The Pac-12 season is heading down the homestretch with just three weekend series remaining. Oregon is battling to host a regional in the NCAA tournament and the Ducks’ upcoming opponent, USC, is squarely on that bubble.
This weekend’s matchup in Los Angeles is important for different reasons for both teams. The Trojans seem to be two teams, a good one at home (20-5) and a bad one on the road (4-13-1). With the Ducks going to Dedeaux Field to play the good USC team, we just had to go to TrojansWire’s Matt Zemek to see what’s the deal with this Trojan team with that Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde mentality. Here is his brief scouting report.
It’s an unproven team under a first-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz. USC has not tasted success in baseball for a long time. The glory days are part of the distant past. Stankiewicz has done a great job with this team, but growing pains were always going to be part of the equation in Year 1 of his tenure. It’s a lot like basketball role players and reserves playing well at home and not on the road. This team feeds off confidence from the enthusiastic crowds it has seen (and heard) at Dedeaux Field. Going on the road is a different beast. It’s a lot like football: The Pacific Northwest is often this team’s graveyard, and we’ve seen it in the recent series against Oregon State and Washington.
Both the Huskies and Beavers swept the Trojans on their home fields, a luxury the Ducks don’t have here. Oregon is coming off a two-game losing streak, but a Pac-12 regular season title is still in the cards.
The Ducks (30-14, 13-8) are in third place, but just two games back of first-place Stanford.
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