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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