April 21, 2000
Los Angeles, Calif. - Junior righthander Jason Young and sophomore reliever Jeff Bruksch combined for a four-hitter as #4 Stanford (30-10, 10-4 Pac-10) held off USC (27-16, 8-6 Pac-10) for a 4-1 victory in a key Pac-10 baseball game Friday at Dedeaux Field. Stanford moves back into a tie for first place in the Pac-10 with Arizona State, a loser at home to UCLA this evening. The Bruins are in third place, a half game behind the Cardinal and the Sun Devils.
Young, who won his 12th consecutive decision, was dominant most of the game as he only allowed three hits and one unearned through the first 7.2 innings. Young improved to 6-0 this season, winning for the fourth time in his last five starts, and allowed only one hit after the first inning. He retired 10 straight batters between the first and fifth innings.
Jeff Bruksch picked up his ninth save of the season and his fourth in Stanford's last six games, striking out Bill Peavey on a 3-2 pitch with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to preserve a 2-1 Cardinal lead. Bruksch, who was just named Pac-10 Pitcher of the Week on Monday after saving three games last week, came on in relief of Young in the bottom of the eighth inning and runners on first and third base with two outs. Bruksch walked Anthony Lunetta to load the bases before striking out Peavey to end the threat and quiet a boisterous USC crowd. Justin Gemoll had started the Trojan rally when he singled off Young with two outs, the first hit off Young since the first inning. Young left the game after a wild pitch and an error by Cardinal shortstop Eric Bruntlett.
"He's done that before," said head coach Mark Marquess about the clutch performance by Bruksch. "He doesn't shake when you put him in there in that type of situation. That's why he's our closer."
"This was obviously a big win for us with a lot riding on it," added Marquess. "This is a great rivalry with lots of competition."
Young also held off a serious USC threat in the fifth inning when he loaded the bases by hitting three Trojan batters before retiring USC clean up hitter Beau Craig on a ground ball to first base to end the inning.
The game was tied 1-1 before Borchard blasted his 10th home run of the season to lead off the fourth inning, an opposite field shot which just cleared the left field wall to give the Cardinal a 2-1 advantage.
USC opened the scoring with an unearned run in the first inning. Seth Davidson doubled with one out and eventually came around to score when Stanford second baseman Chris O'Riordan made an error on Beau Craig's two-out ground ball. The Cardinal tied the score at 1-1 on Topham's RBI single in the second.
Craig Thompson hit a two-run homer with two outs in the top of the ninth to give the Cardinal a pair of insurance runs.
Damien Alvarado (2-3), Borchard (2-4, HR, RBI) and Thompson (2-5, HR, 2 RBI) had multiple-hit games for the Cardinal. Gemoll (2-4) was the only Trojan with more than one hit.
John Gall set a new career high when he extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a single in the sixth inning.
USC's Mark Prior (5-6) took the loss despite holding the Cardinal to eight hits and three runs in the first 8.0 innings.
Stanford and USC conclude the three-game series with Sunday's rubber game beginning at 1:00 p.m.