March 17, 2000
Stanford, Calif. - Second-ranked Stanford (15-5) remained hot with a 4-3 non-conference win over #12 USC (13-8) at Sunken Diamond. Justin Wayne tossed a complete-game four-hitter to improve to 6-0 this season and 22-1 in his Stanford career, the best all-time mark ever by a Stanford pitcher. The Cardinal rode Wayne's third complete game in his last four outings to its eighth victory in the last nine games. Wayne stuck out 11 batters, marking the fourth straight outing he has struck out 10 or more hitters.
Wayne regained his composure late in tonight's contest by retiring the final eight Trojans of the game after allowing a pair of runs in the sixth and one in the seventh. He had been cruising along with a one-hit shutout through the first five innings before Seth Davidson led off the top of the sixth with a double. Davidson would score the Trojans' first run two batters later on a sacrifice fly by Beau Craig. USC added another run later in the inning on an errant throw by Stanford right fielder Joe Borchard.
Stanford added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI-single by Damien Alvarado to score Borchard, who had doubled with one out.
USC scored its final run off Wayne in the seventh inning when Wayne balked to bring home Josh Self, who had reached with one out on an error by Cardinal third baseman John Gall. Wayne then retired the final eight batters from that point. The Trojans did have the tying run on second base in the seventh after the balk but did not have a base runner in either the eighth or ninth.
"It was a confidence builder for me to have Coach (Mark) Marquess keep me out there," Wayne commented after the game. "The big thing for me was not to let a couple of errors or unfortunate things get me down."
Stanford had struck first in tonight's game with a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth inning off losing pitcher Mark Prior (4-2). Eric Bruntlett scored the first run on a wild pitch and Edmund Muth later came across the plate on an RBI-single by Billy Jacobson. Stanford added an unearned run in the bottom of the fifth on an RBI-single by Bruntlett.
Borchard (2-4, 2B) was the only player for either team with two or more hits.
The Cardinal did commit a season-high four errors.
Stanford and USC will continue their three-game non-conference series at Sunken Diamond on Saturday and Sunday. Both games begin at 1:00 p.m.