Austin Pitches Stanford to Division Title
Top-ranked Stanford got a home run from Jody Gerut in the first inning and five-hit pitching from Jeff Austin in beating USC, 4-2, on Saturday afternoon to clinch the conference’s Southern Division championship.
In the Cardinal’s first win over USC this season, Austin beat Seth Etherton, 1-0, on April 3 at Dedeaux Field on Gerut’s seventh-inning homer.
Gerut, who leads Stanford (41-8-1, 22-6 in the Pacific 10) with 17 homers, didn’t wait so long Saturday, giving the Cardinal a 1-0 lead. That became 2-0 later in the inning when Josh Hochgesang’s double drove in John Gall, who had singled.
Austin (12-2) pitched his eighth complete game in 16 starts, striking out 10 and giving up only one earned run.
The 10 strikeouts gave him 307 for his career, making him the fifth Stanford pitcher to strike out 300 or more batters.
Etherton (10-3), who had pitched a four-hitter, striking out 15 in his earlier loss to Austin, didn’t fare as well Saturday, giving up 10 hits and three runs over 6 1/3 innings. He struck out eight Cardinals.
The teams exchanged runs in the fourth inning, and USC (37-14, 19-9) cut the Stanford lead to 3-2 on a sacrifice fly by Jason Lane in the seventh.
Hochgesang’s solo homer gave the Cardinal its final run.
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