Cardinal rally sets up championship

Coming into the game, IU was 39-0 this season when leading after seven innings.

In the top of the eighth with two outs and a 6-4 lead, IU was four outs away from a second consecutive super regional berth.

Down two runs, Stanford Coach Mark Marquess put outfielder Wayne Taylor into the game as a pinch hitter.

The Cardinal’s postseason life needed a clutch hit to stay alive.

And Taylor delivered.

He hit a three-run home run that gave Stanford the one-run lead.

“I think that was a pretty good pitch,” Taylor said of the home run he hit off IU closer Jake Kelzer. “I ended up getting the barrel on it and driving it pretty well.”

The Cardinal tacked on three more runs in the top of the ninth as extra insurance, and they knocked off the Hoosiers 10-7 in front of 3,524 stunned IU fans at Bart Kaufman Field.

Stanford’s win sets up a rematch between the two teams. IU (44-14) and Stanford (33-24) will play at 5:30 p.m. Monday on Bart Kaufman Field.

The stakes are simple.

The winner goes on to super regional play and keeps its dream of a national championship alive for at least another weekend.

The loser’s season is done.

“We’ve got our own destiny in our hands,” IU Coach Tracy Smith said.

After Kelzer came into the game in the eighth inning with two outs, Stanford scored three runs in the eighth and ninth innings to put the game away.

Kelzer only recorded two outs in his appearance, and he allowed four earned runs.

Despite being just four outs away from a victory, Smith said his team is where it needs to be mentally.

“I don’t have to say too much to these guys,” Smith said. “We’re going to go take a shower, go eat, sleep, get up and come ready to play baseball. It’s pretty simple.”

On who will pitch Monday, both Smith and Marquess said they don’t know who will start.

They will talk with their respective coaching staffs before making a decision.

Among the possible starters for IU are senior Brian Korte, the No. 3 starter in the regular season, and sophomore Sullivan Stadler, who was the midweek starter toward the end of the year.

Whoever starts for IU will have to contend with a Cardinal lineup who put as many runs on the board as the IU pitching staff has allowed in more than two months.

The last time IU gave up 10 runs was March 26 against Indiana State — 36 games ago.

That was also the last time IU lost by more than one run. In the previous 35 games, IU was 32-3 and had lost those three games by just one run.

Stanford pitcher A.J. Vanegas threw 5.1 innings, the longest he’s gone all season.

He’s battled injuries all year, and his longest outing before that was four innings.

Vanegas threw with strong velocity, and at points reached the upper 90s on the stadium radar gun.

After Cardinal starter Logan James went just 1.2 innings and gave up four earned runs, Marquess went to Vanegas with his season on the line, and the senior delivered.

“We told him we’re going to him early because there was no tomorrow,” Marquess said. “We needed to win today to keep playing.”

With the most important game of the season Monday, IU catcher Kyle Schwarber said his team is confident.

“No one is not out there competing,” he said. “So we’re going to be out there ready to go, and, you know, play for our tournament life.”