May 19, 2000
Stanford, Calif. - UCLA (35-22, 17-5 Pac-10) clinched a share of the Pac-10 baseball championship with a 10-9 comeback win at #2 Stanford (40-13, 15-7 Pac-10) in front of a Sunken Diamond regular season record crowd of 4,080 spectators in the first of a three-game series at Sunken Diamond on Friday. The unranked Bruins completed their comeback when Bill Scott scored on a wild pitch by losing pitcher Jeff Bruksch (4-4) with the bases loaded and one out in the top of the ninth inning. UCLA moves 2.0 full games ahead of both Stanford and #3 Arizona State (both 15-7 in the Pac-10) with two games remaining for all three clubs on the Pac-10 regular season schedule. The SunDevils were a 19-11 loser at Arizona on Friday.
UCLA scored its ninth inning run without the benefit of a hit as Bruksch walked four batters before striking out Randall Shelley and pinch hitter Eric Reese with the bases loaded to get out of the inning.
Shelley hit two of UCLA's five home runs with a solo shot in the fourth and a two-run blast in the sixth. Charles Merricks (solo in 4th), Chase Utley (solo in 7th) and Jim Hemming (two-run in 7th) also homered for the Bruins. The Cardinal had three homers as Craig Thompson (solo in 1st), Andy Topham (two-run in 2nd) and Eric Bruntlett (solo in 3rd) all went deep for Stanford.
"This was obviously a tough loss, but we just have to come out and play hard tomorrow," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "Although we walked four batters in the ninth, you still have to give them credit because they came up with some big hits earlier in the game. Normally, when we score nine runs that is enough for our team, but tonight that wasn't the case."
UCLA relief pitcher Jon Brandt (7-5) earned the victory by holding the Cardinal hitless in 3.0 innings of work after entering the game to begin the seventh inning. Brandt retired all nine batters he faced with a pair of strikeouts.
Stanford jumped out to a 5-1 lead after three innings and still led 9-5 before the Bruins scored four times in the top of the seventh to tie the score. Utley's 19th homer of the year cut the lead to 9-6 before an RBI-single by Forrest Johnson reduced Stanford's margin to 9-7. Hemming's two-run homer tied the game at 9-9 and the contest remained knotted until the top of the ninth.
UCLA scored the first run of the game in the top of the first on an RBI-single by Scott. The Cardinal tied the contest at 1-1 on Thompson's solo homer, the fourth time this season he has homered to lead off the Cardinal half of the first. Topham's two-run shot in the second gave Stanford a 3-1 margin before Bruntlett's solo homer and an RBI-single by Joe Borchard in third gave Stanford a 5-1 lead.
UCLA cut the margin to 6-3 on solo homers by Merricks and Shelley in the fourth before Stanford answered with a bases loaded walk by Bruntlett in the bottom of the fourth to increase its lead to 7-3.
The Bruins came back with a pair of runs in the sixth on Shelley's two-run homer to cut the lead to 6-5 before Stanford again answered with three runs in the bottom of the sixth on an RBI-single by Thompson, an RBI-groundout by Muth and an RBI-double by Borchard to go ahead 9-5.Merricks (3-4, HR, RBI) had three hits for the Bruins. Shelley (2-4, 2 HR, 3 RBI), Utley (2-5, 2B, HR, RBI) and Hemming (2-4, HR, 2 RBI) each had two hits for UCLA. Four Stanford players - Topham (2-3, HR, 2 RBI), Thompson (2-4, HR, 2 RBI), Arik VanZandt (2-4) and Borchard (2-5, 2B) - had two hits each.
VanZandt extended his career-high hitting streak to 10 games.
Stanford and UCLA will finish the regular season with games on Saturday and Sunday, both beginning at 1:00 p.m. The first 1,000 fans in attendance Saturday will receive Stanford Baseball mouse pads sponsored by iPrint.com and seeUthere.com. Sunday will be Fan Appreciation/Senior Day as six Stanford seniors will be honored in a pre-game ceremony prior to their final regular season home contest for the Cardinal.