March 25, 2000
Stanford, Calif. - Jason Young tossed his first complete game of the year and recorded a season-high 11 strikeouts to lead #1 Stanford (18-7, 1-1 Pac-10) to a 6-4 victory over Arizona (17-17, 2-3 Pac-10) in a Pac-10 baseball game televised nationally by FOX Sports Net at Sunken Diamond. The victory was Young's ninth straight dating back to last season as he improved to 16-4 all-time at Stanford. Edmund Muth and Joe Borchard each hit two-run homers to key the Cardinal offense.
"This was a huge victory coming off last night's loss," said Young, who scattered nine hits and allowed four runs. "I take pride in pitching complete games. Having to fight like I did today will help build me back to where I was last year. It's exciting to start to get back to that point."
Young was an All-American last season as a sophomore, posting a 12-3 record with a team-high 10 complete games. He improves to 3-0 with a 3.98 ERA this year.
"Jason Young gave us a great pitching performance today," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "He's a guy who closes games out and gets stronger as he goes. He gets after it and that's why I might stay with him a little longer than I do with some other pitchers."
"Offensively, the difference in the game was obviously the home runs by (Joe) Borchard and (Edmund) Muth," added Marquess. "Other than those two swings of the bat, we didn't do a whole lot offensively."
After spotting Arizona a run in the top of the first on an RBI-groundout by Keoni DeRenne, the Cardinal took its first lead at 2-1 on Muth's two-run shot to right field in the bottom of the first. Muth leads the club with seven home runs on the season.
Stanford added single runs in the fourth and fifth innings to increase its lead to 4-1. Chris O'Riordan had a sacrifice fly in the fourth before Eric Bruntlett scored on a wild pitch in the fifth. Bruntlett had tripled earlier in the inning to extend his season-high hitting streak to 10 games.
The Wildcats scored a run in the top of the seventh to cut Stanford's lead to 4-2. Young hit Kenny Huff to lead off the inning before a double by Mike Meyer put runners on second and third with no outs. Huff would score on a sacrifice fly by pinch-hitter Matt Abram before Young struck out Troy Gingrich and Trevor Mote to end the threat.
Borchard's fifth homer of the year, a two-run shot in the seventh, put Stanford back in front, 6-2. However, Arizona scored twice in the eighth off of Young on an RBI-single by Ryan O'Donnell and a sacrifice fly from Huff.
The Wildcats had the tying run on first base in the top of the ninth after singles by Erik Torres and Mote. Young then retired the final two hitters on a diving catch by Stanford's Billy Jacobson in foul territory down the left field line and a strike out of cleanup hitter Ben Diggins to complete the game.
Borchard (2-for-3, HR, 2 RBI) was the only Cardinal with more than one hit, while Arizona's Ernie Durazo (2-for-4, 2 2B) and Mote (2-for-4) had two hits each for the Wildcats.
Stanford's Craig Thompson also extended his season-high hitting streak to nine games with a single in the fifth.
Arizona reliever Ben Crawford (4-5) was tagged with the loss, giving up five hits and three runs in 5.2 innings.
The teams conclude their three-game series at Sunken Diamond on Sunday (1:00 p.m.).