Tag: USC Trojans Baseball

USC one win away from last Pac-12 baseball title, trip to NCAA Regionals

USC and Arizona meet in the last Pac-12 Conference baseball game.

The game between the No. 4 seed USC Trojans and the top-seeded Arizona Wildcats in Scottsdale, Arizona, will determine the 2024 Pac-12 Baseball Tournament champion. While Arizona is guaranteed an at-large bid even if it loses, the Trojans must win to secure the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA regionals. Despite a strong second half of the season, USC’s slow start has left it without an at-large bid as an option.

Arizona advanced to the championship game by defeating Stanford in the semifinals. Caden Aoki, a right-handed pitcher for USC, is expected to face off against Cam Wally, Arizona’s right-handed pitcher. Aoki has a 2-3 record with a 4.24 ERA, while Wally is 8-1 with a 2.76 ERA.

In the tournament opener against Utah, the Trojans’ Aoki took the mound as the starting pitcher and effortlessly sailed through the first two innings without allowing any runs. However, he exited the game after surrendering two runs in both the 3rd and 4th innings on five hits. After the slow start, the Trojans rallied to overcome a 4-1 deficit and beat the Utes 6-5.

Freshman outfielder Brayden Dowd has become a clutch hitter for the Trojans this season. He has turned it up a notch in postseason play. In 42 games, he has a batting average of .319, has driven in 25 runs, and has scored 26 runs. He played a critical role in USC’s victory against Utah, delivering an RBI double in the eighth inning. In the Trojans’ win in the semifinals against Cal, he contributed to four of USC’s seven runs, including a three-run homer which turned the game around. USC trailed 2-0 before Dowd’s big blast.

The USC-Arizona Pac-12 title game, to be aired live on ESPNU, will be called by Roxy Bernstein and Wes Clements at 7 p.m. Pacific time.

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USC baseball opens its season February 16 with three preseason All-Pac-12 honorees

USC baseball starts in one week! The Trojans and their fans are excited!

USC baseball opens its season next week at the MLB Desert Invitational against Brigham Young University, Grand Canyon and Ohio State.  Last year the Trojans were 34-22-1 in Andy Stankiewicz’s first season as the skipper at Troy.  The Pac-12 poll for the 2023 season had USC picked to finish 10th, just ahead of last-place Utah (Colorado discontinued baseball in 1980). This year, the media voted the Trojans No. 5 behind (1) Oregon State, (2) Stanford, (3) UCLA, and (4) Oregon.

The Trojans are led by three All-Pac-12 selections: Caden Aoki, Austin Overn, and Josh Blum.

Aoki is a junior right-handed pitcher from Huntington Beach, California.  He was an all-conference selection in 2023, when he had a Pac-12 leading ERA of 2.98 and an impressive career 1.25 WHIP. Caden signed with Notre Dame out of high school and transfered to USC for his sophomore year.

Blum is a junior right-handed hurler from Bellaire, Texas. He posted a 3.34 ERA with 40 strikeouts in 32 innings pitched and 30 appearances out of the bullpen. He had a dominant stretch in which he held opponents scoreless over seven appearances that combined for 11 innings.

Overn is an electric outfielder from Tustin, California. In 2023 he was a Freshman All-American and an All-Pac-12 selection in his first year at USC.  He set the USC single season triples record with 14 and finished seventh in the league with 16 stolen bases. When he wasn’t ripping up the base paths, his speed and athleticism allowed him to rob many hitters of extra-base hits, leading to Pac-12 All-Defensive Team recognition.

Aoki, Blum, Overn, and the 2024 squad would like to get off to a faster start than they did last year. USC stumbled out of the gate in 2023, going 5-7-1 in its first 13 games. A five-game losing streak in the middle of the season allowed the NCAA Division I Baseball Committee to snub a Trojan team that won 17 games in the conference. The 2024 season starts next Friday, Feb. 16, against BYU at 4 p.m. Pacific time on MLB.TV.

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Bubble watch: USC moves inside the cut line for NCAA Baseball Tournament

#USC’s sweep of Arizona State put the Trojans on the good side of the bubble and the Devils on the middle of the bubble.

The USC baseball team has not been to the NCAA Baseball Tournament since 2015. It would be a very special achievement for the Men of Troy to get back to the postseason for the first time in eight years. It would mark the latest revival of a USC athletic program. The women’s basketball program reached the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. The football program, which was stuck in mediocrity and misery under Clay Helton, is now roaring under Lincoln Riley and blessed with the national relevance every USC fan expects.

Where does USC baseball stand heading into the final weekend of the Pac-12 regular season? The Trojans aren’t an NCAA Tournament lock, but they have a chance to do something about that when they visit Arizona for three games.

Let’s look at the bubble picture for USC and give you the relevant details:

NCAA Tournament baseball bracketology entering final regular season weekend

One set of baseball bracketology projections has the #USC Trojans going to Columbia, South Carolina, for the NCAA Tournament.

Bracketology: It’s not just for basketball. College baseball bloggers, podcasters, and beat writers are diving into the details of the projected bracket for the 64-team NCAA Baseball Tournament. Yes, it’s a 64-team tournament. There is no First Four in Dayton. A total of 16 national seeds will host four-team regionals. The 16 regional winners will meet in eight Super Regionals. The eight Super Regional winners go to Omaha, Neb., for the 2023 College World Series in June.

USC and other Pac-12 teams are finishing up the conference’s regular season slate this weekend before moving on to the Pac-12 Tournament.

Baseball bracketologists are hard at work. Here’s what College Sports Madness projected for the college baseball postseason:

USC baseball walks off UCLA in bottom of 9th, wins weekend series vs Bruins

Ripley’s Believe It or Not: This is #USC baseball’s first home-series win over UCLA since 2005. 18 years?! Wow!

The USC Trojans waited 18 long years for this moment, the moment when they could say they beat UCLA in a home-field baseball series. Has it been that long? Yes it has. It underscores how dark and difficult life has been for the USC baseball program. Now the clouds are beginning to part and the sunshine is flowing in.

USC, the school with more College World Series championships than any other in major college baseball, has fallen on very hard times over the past quarter of a century. However, first-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz is turning things around. Signs of that turnaround were apparent over the weekend. USC got punched in the mouth on Friday in Game 1 of the three-game set, but the Trojans bounced back to beat UCLA on both Saturday and Sunday to win the series and move upward in the Pac-12 baseball standings.

The series win was USC’s first home series win over UCLA at Dedeaux Field since 2005. The drought is over!

USC’s Cole Gabrielson knocked in the winning run with this walk-off hit in the bottom of the ninth, giving the Trojans a 6-5 triumph over the Bruins:

Quick stats:

Game recap:

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Pac-12 baseball standings for April 10

Here are the latest #Pac12 baseball standings after the first full week of play in April.

The Pac-12 baseball season is hitting the midpoint. The top of the conference looks strong once again. All three of the top teams — Stanford, Arizona State, and USC — are separated by just one game.

On the other hand, the bottom of the conference has four teams with five or fewer wins and five teams below .500 in conference play. With some programs playing nonconference opponents this past week, there wasn’t a ton of movement in the standings from a week ago.

Here is a look at the updated Pac-12 baseball standings as the second week of April comes to an end.

USC baseball wins series vs San Diego State with strong Friday performance

The 7-2 win over the Aztecs enabled USC to win yet another series. #USC hasn’t lost consecutive games since March 8 and 11.

The USC baseball team had its share of struggles in the first few weeks of the season, but over the past month, this team has put the pieces together.

Baseball involves a lot of losing. As we all know, the best teams in Major League Baseball will still lose at least 55 to 65 games in a season. Losing one-third of all baseball games is the mark of a really, really good team.

What is USC’s record through 30 games in this 2023 college baseball season: 19-10-1, one tie removed from winning exactly two-thirds of all games. (The Trojans accepted a 12-12 tie at Auburn due to a Sunday (series finale) travel rule which stipulates that no inning can start after a certain time of day.)

USC has won 14 of 17 games after beating San Diego State, 7-2, on Friday. The Trojans aren’t just winning; they are winning games convincingly, getting strong starting pitching to help their offense.

Highlights and statistics from Friday’s win can be found below:

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Andy Stankiewicz has revived USC baseball with his singular focus

Andy Stankiewicz has not gently eased into his role as USC baseball coach. He has brought enormous energy to the job.

The USC Trojan baseball team is trying to turn things around with new head coach Andy Stankiewicz on board. Given the mediocrity of Trojans baseball over the past half-decade, Stankiewicz had a tough task ahead of him. His first season has significantly exceeded expectations. He emphasized how fully he is committed to reviving the USC baseball program (h/t Thomas Johnson of The Daily Trojan).

“I’m not sure I got too many hobbies outside of this,” he said. “Probably not a good thing. My life is centered around these young men and this baseball program. And being as good as we can be as quickly as we possibly can be … My hobby is USC baseball.”

USC has begun the season 17-10-1 overall and 9-3 in Pac-12 play, so things are off to a promising start in Southern California.

After a stellar run as the head coach at Grand Canyon, he came to USC, and he is happy to make the transition despite the difficulties that lay ahead:

“To me, [USC] is one of, if not the, historically, most prestigious collegiate baseball programs in the country. And I grew up here in Southern Cal, not too far from campus here. And so I’ve just always believed in the school and believed in this baseball program…[I] certainly knew we got some big challenges in front of us,” Stankiewicz said. “But I just wanted to be a part of helping USC baseball get back to where I think and I believe we need to be.”

The Trojans have 12 national titles in baseball, which is the most of any program in college baseball, so expectations are meant to be high for this program. Stankiewicz is reviving that standard in his first several weeks on the job.

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USC baseball rises to sole possession of first place in Pac-12

First-year coach Andy Stankiewicz has significantly improved the #USC program. Let’s see if this will be sustained.

The USC Trojans were not picked to finish first in the Pac-12 baseball standings this season. They weren’t picked to finish anywhere close to first. They weren’t picked to finish in the top half of the 12-team conference. They were picked to finish 10th.

Just over one month into the season, guess where the Trojans are? First place in the Pac-12. Outright. Alone. First-year head coach Andy Stankiewicz is surpassing all expectations, moving the program well ahead of schedule.

USC beat Utah on Saturday, 10-0, to win the weekend series against the Utes and move to 9-2 in the conference. Stanford is at 7-2 and Arizona State is 6-2.

The Trojans have delivered back-to-back shutouts against Utah, having won on Friday by a 4-0 score. Teams can’t bluff their way through baseball seasons without having good pitching. One can only win so many 10-9 games. The Trojans appear to have legitimately restocked their pitching, the central reason for their surge to the top of the conference.

Now we get to find out in April if the Trojans can maintain this run of form under Stankiewicz, who seems to be another home-run hire from athletic director Mike Bohn, who has already hired Lincoln Riley in football and Lindsay Gottlieb in women’s basketball.

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