March 31, 2000
Second-ranked Stanford (20-7, 2-1 Pac-10) visits #7 Arizona State (26-7, 2-1 Pac-10) in a key matchup between two of the Pac-10's top teams this Friday-Sunday (7 pm, 1 pm, 1 pm). The teams enter the series tied for second place and one game behind league-leader USC. Friday night's opener will be telecast live in the Phoenix area on COX Sports with George Allen handling the play-by-play and Doug Gerlach providing analysis. Stanford has dropped a notch to #2 in Baseball America despite winning four of its last five games. The Cardinal won two-of-three in a home series versus Arizona last weekend to open conference play and have sandwiched that series with non-conference wins over Saint Mary's each of the past Tuesday games. Stanford's bats have heated up of late as the Cardinal equaled a season-high with 14 hits in each of the games versus Saint Mary's. The 20 wins for Stanford are tied with USC for the second most overall victories in the conference, while the Sun Devils have won a Pac-10 high 26 games. Stanford swept the Devils in its Pac-10 opening series last season at Sunken Diamond. Jason Young tossed a complete-game six hitter in the opener, an 11-1 Stanford win. The Cardinal eeked out a 6-5, 10 inning win on Saturday thanks to Eric Bruntlett's two-out RBI-single in the bottom of the 10th. Stanford closed out the series with an 11-8 win as Nick Day and Jeff Rizzo each homered and drove in three runs. Stanford has won six straight overall in the series. The Cardinal won two-of-three games the last time the teams played at ASU's Packard Stadium in 1998. ASU leads the all-time series, 72-71.