David Esquer watched as his Stanford program was eliminated from the College World Series Monday in a 6-4 loss to Tennessee.

That loss stings for a number of reasons, including the fact the Cardinal was up 4-0 entering the 5th inning. Stanford acc Quinn Mathews was also able to limit walks and did not allow a home run against the Vols, but he did surrender 10 hits in 4.2 innings pitched while getting credited with 4 earned runs in the defeat.

While heading home hurts, Esquer could not hold back his love and pride for what this group at Stanford accomplished.

“This is my least favorite press conference of the year. But, God, just so proud and just so blessed to have coached this team,” said the head coach of the Cardinal.

“We’ll have a number of players that will move on, whether it’s seniors or juniors who will get drafted and won’t return to the program. Boy, what a mark they left on our program… They’ve left our program a better place than they found it.

“I usually challenge them when we go to an opposing park, whether it’s their dugout or locker room, I always challenge them to leave it better than we found it. They took it to heart as far as what they did for our program. So I’ve got nothing but pride. It’s my alma mater. It’s my school. It’s a place where I played and won a national title.”

As for the loss on Monday, Esquer admitted his group was going to have to do something special offensively to get a run off Tennessee reliever Chase Burns. The Vols’ star went 6 shutout innings out of the bullpen with 9 strikeouts.

Stanford ends the season with a 44-18 overall record and the No. 8 national seed in the NCAA Tournament. It is also the 3rd straight CWS trip for the Cardinal though the program is looking for its first trip to the CWS Finals since 2003.