April 25, 1998

STANFORD, Calif.--- Sophomore Edmund Muth's (Long Beach, CA/St. John Bosco HS) RBI single with one out in the bottom of the ninth inning led host Stanford University (35-7-1 overall, 17-5 in the Six-Pac) to a 4-3 win over California (16-28, 3-22) on Friday night at Sunken Diamond. Muth's ninth inning heroics made a winner out of Stanford starter Jeff Austin (Kingwood, TX/Kingwood HS), who struck out a career-high 15 en route to a complete game five-hitter.

Sophomore Nick Day (Las Vegas, NV/Green Valley HS) led off the bottom of the ninth with a double to left field. One out later, Muth lined a single to right and Day's head-first slide just beat the tag of California catcher Jason Hill (Alamo, CA/Monte Vista HS) to give Stanford its fourth straight win.

The ninth inning run helped Austin improve to 10-2 this season, and earn his first career win against the Golden Bears. He walked none and struck out 15, while allowing just five hits and three earned runs. In 18.0 innings against California this season, the junior right-hander has struck out 26 and not walked a batter.

Austin outdeuled Cal freshman Jason Dennis (Concord, CA/De La Salle HS), who threw his second complete game of the season against the Cardinal. Dennis allowed seven hits and three earned runs over 8.1 innings, while walking two and striking out seven.

Offensively for Stanford, John Gall (Portola Valley, CA/St. Francis HS) blasted a two-run home run in the bottom of the fifth to give the Cardinal a 3-2 lead. But California right fielder Aaron Gordnier (Rocklin, CA/Roseville HS) countered with a solo shot in the top of the seventh that tied the game at 3-3. Gordnier also hit a solo homer in the fourth, and now has six in his last six games.

Game two of this Six-Pac set is on Saturday at 2 p.m. at California's Evans Diamond.

   
Linescore                       R   H   E
California      100 100 100 --- 3   5   2
Stanford        001 020 001 --- 4   7   1

Dennis and Hill; Austin and Salter, Alvarado (8). WP - Austin (10-2). LP - Dennis (5-4). 2B - Hill (CAL), C. Johnson (CAL), Muth (STAN), Schrager (STAN), Day (STAN). HR - Gordnier (CAL) 2: 4th inning, none on & 7th inning, none on; Gall (STAN) 5th inning, one on. Records - California 16-28 overall (2-22 in the Six-Pac), Stanford 35-7-1 (17-5).