May 1, 1999
STANFORD, Calif. - Junior Edmund Muth (Long Beach, CA/St. John Bosco HS) went 3-for-4 with a home run to lead sixth-ranked Stanford (32-12 overall, 16-4 in the Pac-10) to a 10-5 win over Oregon State (15-32, 3-14) on Saturday afternoon at Sunken Diamond.
Stanford's victory, coupled with USC's 3-2 loss to UCLA, gives the Cardinal a one-game Pac-10 lead over the Trojans with four games remaining. USC led 2-0 after eight, but the Bruins rallied for three in the top of the ninth to pull off the upset. The Cardinal and Trojans both return to action on Sunday at 1 p.m., with Stanford hosting Oregon State and USC hosting UCLA.
The Beavers took a 1-0 lead in the top of the first on an RBI single by junior Tim Dryden (Roesburg, OR/Lane CC), but Stanford answered with four runs in both the third and fourth innings to put the game away. The Cardinal took a 4-1 lead in the third thanks to two-run single by junior Jeff Rizzo (San Diego, CA/La Jolla HS) and an RBI base hit by junior John Gall (Portola Valley, CA/St. Francis HS). After Oregon State made it 4-2 in the top of the fourth on an RBI single by sophomore Eric Stark (Sumner, WA/Sumner HS) , the hosts answered with four two-out tuns in the bottom half of the fourth to take a commanding 8-2 advantage. Junior Eric Bruntlett (North Lafayette, IN/Harrison HS) started the rally with a two-out solo homer to left that was the first round-tripper of his collegiate career. Sophomore Joe Borchard (Camarillo, CA/Camarillo HS) and Gall later added back-to-back RBI singles to cap the rally. Stanford wrapped up its scoring with a run in the fifth on a solo homer by Muth and a run in the eighth. The Cardinal finished the afternoon with 12 hits, led by three apiece from Gall and Muth.
The early run support was more than enough for Stanford starting pitcher Justin Wayne (Honolulu, HI/Punahou HS), who worked the first 7.0 innings to improve to 6-1 in '99 and 12-1 in his collegiate career. Wayne allowed seven hits and three runs, two earned, while walking two and striking out eight.
Oregon State matched Stanford in the hit column with 12, but left 10 runners on base. Junior Joe Gerber (Portland, OR/Grant HS) and Stark had two hits apiece for the Beavers, while sophomore Curtis Davis (Corvallis, OR/Corvallis HS) added a two-run double in the ninth. Starter B.R. Cook (Salem, OR/Sprague HS) took the loss for Oregon State, and fell to 5-8.
Linescore
Oregon State 100 100 102 - 5 12 2 Stanford 004 410 10x - 10 12 2Cook, Strode (5), Ranstad (8) and Ingram, Sakamoto (5); Wayne, Rich (8), Coose (9) and Alvarado. WP - Wayne (6-1). LP - Cook (5-8). 2B - Gerber (OSU), Davis (OSU), Willkie (OSU), Muth (STAN). 3B - Day (STAN). HR - Bruntlett (STAN) 4th inning, none on; Muth (STAN) 5th inning, none on. Records - Oregon State 15-32 overall (3-14 in the Pac-10), Stanford 32-12 (16-4).