Bats Break TrojansBats Break Trojans
Bob Drebin / isiphotos.com
Baseball

Bats Break Trojans

Box Score

STANFORD, Calif. – Brandon Wulff hit his third home run of the season while driving in six and No. 3 Stanford earned the sweep of USC with an 18-0 win on Sunday at Sunken Diamond.

"We talked about these kind of games this week, and it's always good to see us keep our focus and finish the job," said Clarke and Elizabeth Nelson Director of Baseball David Esquer. "Miller looked really good today, he's progressing nicely and you saw once again today what it looks like when he has it going."

The Cardinal (17-2 overall, 3-0 Pac-12) scored a season-high 18 runs, the most since April 2, 2011, when Stanford won, 22-3, at Washington State. Wulff's six RBI were a career high, going 3-for-3 with one walk. Miller finished 5.0 innings with five strikeouts, four hits and one walk allowed.

Tim Tawa finished 3-for-4 with two runs and three RBI, and Beau Branton reached base four times with two hits, two walks while scoring three times.

Wulff started with the scoring in the bottom of the first, driving home Tawa after the freshman led off the inning with a double. Tawa made it 3-0 in the second with a two-run single, and Wulff's single scored Hoerner in the third.

Stanford opened up a huge lead in the fourth courtesy of Tawa and Wulff. Tawa's single scored Beau Branton before Wulff launched one into the trees for his third home run of the season, a three-run blast to make it 8-0.

A series of hit batsmen and walks gifted Stanford five more runs in the fifth, capped by an Andrew Daschbach double to center with the bases loaded. Stanford tacked on five in the seventh, with more erratic pitching from the Trojans (11-9, 2-4).

"We certainly got some help today but we're thrilled with this series to start Pac-12 play," added Esquer. "We'll look to keep it going next week with Oregon team coming to town."

Daniel Bakst, Zach Grech, Carson Rudd and Kyle Stowers each pitched scoreless frames to finish the job Miller started. As a staff, Stanford allowed just five hits and one walk while striking out five.

Stanford is back in action on Tuesday against San Diego at 6 p.m. PT, followed by a three-game series against Oregon starting on Thursday at 6 p.m. Streaming and live statistics for all four contests will be available at GoStanford.com.

Cardinal Notes

  • Stanford outscored USC, 34-2, across the three-game series.
  • Stanford's team ERA dips to 2.06 after the series.
  • Stanford's 18 runs were the most since April 2, 2011, when the Cardinal scored 22 runs at Washington State in a 22-3 win.
  • A season-high 16 Cardinal made at least one plate appearance on Sunday, with 15 of those players reaching base at least once.
  • Christian Robinson registered his first career hit, a single in the eighth inning in his third career plate appearance.