Baseball extends winning streak to five games
The baseball team looks to extend its five-game winning streak Tuesday night against the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos. The Trojans (25-6, 7-2 Pac-12) benefitted from an offensive outburst this weekend en route to a three-game series sweep on the road against the University of Arizona Wildcats.
In the first game of the series on Thursday, USC and Arizona took a 1-1 tie into the seventh inning, as both Trojan starter Brent Wheatley and Wildcat starter Cody Hamlin shook off early runs and each turned in dominant performances.
The Trojan offense finally broke through in the top of the seventh, however, as a go-ahead triple off the bat of Dante Flores keyed a three-run outburst to put USC up 4-1.
They would not relinquish the lead as reliever Brooks Kriske earned his second win of the season with 3.1 scoreless innings of relief.
Even though the game represented USC’s first win in Tucson since 2009, the Trojans were far from finished.
On Friday, the Trojans jumped out to such a big lead in the first inning, it was as if the game was over before it really started.
USC exploded for seven runs on eight hits in the top of the first inning, as they knocked out Wildcat starter Robby Medel after only one-third of an inning.
The Trojans never looked back, as small Wildcat rallies were squashed relatively quickly and retaliated with more USC scoring. After Arizona made it 7-2 in the bottom of the third, USC responded with five more runs in the next two innings to push the score to 12-2.
Though the Wildcats touched up reliever Mason Perryman for three runs and scored one off Bernardo Flores, the Trojans scored one more run to account for a final score of 13-6. Flores went 3.1 innings of one-run ball to earn his first save of the year and guarantee a series win for the Trojans.
The series sweep was far from a guarantee, however, as the Trojans and Wildcats fought in a back-and-forth battle in the series finale on Saturday.
After falling into an early 5-1 deficit, USC rallied in the top of the fourth inning to put up seven runs and knock Wildcat starter Tyger Talley out of the game. Arizona clawed its way back from the 8-5 deficit, however.
Arizona and USC traded runs in the bottom of the fourth and top of the fifth to push the game to 9-6, but the Wildcats were able to tie the game with two runs in the seventh and another in the eighth.
With the game deadlocked at 9-9 going into the top of the ninth, the Trojans scrapped together a rally and pushed the go-ahead run across the plate with an infield single off the bat of David Oppenheim.
Saturday’s 10-9 win completed USC’s first series sweep in Tucson since 2001.
“We have more depth this season than we have in a really long time. When one guy isn’t able to get it done, another guy steps up,” head coach Dan Hubbs said when asked what makes this year’s team so much different than in the past.
“This weekend was kind of a microcosm of the entire season. This group is really resilient and they’re older, so they know how to handle adversity. They bring energy every day and they really understand the importance of every game.”
Up next, the Trojans welcome in the UC Santa Barbara Gauchos (23-7), who handed USC its first loss of the season when they faced off on March 3 in Santa Barbara, winning 3-2.
In their last matchup, the Gauchos held the Trojan offense at bay and were able to capitalize on a ninth inning rally to walk off on an RBI single off the bat of pinch-hitter Dalton Kelly.
Though it would be easy for USC to focus on the past, Hubbs said the last game is behind them and thinks his team will be able to come out strong against UCSB.
“We didn’t feel like we played our best game the last time, but Santa Barbara is an excellent team,” Hubbs said. “At the end of the day we just want to win the game no matter who we play.”
The Gauchos come into the game riding a wave of momentum, having won six straight and 10 of their last 11 games. The Trojans will be put to the test on Tuesday, as UCSB features a trio of strong hitters who have led the way for them all season.
Outfielders Cameron Newell (.343 batting average) and Andrew Calica (.352 batting average), plus designated hitter Robby Nesovic (.369 batting average) have powered the UCSB offense thus far in the season, and shutting them down will be crucial to the Trojans’ ability to beat them this time around.
“The biggest thing about Santa Barbara is keeping their leadoff guy off base. Calica sets the table really well for them and can run. [Newell and Nesovic] can both hit, but if you look at the game we played in Santa Barbara, [Nesovic] was probably the reason they won,” Hubbs said.
The USC baseball team continues to win and moved all the way up to the No. 7 ranking in the country on Monday. As a team that has projected confidence all season and has openly talked about strong playoff aspirations, their winning ways have solidified their confidence but have not led them to take any opponents for granted.
Hubbs insists this team still has a lot of work to do in order to reach their goal of a College World Series berth.
“If we continue to do what we’re doing, we’ll put ourselves in a position to play in the regionals which is something that hasn’t been done around here in a while,” Hubbs said.