May 7, 2000
Corvallis, OR - Edmund Muths RBI double in the top of the eighth inning broke a 5-5 tie and led #3 Stanford (37-12, 15-6 Pac-10) to a 7-5 victory at Oregon State (27-22, 8-10 Pac-10) in a Pac-10 baseball game at Goss Stadium on Sunday. The Cardinal remains one-half game ahead of UCLA and moves 1.5 games ahead of idle Arizona State in a tight Pac-10 pennant race. UCLA, which will visit Sunken Diamond on the final weekend of the Pac-10 season on May 19-21, was an 8-7 winner over California at home on Sunday. Todays victory helped the Cardinal take two-of-three in the weekend series despite being surprised by the Beavers, 5-2, in Saturdays middle game of the series.
Joe Borchard followed Muths eighth inning double with an RBI single to score Muth and give the Cardinal its final 7-5 advantage.
"This was another big win for this team," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess following the game. "We have now assured ourselves to play for at least a share of the Pac-10 title the following weekend of the regular season versus UCLA."
Stanford led 5-1 until Brian Barden hit a grand slam off Jeff Bruksch with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning to tie the score at 5-5. Oregon State had loaded the bases on a single by pinch hitter Rod Gott and a pair of walks from Stanford reliever Mike Gosling to Will Hudson and Bryan Ingram.
Ryan McCally held Oregon State scoreless in the eighth and ninth innings to earn the first save of his collegiate career. McCally relieved Bruksch after he had walked Zach Gordon to lead off the bottom of the eighth. Bruksch (4-3) was credited with the victory despite giving up Bardens game-tying grand slam.
Stanford had five players Muth (2-3, 2B, RBI), Borchard (2-4, 3 RBI), Eric Bruntlett (2-5, RBI), Arik VanZandt (2-5) and Damien Alvarado (2-5) with two hits each. Josh Carter (3-4) was the only Oregon State player with a multiple-hit afternoon.
The Cardinal scored three times in the top of the second inning off losing pitcher James Atwood (3-5) to take an early 3-0 lead. Andy Tophams ground ball down the first base line took a bad hop and bounced over OSU first baseman Joe Gerbers head for an RBI double giving the Cardinal its first run. Topham scored on an RBI ground out by Craig Thompson before Bruntletts RBI single brought home VanZandt with the third run of the frame.
The score remained 3-0 until the Beavers broke through with a run in the fifth when Hudson scored on Ingrams sacrifice fly.
Stanford added a pair of runs in the top of the sixth on a key two-RBI single by Borchard.
Stanford will play four consecutive non-conference games before returning to Pac-10 action by hosting UCLA at Sunken Diamond in the final weekend of the regular season from May 19-21 (6 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm). The team will visit Santa Clara next Tuesday (7 pm) and host Saint Marys on Wednesday (6 pm) before a taking a rare weekend off. Stanford will travel to USF (Monday, May 15, 2:30 pm) and Nevada (Tuesday, May 16, 2 pm) next week prior to the UCLA series.