April 8, 2011
LOS ANGELES-- Mark Appel (2-3) threw six no hit innings, finishing with a four hitter, striking out a career-best seven as No. 11-ranked Stanford (15-7, 3-1 Pac-10) won the series opener at USC (11-19, 2-5 Pac-10) 8-1 on Friday evening.
Los Angeles native Austin Wilson drove in the first two runs, while Zach Jones added two hits and two RBIs as well. Seven players had multi-hit games in the 17-hit attack. San Diego native Tyler Gaffney went 3-for-3, reaching base five times.
Appel, who had a no hitter through six, gave up one unearned run and walked none in his first career complete game.
Adam Landecker broke up the no hitter with a leadoff single through the right side of the infield in the seventh, snapping a streak of 13 in a row by Appel. Landecker later scored when center fielder Jake Stewart misplayed a Joe De Pinto single to make it 5-1.
Appel kept it to one run in the eighth, putting runners on the corners, before his seventh strikeout and a double play ball kept it at 6-1.
Showing his dominance early, Appel got three groundouts in the fifth, and two called strike threes in the sixth as the righthander tossed 66 pitches through six. Of which, fifty were strikes. He also pitched to one over the minimum through six.
Stanford's five hits and four runs led to a 4-0 lead in the fifth. Wilson's two-run double broke up the shutout in the fifth to make it 2-0, before an RBI single by Jones made it 3-0. A sacrifice fly then made it 4-0. Another sacrifice fly in the seventh made it 5-0 following Jones' second hit of the game.
Kenny Diekroeger extended his hit streak to 16 games with a single in the third.
Andrew Triggs (2-3) threw the fist seven innings, giving up seven runs for the loss.
NOTES: Saturday's game is at 6 p.m and Sunday's game is at 1 p.m... Stanford Director of Baseball Operations Kevin Bills and his wife, Whitney, welcomed their second boy on Thursday... on Cal's reinstatement announcement, "That's fantastic," said Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball Mark Marquess. "Everyone in college baseball is thrilled about saving this prestigious program with 120 years of a rich tradition. We are their biggest rival and we are thrilled they are back where they should be."