The sun cruelly set on Texas' baseball season Monday, as Stanford looked to the heavens, thankful for a victory that came with an assist from "Mother Nature."
Drew Bowser’s towering fly ball — which had all the earmarks of an easy, ninth-inning-ending popup — was lost in the twilight sky by Longhorns outfielders and fell untouched at Stanford’s Sunken Diamond, allowing the Cardinal to walk off with a 7-6 victory in the winner-take-all Super Regional contest.
Stanford advanced to this weekend's College World Series in Omaha while Texas ended its season in heartbreaking fashion.
With two on and two out and the score tied at 6-6, Bowser's pop looked like an easy third out of the inning a moment after the ball left his bat.
But it was quickly apparent that Texas right fielder Dylan Campbell and centerfielder Eric Kennedy could not see the ball in the Northern California twilight.
The helpless outfielders barely moved as panicked teammates tried to point to the Stanford sky as the ball landed in front of Campbell at 8:42 p.m. PT (11:42 p.m. ET).
The sun had gone to bed at about 8:30 p.m., leaving a twilight sky that proved disastrous for Texas.
"It was just, just Mother Nature. I mean it was a twilight sky. Me and EK couldn't see the ball off the bat," Campbell told NBC affiliate KXAN in Austin.
"That was just very fortunate on their end that it happened like that. I guess we just got to move forward, I guess, I mean there's nothing we can do about it now. It's over."
This will be Stanford's third consecutive trip to the College World Series
The Cardinal will play top-seeded Wake Forest at 1 p.m. CT (2 p.m. ET) on Saturday.