NCAA REGIONAL AT STANFORD, CALIF.
May 26, 2000 (7:00 p.m. - Game 1)
Sunken Diamond
#4 Fresno State vs. #1 Stanford
Stanford, Calif. -- Stanford's Jason Young threw a complete game five-hitter and Craig Thompson had three RBI as Stanford defeated Fresno State,, 5-1 in the first round of the NCAA Regional at Stanford. With the win, Stanford advances to play Alabama at 3:00 pm (PDT) on Saturday. Fresno State will now play Nevada in a losers backet game at 11:00 am (PDT) tomorrow morning. The winner of the losers bracket game will advance to a 7:00 pm game versus the loser of the Alabama-Stanford contest.
Stanford took the early lead with a single run in the bottom of the third inning thanks to a two-out RBI double by Thompson. The Bulldogs fought back to tie the game in the fifth inning when Mike Bowlin brought around Nick Garcia from first base with a RBI double.
The Cardinal took the lead for good with another single run in the bottom of the fifth inning. Thompson was again the hero as he singled home Andy Topham with one out. Stanford stretched the lead out to 4-1 with two more runs in the seventh. It was the Topham-Thompson connection again as Topham doubled home Chris O'Riordan with one out and later scored when Thompson singled to left field.
For the evening, Thompson led all hitters with three hits while Eric Bruntlett, O'Riordan and Topham had two hits each.
On the mound, Young (8-0) was equally impressive as he struck out nine Bulldogs and walked none as he won his 14th straight decision, two short of the Pac-10 record set by John Olerud in 1987-88 and Justin Wayne in 1999-2000. In addition, Young continued to excel in the post-season as he moved his record to 4-0 and pitched his fourth complete game in five non-regular season starts.
R H E Fresno State 0-0-0-0-1-0-0-0-0 1 5 2 Stanford 0-0-1-0-1-0-2-1-x 5 13 0
Batteries: Fresno State ? Hannah, Smith(7) and Harper. Stanford - Young and Alvarado. 2B - Bowlin (FSU), Thompson, Bruntlett, Alvarado and Topham, 2 (STAN) 3B - T. Creighton (FSU) WP - Young (8-0) LP - Hannah (7-4) SV - None TOG: 2:04 Attendance: 2,827 Updated Records: Fresno State 40-20, Stanford 42-14 Next Game: Fresno State (Sat., 11 am, vs. Nevada), Stanford (Sat., 3 pm, vs. Alabama)