COLLEGE BASEBALL: TROJANS PUNCHLESS STANFORD 15, USC 4.

Byline: Chris Cocoles Staff Writer

STANFORD - Because of a slow start, the USC baseball team finds itself fighting for its postseason existence.

The Trojans almost literally took that approach Sunday, when a bench-clearing incident almost had USC and Stanford brawling. No punches were thrown, but the No. 2 Cardinal bloodied the Trojans thoroughly in a 15-4 Pacific-10 Conference victory in front of 3,348 at Sunken Diamond.

The result was all but determined when these old rivals were on the verge of boiling over.

USC (20-16, 6-3) reliever Chad Clark, touted as one of the top preseason draft-eligible pitching prospects, has struggled to find the strike zone (17 walks in 8 2/3 innings entering his appearance Sunday). But Stanford (25-8, 4-2) saw two hit batters sandwiched between Jason Cooper's towering seventh-inning home run as something more.

Clark hit Cardinal catcher Ryan Garko, who stared toward the mound before trudging down to first base. Cooper's homer that made it 12-2 was followed by a Clark strikeout of Carlos Quentin. Clark then plunked Sam Fuld, who took three strides out of the batter's box toward the pitcher.

Two batters later, Brian Hall hit the inning's second three-run shot and the Cardinal's 11th home run of the series.

``I'm not sure if (Clark) was throwing at him,'' Cardinal coach Mark Marquess said. ``The guy's a hard thrower, doesn't have great control and he's been a little wild.''

The dugouts cleared, but the scuffle ended there. Trojans coaches restrained players, knowing that fighting creates an automatic one-game suspension.

``That would be stupid if anybody would fight,'' said Trojans senior Brian Barre, who went 2 for 4 with a home run. ``Good thing it didn't happen. Because if it did, it'd be a big mess for us.''

USC can't afford to lose any players for the remainder of its schedule, particularly in the conference. The Trojans' 16-11 victory Saturday assured them of no worse than second place at the end of the weekend. By beating UCLA on Sunday, Arizona State (8-4) moved a half-game ahead of formerly first-place USC, which needs perhaps a top-three Pac-10 finish to ensure a spot in the 64-team NCAA Regional field.

It turned out to be a productive week. USC went 2-2 against ranked opponents after winning a nonconference game at No. 13 Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday and salvaging the middle game of the Stanford series. USC has won 8 of 11 after falling to 12-13 on March 24.

``I'm really not discouraged by the weekend,'' coach Mike Gillespie said. ``You try to make a big decision between being disappointed and discouraged. I feel like we've got reason to believe that there's still light in this whole deal.''