May 15, 1999
WESTWOOD, Calif. - Stanford University clinched its third straight Pac-10 regular-season baseball title on Saturday afternoon, and earned an automatic bid to the 1999 NCAA Tournament.
The Cardinal fell 12-7 to UCLA Saturday to snap its 12-game winning streak, but just moments after the game's conclusion Stanford earned the Pac-10 title by virtue of second-place USC's 8-7 loss to Washington. Stanford is now 18-5 in the Pac-10, and leads the Trojans (16-7) by two games with one to go.
The conference title is the 17th in Stanford baseball history, and the ninth for 23rd-year head coach Mark Marquess. Stanford won the final two Pac-10 Southern Division regular-season titles in 1997 and 1998, and has now made it three in a row in the first year of the reunified Pac-10.
The NCAA Tournament appearance will be Stanford's sixth in a row and 17th in the last 19 years. The newly expanded 64-team NCAA Tournament bracket will be unveiled on Monday, May 24 at noon on ESPN. But first, Stanford will find out Monday, May 17th at noon if it will be named as one of the 16 host sites for NCAA Regional competition.
Stanford didn't appear to need Washington's help on Saturday, carrying a 7-3 lead into the eighth inning thanks to a three home run performance by junior John Gall (Portola Valley, CA/St. Francis HS). Gall hit two-run homers in the third, fifth and seventh innings to become the first Cardinal player to record three round-trippers in a game in over a decade. Gall finished the afternoon 3-for-5 with three runs scored and six RBI.
UCLA rallied, however, with nine runs in the bottom of the eighth against five different Cardinal pitchers to put the game out of reach. Bruin first baseman Garrett Atkins hit two homers in the inning - a two-run blast and a solo shot - to highlight the rally. But within five minutes of the final out in Westwood, Washington closed out its one-run victory over USC to wrap up Stanford's Pac-10 title.
The Cardinal closes out conference play on Sunday at UCLA at 1 p.m.