April 5, 1997

USC Baseball Drops One to Stanford

LOS ANGELES -- Despite a two-run ninth inning rally by the Trojans, No. 4 Stanford held on to defeat No. 7 USC 4-2 Saturday at Dedeaux Field. The Trojans drop to 29-12 overall and 11-9 in Pac-10 Southern Division play while the Cardinal is 25-8 (12-2 in the league).

Sophomore righthander Chad Hutchinson, the quarterback for the Stanford football team, pitched seven shutout innings with one walk and nine strikeouts to record the win (3-1), retiring 12 in a row at one point. He was replaced by sophomore Jeff Austin in the eighth.

USC staved off a shutout in the ninth inning, as Austin walked the first two batters and then Marc Mirizzi loaded the bases with an infield single. Freshman Eric Munson drove in USC's first run with a single to right field. Austin was replaced by Tony Coagan, who retired the first two Trojans he faced on shallow fly balls. A two-out single by Brad Ticehurst drove in USC's final run, but Cogan got Wes Rachels to ground out to end the game and give Cogan his second save.

Stanford was led offensively by Luke Quaccia, who was 3-for-4 with a double and two RBI, and Edmund Muth, who was 3-for-4 with a double.

Junior righthander Seth Etherton went six and one-third innings and took the loss for the Trojans (5-2).

Stanford has now won five in a row over USC.

The series will conclude tomorrow at Dedeaux Field at 1 p.m.

Stanford 4, USC 2

Stanford  002 001 100  -  4 11 0
USC       000 000 002  -  2  6 2

Hutchinson, austin (8), Cogan (9) and Schaeffer.
Etherton, Weibling (7) and Brown.
WP: Hutchinson (3-1); LP: Etherton (5-2); S: Cogan (2).