for us today. We couldn’t stop them. We played them twice here, and they’re a better team than we are.

“As far as our team is concerned, I’m very proud of this team,” he continued. “We surprised a lot of people, including me. This (College World Series) is a great experience for all of us, not only the coaches, but most importantly the student-athletes. I’m proud of how we competed. This game belongs to a stronger team in Georgia.”

The Cardinal finished its season at 41-24-2, and was one of the last four teams left standing in postseason play, along with Georgia, North Carolina and eventual champion Fresno State.