USC Baseball Comes Up Clutch in 2-1 Win Over No. 17 Stanford

LOS ANGELES – Alex Cornwell gave the USC baseball team eight strong innings on the mound, and Clay Owens and Rhylan Thomas came up clutch at the plate to give the Trojans a 2-1 win over No. 17 Stanford on Sunday afternoon at Dedeaux Field.
 
Owens broke a scoreless tie with a solo-shot in the seventh and Thomas squeezed home the winning run in the eighth to move USC to 19-19 on the year and 7-11 in Pac-12 play. Stanford falls to 24-9, 10-5 on the season.
 
Cornwell gave up just one run while scattering eight hits in his 8.0 innings pitched, striking out four and walking none to move to 5-4 for the year.
 
After Cornwell stranded a runner on third to end the seventh, Owens came up and led off the home half of the inning with a solo-shot to dead center field. Stanford would tie the game with a solo-homer of their own, however, getting a long ball from Tim Tawa to make it a 1-1 game.
 
Tyler Pritchard led off the bottom of the eighth with a single through the left side and then advanced on a wild pitch to second and a sacrifice bunt by Tyresse Turner to go to third. Thomas came up and laid down a perfect squeeze bunt to the left side, bringing home Pritchard easily for the go-ahead run.
 
Stanford put a runner on in the ninth thanks to a one-out single, but that was it against Nate Clow as he got a ground ball and a lineout to pick up his fourth save of the year.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Alex Cornwell: 8.0 IP, 8H, ER, 0BB, 4K
• Clay Owens: 1-for-3, solo-HR, RBI, BB
• Rhylan Thomas: 1-for-3, GW-RBI
• Ben Ramirez: 2-for-4, 2 singles

 
UP NEXT
The Trojans hit the road next weekend, traveling to Oregon State for a three-game series starting on Friday. All three games in Corvallis will be televised on the Pac-12 Network.