Baseball drops midweek game on the road

USC baseball players will have to have a quick turnaround after dropping their single game against Pepperdine 3-2 in a mid-week trip to Malibu, before heading to Eugene to take on the Ducks this weekend. With the loss, the Trojans worsened their overall season record to 15-16.

Head coach Dan Hubbs said that the offense seemed to be in a “bit of a lapse,” as players were continuously able to get on base, yet unable to produce the timely hits needed to bring the runners home while they were in scoring positions.

“Offensively we just did not get anything going. We had a couple of opportunities,” Hubbs said. “Whereas they got a big two-out hit with men at second and third, we did not get the two-out hit with bases loaded. If you are going to win in tight games, you are going to have to get that hit.”

The Trojans stranded a total of five runners and were held to just six hits overall.

Hubbs said that freshman pitcher CJ Stubbs improved upon his last two starts, but added that he was disappointed with the breaking ball that Stubbs threw in the third inning which hit freshman batter Matthew Kanfer and later resulted in a run for the Waves. Stubbs finished the contest with an impressive seven strikeouts through four innings, giving up 2 runs off of five hits.

Pepperdine produced the first runs of the contest in the third inning when sophomore outfielder Ben Rodriguez singled to left center field, scoring junior Aaron Barnett and Kanfer to make the score 2-0.

Stubbs would remain in the game for one more inning until allowing two more hits resulting in two Pepperdine base runners in the fourth, prompting Hubbs to resort to his bullpen. Senior pitcher Marc Huberman entered the game then and pitched two dominant scoreless innings, recording two strikeouts without giving up a run.

USC got its first run of the game in the fifth inning, with two outs gone after redshirt second baseman Frankie Rios hit into a 6-4-3 double play scoring freshman first baseman Dillon Paulson who was on third. Previously in the inning, Paulson had been walked and advanced to second base on a wild throw from pitcher Jonathan Pendergast. Junior shortstop Reggie Southall put down a bunt single to advance Paulson to third base.

Paulson had two hits in his two at-bats, and in the seventh inning, he led off with a double to right field. Redshirt junior Turner Clouse came in for Paulson as a pinch runner and advanced to third base from a sacrifice bunt from Southall and scored thanks to a sacrifice pop fly from Rios to tie the ballgame at 2 runs apiece. Rios had the only RBI of the game.

Trouble started to spell for the Trojans early in the bottom seventh inning when newly inserted junior pitcher Jeff Paschke walked the Pepperdine leadoff man — senior Brad Anderson — and the following batter — junior Manny Jefferson — doubled down the left field line. The Waves scored the game winning run when sophomore Chase Lambert hit a hard single to the shortstop and Southall mishandled the ball allowing the run to come in from third base and made the score 3-2 in Pepperdine’s favor.

The error was one of two defensive faults by Southall, proving to be costly down the stretch.

“Overall, we were just kind of vanilla today,” Hubbs said. “There was nothing great. There was nothing awful. We cannot afford to be vanilla right now.”

Paschke gave up two hits and walked two batters in the one and one-third innings that he pitched. He also produced one strikeout, but it wasn’t enough, and he was charged with the loss bringing his record to 2-1.

Up next for the Men of Troy is a three-game weekend series with the Oregon Ducks. The Ducks are 14-12 overall and 4-5 in Pac-12 play. Most recently Oregon took a 2-1 series win over Cal — the top-ranked team in the conference.