March 22, 2008

Box Score

LOS ANGELES - Junior right-hander Ryan Cook (Clovis/Clovis HS) recorded his first complete game shutout Sunday as the USC Trojans held the No. 2 Arizona Wildcats scoreless for the second straight game with the 5-0 win at Dedeaux Field. With the win, USC won the Pac-10 Conference series, two games to one.

USC (11-9, 2-1) registered back-to-back shutouts for the first time since April 9-10, 2005, when the Trojans beat UCLA (9-0, 6-0). It was the first time in almost 40 years that Arizona has been shutout in back-to-back games (May 3, 1969 at Arizona State with 11-0 and 5-0 losses).

Cook cooled off an Arizona squad that started the game batting .323 on the season by allowing just three hits with a walk and five strikeouts. He retired the Wildcats in order five times in the game.

Senior outfielder Roberto Lopez went 4-for-5 for the Trojans with a double.

With Nick Buss at second in the fourth, sophomore Robert Stock chopped a base hit that Arizona pitcher Eric Berger threw to first and bounced off Stock as Buss scored the first run of the game.

In the USC fifth, the Trojans scored three runs with four straight singles by Grant Green, Lopez, Derek Perren and Hector Rabago. Rabago pushed an RBI bunt down the first base line and Taylor Grigsby later completed the scoring with a sacrifice fly.

Green later added an RBI double in the eighth for the Trojans.

USC will play a home-and-home series with Loyola Marymount on Monday and Tuesday. Monday's game at LMU starts at 3 p.m. with Tuesday's game starting at 7 p.m. at Dedeaux Field. USC then continues the Pac-10 season next weekend at No. 1 Arizona State.

All five games next week will be broadcast on usctrojans.com with a live video webcast on Tuesday, courtesy of TrojanTV All-Access.

Notes: This was USC's third shutout of the season...the Trojans are now 2-7 this season against Top 25 teams...senior outfielder Taylor Grigsby, who is a transfer from Cal, made his first appearance as a Trojan today, going 0-for-2 with one RBI...Roberto Lopez recorded his second four-hit game of the season (March 1 vs. Southern)...Lopez is now batting .450 (36-for-80) with nine doubles, 14 RBI and a .459 OBP...Lopez has hit safely in 18 of his last 19 games...Ryan Cook was one hit shy of being the first Trojan to throw a complete game two-hitter since Mark Prior in 2001.

UA	 000-000-000---0-3-2
USC	 000-130-01x---5-12-0
WP - Cook (3-1)   LP - Berger (1-1)
T - 2:30   ATT - 815
Records: UA (13-5, 1-2), USC (11-9, 2-1)
Berger, Schlereth (5), Stoffel (7) and Childs, Butler (8).
Cook and Stock.