College World Series: Wake Forest, Stanford enter weather delay

With Stanford out in front over No. 1 seed Wake Forest in Saturday’s College World Series matchup, the Cardinal were a couple innings away from an upset. Then, the weather took a turn — and the teams cleared the field.

Lightning was spotted in the top of the seventh inning, meaning the game entered a weather delay. Per NCAA rules, the game can’t restart until at least 30 minutes after the last lightning strike. The NCAA later announced a re-start time of 5:45 p.m. ET, meaning the delay lasted more than an hour before play started back up.

Stanford struck first in the first inning on a bases loaded hit by pitch, but Wake Forest answered back in a big way with a Brock Wilken home run in the second inning to tie things up at 1-1. That was the score until the Cardinal jumped back in front in the top of the third on a single by Carter Graham, who made a highlight-reel play earlier in the game, to make it a 2-1 Stanford lead. The score didn’t change despite multiple threats, and it remained that way until the stoppage.

It seemed like Stanford was one “big hit” away from pulling away. That’s the sentiment Cardinal head coach David Esquer offered during his in-game interview, as well.

“I like that we put runners in scoring position often, we just haven’t got that big hit yet,” Esquer said. “We’ve had a couple chances, a couple body blows if we could get to them, get a hit there. But just staying consistent and constant, like just trying to keep pushing forward and the relentlessness will help us.”

Still, Stanford was able to capitalize on the Wake Forest outfield’s decision to play deep. Some Cardinal hits fell short, allowing runners to get an extra base. Charles Schwab Field can create headaches for players who haven’t played there before, and this year is the Demon Deacons’ first trip to the College World Series since they won it all in 1955.

That said, Wake Forest head coach Tom Walter said playing the outfield deep was by design.

“We talked about it before the game, but with this wind, we need to make that change. Everything that they’ve hit has kind of been soft and in front of us,” Walter said during his in-game interview. “They haven’t really barrelled much up, so we had to make that adjustment.”