[0] USC'S ZITO STAYS UNDEFEATED, TROJANS RUN OVER WASHINGTON : USC 13 WASHINGTON 6.

Byline: Scott Wolf Daily News Staff Writer

USC ace Barry Zito hardly had his best stuff Friday night, but he didn't need it to keep the Trojans' slim hopes for the Pacific-10 Conference title alive at least one more day.

Zito allowed six runs in the first five innings, but with the Trojans' offense scoring at will he managed to earn the victory as 16th-ranked USC defeated Washington 13-6 in front of 659 at Dedeaux Field.

With the victory, Zito (11-2) completed Pac-10 play with a perfect 8-0 record, the first pitcher to go undefeated in conference play since USC's Seth Etherton went 10-0 in 1996.

Zito allowed nine hits in 6-1/3 innings but had his usual heat, striking out nine. He has 37 strikeouts in his past three starts.

The Trojans (32-22, 16-6) remained two games behind conference leader Stanford, which defeated host UCLA 8-7 in extra innings Friday. USC must win its final two games this weekend and the Cardinal must lose both games for the Trojans to win the Pac-10 title.

USC would win a tiebreaker with the Cardinal if the teams finish with identical records.

It looked like Zito might not earn a decision until the Trojans broke the game open in the sixth by scoring four runs.

USC held a 7-6 lead when second baseman Dominic Correa hit a two-run single and third baseman Beau Craig followed with a two-run homer to right field that gave the Trojans an 11-6 lead.

Craig's sacrifice fly had given the Trojans their 7-6 lead in the fifth inning.

If there weren't so much at stake in the conference race, the game might be remembered for the 4-6-3-2 triple play that USC catcher Eric Munson hit into in the third inning.

Munson, who also homered, played his first game at catcher since March 27, when he injured his hand against Washington State. He demonstrated he had recovered in the second inning when he threw out a runner attempting to steal third base.

The Trojans took their first lead in the fourth inning, but it didn't last long.

With the bases loaded, USC designated hitter Carlos Casillas singled home a run to give the Trojans a 5-4 lead. Washington starter Travis Anderson then walked Justin Gemoll to force in another run and extend USC's lead to 6-4.

But Washington's Nick Stefonick homered in the fifth inning to trim the margin to 6-5 and the Huskies (31-20, 11-11) tied the game for the fourth time on Todd Linden's RBI single.

Zito started off poorly, allowing a two-run homer to Huskies catcher Dominic Woody in the first inning. It was Woody's 17th home run, setting a Washington single-season record.

USC cut the lead to 2-1 when Munson homered over the center-field fence in the second inning.