UCLA’s Karp Shuts Down USC

Josh Karp struck out a career-high 12 in seven innings and left fielder Bill Scott celebrated his 21st birthday with a four-for-four performance to power UCLA past USC, 15-5, in a Pacific 10 Conference baseball game Saturday at Jackie Robinson Stadium.

The No. 24 Bruins (21-13, 6-2 in conference) finished with 19 hits to move back into a first-place tie with the No. 14 Trojans (23-12, 6-2). UCLA broke a 3-3 tie with five runs in the fifth and seven in the sixth.

Chase Utley contributed four hits, Charles Merricks hit a three-run home run and Forrest Johnson had a two-run double and run-scoring single.

USC received solo home runs from Brian Barre, Seth Davidson, Alberto Concepcion and Rob Garibaldi. But the Trojans managed only five hits, including only three against Karp (4-1), who retired the last eight batters and didn’t allow a hit after the third inning in his longest outing of the season.

USC was forced to start freshman pitcher Anthony Reyes after ace Mark Prior was scratched for the second consecutive game because of illness. Prior could pitch in today’s series finale at UCLA.