No. 5 Stanford dominated USC in the first two games of their weekend series, but was unable to complete a comeback to win the final contest on Sunday.

The Cardinal shutout the Trojans 4-0 on Friday night behind the performance of starter Austin Yount, who turned in his best showing of the year. The junior, normally a third baseman who has been used sparingly as a pitcher all season, went for over seven innings for Stanford, allowing just three hits in the process.

“He had a phenomenal performance on Friday night,” said coach Mark Marquess.

“I’m trying to do whatever I can to help the team,” said Yount.

Yount was aided by junior first baseman Brent Milleville, the Cardinal’s hottest hitter over the past two weeks, who drove in three of Stanford’s four runs and scored the final one. Milleville doubled twice in the contest — in the first inning, he scored junior Jason Castro from first, and in the third, he drove in junior Cord Phelps and senior Brendan Domaracki.

With a cushion from his offense, Yount subsequently shut down the Trojans, preventing and working out of trouble when needed. But almost all of the outs were recorded by the defense — Yount struck out only one batter — which led the righthander to offer lofty praise for his teammates.

“When guys make plays behind you, it’ll pick you up,” he said.

Stanford’s offense churned out nine hits in the contest, but the four runs produced were nothing extraordinary. That, however, would change on Saturday, when the Cardinal scored a season high 26 runs.

Saturday: Stanford 26, USC 5

The offense exploded against seven USC pitchers, none of whom lasted over two innings. Sophomore Toby Gerhart homered twice and drove in a team high five runs for the Cardinal.

Senior pitcher Erik Davis, who has been Stanford’s best and most consistent hurler all season, ran into trouble in the first inning, when he gave up a three-run homer to Trojan Grant Green. But he settled down and went six innings for the Cardinal before turning the ball over to freshman Danny Sandbrink, who finished the game.

“I’m just trying to keep my team in the game,” said Davis. “That’s all I’m looking for.”

Marquess was quick to commend his staff’s ace, not just for his work on Saturday, but for his performances throughout the year as well.

“The critical guy is Erik Davis,” he said. “My hat goes off to him.”

But the story of the day was the Cardinal offense, which plated runs in every inning but the fourth. Castro went 4-6 with a triple and four RBIs and freshman third baseman Zach Jones doubled twice to drive in three runs. Stanford knocked out Brad Boxberger after only an inning and a third; his replacement, Kevin Couture, didn’t fare much better, and lasted just over an inning himself.

“We had a pretty good idea of an attack plan,” said Castro.

Sunday: USC 10, Stanford 9

After a dominating pitching performance on Friday and an otherworldly hitting display on Saturday, the Cardinal looked like a good bet to sweep the series.

But the Trojans had other plans.

In the final game, USC came out swinging and was able to score three quick runs off Cardinal starter sophomore Jeffrey Inman, who lasted only an inning. Stanford was able to cut into the Trojan lead in the second, making the score a manageable 3-2.

USC put up a four-spot in the fourth to take a 7-2 lead, but a Stanford run in the fourth and a two run homerun by Castro in the fifth cut the margin to 7-5.

Castro drilled his ninth homer of the year on a pitch that, to him, was fairly predictable.

“I was sitting on it, and I wanted to be aggressive,” he said. “[Trojan starter Ryan Cook] had a tendency to throw off-speed pitches, and he left a changeup over the plate.”

The score was pushed to 8-6 by the ninth, and in the final frame, USC added two runs to take a four-run lead.

“They played well,” said Marquess. “They got big hits in big spots.”

But the game was not quite over — Trojan reliever Anthony Vasquez got two quick outs in the bottom of the ninth, but he couldn’t seal the deal. Phelps and junior Jeff Whitlow singled, and pinch hitter freshman Colin Walsh drove in Phelps with a hit of his own. Castro then knocked in Whitlow, moving Walsh to third in the process.

This brought up Milleville, a pinch hitter who had been sitting out due to a mild leg cramp. Speedy sophomore Wande Olabisi pinch ran for Castro, and the stage was set: a double would tie the game.

Vasquez was replaced by Robert Stock, who promptly threw a pitch to the backstop. Walsh scored, and the lacksidasical retrieval by catcher Sebastian Salinas allowed Olabisi to make it all the way to third. Milleville, now, only needed a single to tie the game.

He drilled a pitch down the right field line, which would have been good for at least a double, but it hooked foul at the last moment. Milleville subsequently hit a weak grounder to the left of the mound. Stock had to make a tough play, but with Milleville’s running ability hindered by his injury, he was able to get the out at first to end the game.

“It’s tough because we won the first two games and expected to sweep,” said Castro. “It’s bittersweet to get close like that.”

“We scored nine but gave up ten,” said Davis. “From a pitching standpoint, that’s unacceptable.”

The Cardinal has a two-week break from its Pac-10 schedule, as it heads to Santa Clara today to face the Broncos and will continue on to face UC-Davis later in the week. They team will have a home-and-home series versus San Jose State next weekend.