April 24, 1999
BERKELEY, Calif. - Sophomore shortstop Jason Williams hit a two-run homer with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to lead the University of California baseball team to a come-from-behind 11-9 victory over No. 4 ranked Stanford Friday at Evans Diamond. Cal, which has won six of its last seven games, improves to 21-26 overall and 7-9 in the Pac-10, while Stanford goes to 27-12, 12-4 in league.
Williams'two-run homer over the left field wall highlighted a six-run ninth inning for the Bears. Down 9-5 entering the bottom of the ninth, Cal was finally able to get to Stanford starter Jason Young (8.0 innings, nine hits, seven runs, three walks, nine strikeouts), who had struck out Curtis Johnson to lead-off the ninth, but Johnson got on base via a wild pitch. Young, who had shutout the Bears from the third through the ninth innings, then walked Preston Sharp and was replaced by Austin Coose. Coose proceeded to walk Xavier Nady and was taken out in favor of Mike Wodricki. Wodricki forced Mike Tonis to ground out to Cardinal shortstop Eric Bruntlett, but Jeff Rizzos relay throw on the attempted double play sailed high, allowing Johnson and Sharp to score.
Wodricki walked Cals next batter, David Sark, to put Sark on first and Tonis on second base. Stanford brought in Tony Cogan, whose wild pitch allowed Tonis and Sark to advance a base. The Bears Clint Hoover then hit a two-run single to left field to tie the game, 9-9. Cogan (3-3) got Tommy Callen to fly out to center for the second out, but then gave up the game-winning homer to Williams.
The winning pitcher for Cal was junior reliever Jon Cuccias (1-0), who came in in the seventh inning, pitching 2.3 innings with two hits, one run, one walk and one strikeout.
Stanford started the game off by scoring two runs in the first inning off of Cal starter Jon Shirley (6.0 innings, six hits, four runs, five walks, four strikeouts), on a fielders choice RBI by Josh Hochgesang and an RBI single by Damien Alvarado. The Bears came back and took a 4-2 lead in the bottom of the second inning on a grand slam home run by center fielder Johnson. Cal tacked on another run in the third inning on an RBI double by Williams to take a 5-2.
But Stanford kept on chipping away, scoring a run in the fourth inning on a lead-off homer by Edmund Muth, and Muth added a sacrifice fly in the sixth inning to get the Cardinal within 5-4. Stanford then exploded for four runs in the seventh inning on a two-run double by pinch hitter Craig Thompson and a two-run double by Bruntlett off of Cal reliever David Cash to take an 8-5 lead. Alvarados RBI single in the eighth inning off of the Bears Cuccias gave the Cardinal their final 9-5 lead.
Cal will next host Stanford in the second game of the three-game conference series, Saturday Apr. 24 at 1 p.m. at Evans Diamond.
HOME RUNS:
Stanford: Muth, solo home run in the fourth.
Cal: Williams, two-run homer in the ninth.