Auburn Errors Give Stanford Win Cardinal Get Five Runs In Fifth To Move On In College World Series

First-game jitters and two strong opposing arms proved costly to Auburn in its College World Series opener against Stanford.

Three errors led to four unearned runs, including three in a five-run fifth, and Stanford beat the Tigers 8-3 Friday.

“It’s pretty frustrating,” said All-American Tim Hudson, the Tigers center fielder who committed one error that led to a run. “We’ve had a solid defensive ball club all year. It just so happened we had a few mishaps today and it cost us a few runs.”

But the Tigers also managed only six hits and stranded 14 runners against Cardinal starter Chad Hutchinson (8-3) and reliever Jeff Austin.

“I can’t remember when we’ve had a game where we didn’t hit one ball hard,” Auburn coach Hal Baird said. “I didn’t have a (radar) gun but I would expect both of those guys were throwing in the low- to mid-90s consistently.”

The third-seeded Cardinal (44-18) move to Sunday’s second-round game against LSU, which beat Rice 5-4 Friday night. Sixth-seeded Auburn (49-16) will play Rice in an elimination matchup Sunday night. Brandon Larson’s two-run homer and Jeremy Witten’s sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth lifted defending champion LSU to its 30th come-from-behind victory of the season in its win over Rice.

Stanford’s five-run fifth started with singles by Luke Quaccia, Jay Pecci, Joe Kilburg and Ed Muth. Kilburg scored the third run of the inning when Josh Hochgesang’s bouncer went off the glove of third baseman Chad Wandall for an error.

Jon Schaeffer, who scored on a two-base error of his sinking liner to center and Jody Gerut’s double in the second, hit a sacrifice fly to drive in another. The Cardinal made it 6-2 when Gerut’s pop-up behind second was dropped in a collision of three Tigers.

“We had one bad defensive inning,” Baird said. “Credit Stanford with a well-pitched game and timely hitting.”