No. 1 Stanford Gets Leg Up on Fullerton

A single that skidded through the infield in the bottom of the ninth inning was the difference between college baseball’s two top-ranked teams Friday night.

Craig Thompson’s run-scoring grounder through the right side gaveNo. 1-ranked Stanford a 5-4 victory over No. 2 Cal State Fullerton in the opener of a three-game series at Stanford.

“It was a great job of two-strike hitting,” Fullerton Coach George Horton said. “He put it in play, and it found a hole.”

Reserve outfielder Billy Jacobson singled to lead off the inning and advanced on a throwing error by catcher Jeff Gates and an infield out before the winning hit against Titan closer Kirk Saarloos.

The victory was Stanford’s third without a loss.

Fullerton, playing its opener, was down to its last out in the top of the ninth when sophomore third baseman Shawn Norris lashed a homer to right-center that tied the score at 4-4.

Stanford had taken a 4-3 lead in the eighth on John Gall’s single to left against Saarloos. Saarloos had walked Edmund Muth with one out, and Muth advanced to second on an infield out before Gall’s hit. Left fielder Robert Guzman made a good throw to the plate, but Muth slid safely past catcher Jeff Gates.

The Titans were rolling along with a 3-0 lead before Stanford’s Joe Borchard hit a three-run homer against starter Adam Johnson in the sixth.

Johnson gave up only four hits in seven innings before being replaced by Saarloos at the start of the eighth. Johnson struck out nine and walked three.

Stanford starter Jason Young, the winning pitcher against the Titans in the College World Series last season, was pulled in the fifth after giving up three runs on nine hits. Fullerton had 12 hits in the game, Stanford seven.

“The shame of this one was that Adam really pitched well,” Horton said. “But Borchard is a great hitter and he got a big hit.”

Johnson also said the credit belonged to Borchard for his homer.

“We went with a slider, and it’s either the best pitch or the worst pitch, and it’s obvious what it was for me this time,” Johnson said. “That one hit was the painful one.”