Feb. 28, 2003
Stanford, Calif. - No. 16 USC (7-6) rolled to a 13-4 win over No. 9 Stanford (9-7) in the opener of a non-conference series at Sunken Diamond on Friday. USC homered three times in the first four innings to jump out to an early 6-3 lead and tacked on seven more runs in the final three innings by taking advantage of six Stanford errors that led to five unearned runs. The six errors were the most by Stanford since the Cardinal also committed six in a 13-7 win at Cal State Fullerton on February 7, 1999.
"We obviously made six errors and that was sloppy play on our part," said Stanford head coach Mark Marquess. "But most of them were late in the game when USC already had a sizeable lead. They also swung the bats really well tonight, especially with three home runs in the first four innings, and just really outplayed us."
Stanford's John Mayberry, Jr. (3-4, RBI, SB) extended his career-high hit streak to nine games, while Danny Putnam (2-4, 2 2B, RBI) had a pair of doubles.
USC starter Brian Bannister (3-1) picked up the victory, scattering four runs and seven hits with four strikeouts over the first 7.0 innings. Stanford's John Hudgins (3-1) suffered his first loss of the season, allowing eight runs (six earned) and nine hits with six strikeouts over the first 6.0 frames.
Travis McAndrews (3-4, 2B, HR, RBI) and Michael Moon (3-5, 2B, HR, 3 RBI) had three hits each for USC. Anthony Lunetta (1-3, HR, 2 RBI) and David Gordon (1-5, HR, 2 RBI) added homers for the Trojans.
USC started the scoring in the top of the second when Joey Metropoulos doubled with one out, advanced to third on a passed ball and scored on an RBI double by Moon.
The Trojans picked up three runs in the top of the third inning to take a 4-0 lead on McAndrews' solo homer and a two-run shot by Lunetta that also scored Jon Brewster, who had singled prior to Lunetta's at-bat.
Stanford struck back with three runs in the bottom of the third to cut the Trojan advantage to 4-3. Chris Lewis doubled to lead off the rally, moved to third on a balk and scored on a sacrifice fly by Sam Fuld for the first run. Carlos Quentin drew a one-out walk to restart the threat and was doubled home by Ryan Garko, who moved to third on a passed ball and scored on an RBI double by Putnam.
USC answered with two runs in the top of the fourth to make the score 6-3 when Moon led off with a single and Gordon followed with a two-run homer.
Stanford's sixth inning run briefly cut the USC lead to 6-4 when Putnam led off the inning with a double and scored on an RBI single from Mayberry.
USC scored seven runs in the final three innings as the Cardinal committed five errors in the final three frames.
In the seventh, Matt Bonovich reached on a fielding error by Stanford third baseman Jed Lowrie to start the rally. The Trojans proceeded to load the bases on single by McAndrews and a walk to Brewster. Stanford reliever Mark Jecmen then uncorked a wild pitch to score Bonovich and walked Lunetta before he was replaced by Drew Ehrlich, who retired Jeff Clement for the first out of the inning on an infield fly to Lewis at second. Metropoulous then grounded out to Lewis to bring home McAndrews with the second run of the inning before Moon followed with a two-RBI single to cap the rally.
USC scored three unearned runs in the ninth without a hit by taking advantage of three Cardinal errors. Lunetta was hit by Cardinal reliever Jeff Gilmore to lead off the inning. Gilmore retired the next two batters before three consecutive errors by Lewis, Mayberry and Lowrie gave USC three tallies.
Stanford and USC continue their three-game series with single games scheduled for Saturday and Sunday at Sunken Diamond with start times each day at 1:00 pm.