The 2011 NCAA Baseball Tournament moves on to the super regionals round and the Bay Area has a heavy representation. The regional round saw the Stanford Cardinal roll through their bracket with three straight wins, while the California Golden Bears had to earn their super regionals ticket the hard way.
The Bears lost their initial game of the tournament, dropping a 6-4 decision to Baylor that put them in the loser's bracket. In moving to the loser's bracket, Cal was required to then win four games in three days, including back-to-back games with Baylor. The Bears bounced back with a 10-6 win over Alcorn State and followed that up with a 6-3 elimination game victory over the regional host, the Rice Owls. After beating Rice in a rain-delayed game on Sunday afternoon, Cal played a second Sunday game, defeating Baylor 8-0 to force a Monday night elimination game. The Bears pulled off a stunning rally as they scored four runs in the bottom of the ninth to defeat Baylor 9-8 and advance to the super regionals.
Cal advances now to face fellow three seed Dallas Baptist in the super regionals in Santa Clara, California. Dallas Baptist punched their ticket with a win over two seed Oklahoma, one seed TCU, and a pair of wins over the Cinderella four seed Oral Roberts Golden Eagles.
Stanford had some tough battles in the Fullerton regional, but they rolled through to three straight victories to remove any semblance of drama from their advancement to the super regionals. Stanford opened their regional play with an easy 10-3 victory over the Kansas State Wildcats. They continued through the winner's bracket with a 1-0 victory over Cal State Fullerton. They then closed out the region by thumping Illinois 14-2 on Sunday night and securing a spot in this week's super regionals.
Stanford advances to face the third overall seed in this tournament in the North Carolina Tarheels. UNC rolled through their region with a fairly dominant victory against Florida International, followed by two easy wins over James Madison. UNC and Stanford will square off in Chapel Hill.