April 13, 2001
Stanford, Calif. - Jeff Bruksch tossed his second complete game of the season as No. 1 Stanford (30-7, 9-2 Pac-10) defeated Oregon State (21-15, 5-6 Pac-10) by a score of 8-1 in a Pac-10 conference game at Sunken Diamond on Friday. Stanford's win allowed the Cardinal to stay one game ahead of USC in the Pac-10 race as the Trojans defeated California, 5-3, for the second straight day in Berkeley on Friday. Stanford has now won five straight games and 16 of its last 18. The Cardinal has also won 17 consecutive regular season series and nine straight against Pac-10 opponents dating back to last season.
"We got another great pitching performance from Jeff Bruskch against a really good offensive team," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "We've gotten great pitching performances back-to-back so far this series from (Jeremy) Guthrie and Bruksch."
Ryan Garko (4-4, 2B, HR, 2 RBI) and Chris O'Riordan (4-4, 2B, HR, RBI) both had career-highs of four hits, while Andy Topham (3-4, 2 2B, 3 RBI) had three hits.
"We hit the ball pretty well against (Scott) Nicholson tonight," added Marquess. "He is one of the best pitchers in the Pac-10. I didn't think we would score this many runs against him."
Bruksch (8-0, 2.25) became the second Stanford pitcher to reach the eight-win mark this season as he allowed just five hits and one run. Bruksch struck out eight and walked none as he retired 12 in a row at one point and allowed just one runner past second base after the Beavers scored a run in the second inning. Bruksch has given up only five earned runs in his last 62.2 innings.
"It was a little bit of a letdown to give up a run that early in the game," said a serious Bruksch after game. "But, I was happy to get out of the inning with minimal damage after they had runners on second and third with no outs. Mentally, I had no problems with it later in the game. Once I finish an inning, I just move on to the next inning and focus on that. I just concentrated on putting up zeros after that."
The game was tied 1-1 before the Cardinal scored three times in the bottom of the sixth inning on an RBI triple by Carlos Quentin and a two-out, two-run homer from Garko, his second of the season.
Oregon State had jumped out to a 1-0 lead by scoring a run off Bruksch in the second inning on a base hit by Brian Barden, a hit batsmen, a wild pitch and an RBI groundout from Andy Jarvis. Stanford tied the game 1-1 in the bottom of the fifth when Garko doubled to lead off the inning and scored on a one-out single by Topham.
The Cardinal scored a pair of insurance runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. Topham led off the seventh with his second double of the evening and scored on a sacrifice fly by Sam Fuld. O'Riordan then hit a solo shot, his team-leading eighth homer of the year, to put Stanford ahead, 6-1. Stanford's final two runs scored on a two-RBI double by Topham in the bottom of the eighth.
Fuld had his career-high hitting streak snapped at 13 games with an 0-for-3 performance.Barden (2-3) was the only Oregon State player with more than one hit.
Oregon State's Scott Nicholson (7-2) was charged with the loss as he allowed 16 hits and eight runs in 7.2 innings.
Stanford and Oregon State conclude their three-game conference series Saturday (1 pm).