No. 8 baseball routs Pepperdine at home

USC recorded its third consecutive win last night, beating the Pepperdine Waves, 5-2, on a windy night at Dedeaux Field.

Sophomore pitcher Bernardo Flores (3-0) earned his third win of the season after going five innings, allowing one run on two hits. Freshman Mason Perryman and sophomore Jeff Paschke came in from the pen and prevented the Waves from doing damage before junior Marc Hubberman closed the game with a one, two, three top of the ninth.

The Trojans continued their hot streak on offense with a two-run homerun by sophomore Jeremy Martinez in the bottom of the fifth as well as impressive outings from Dante Flores, who went 3-4, Blake Lacey, 3-4, David Oppenheim, 2-3 and Garrett Stubbs, who brought in two runs.

USC head coach Dan Hubbs echoes the success of last night’s win.

“I thought that [Bernardo] did a good job setting the tone and I thought we came up and swung the bats like we did last week,” Hubbs said. “I think we’re pretty relentless at the plate. I thought we had that same relentless offense today. Seeing Jeremy out there today was huge. I thought he had a great game.”

The Trojans got on board during the bottom of the second inning beginning with back-to-back singles by Dante Flores and Lacey followed by a walk for Oppenheim, loading the bases with no outs.  Waves’ starter Chandler Blanchard then walked red shirted sophomore Reggie Southall, bringing home Flores for the game’s first run.

Pepperdine answered back in the top of the fourth after a lead off walk and stolen base allowed Pepperdine’s speedy Hutton Moyer to score from a single down middle field. Flores then gave up an additional walk followed by a wild pitch to put men on second and third with two outs.

Flores regained composure, however, and managed to escape the inning after a pop up to second ended the top of the fourth. He then retired the next three batters during the top of the fifth to end his night, totaling four strikeouts and two walks.

USC then came away with the game during the fifth inning, putting three runs on the board and giving the Trojans a 5-2 lead. Senior Garret Stubbs started things off with a single before Martinez came up and smacked a two run homer out to left field, his first home run of the season, giving USC a 4-2 lead.

A string of singles by Dante Flores, Lacey and Oppenheim loaded the bases with one out, causing the Waves to bring in a new reliever. Freshman Joe Corrigan hit a sacrifice fly, bringing home Dante Flores for the fifth run. A wild pitch advanced the remaining runners to second and third before a strike out ended the fifth, marking the second time the Trojans ended an inning with the bases loaded.

Pepperdine threatened a comeback with the solo home run by Waves’ first baseman Brad Anderson as well as the subsequent walk, but Perryman handled the following to batters, squashing Pepperdine’s potential to put a crooked number on the board.

USC put up their final run in the eighth inning beginning with a lead off walk to Southall followed by a sacrifice bunt by AJ Ramirez and then a dropped third strike, advancing Stubbs to first. Though Southall was picked off trying to steal third, a single by Martinez eventually drove home Stubbs, earning the team their final run.

Looking ahead this week as USC travels to Seattle to take on Washington State, Hubbs believes the confidence earned from a solid, mid-week win will carry on to this weekend.

“I think any time you can take a Tuesday game is huge,” Hubbs said. “Those are really important games to take once you get towards the end of the year. When we play well, we’re in a position to win no matter who or where or when we play.”