USC sends Fujiya to the mound Tuesday

The USC baseball team looks to rebound from its disappointing weekend series loss to No. 19 Stanford this afternoon when it takes on the Loyola Marymount Lions at George Page Stadium at 3 p.m.

Ready to go · Senior pitcher Shuhei Fujiya has used the first portion of the season to slowly work up his pitch count to join the USC rotation. - Avi Kushlan | Daily Trojan

Senior pitcher Shuhei Fujiya is almost fully stretched out after throwing 50 pitches in his last outing Friday against Stanford and will start his first game of the season for USC (12-12, 1-2). Fujiya has compiled a 3-1 record in his eight relief appearances. He has a 5.11 ERA in 12 and one-third innings with 10 strikeouts. In his three-inning relief appearance against Stanford, he allowed one run on four hits and struck out two.

“We think he’s pitched well enough recently to warrant a start,” said USC coach Chad Kreuter.

Opposing Fujiya will likely be Lions (13-11) freshman Aaron Griffin, although LMU has not officially made a decision. The right hander has pitched to an ERA of 7.94 in eight appearances with 12 strikeouts this season, including two starts. In his most recent start against Cal State Fullerton last week, Griffin pitched a complete game, allowing seven hits and two runs, while striking out five.

LMU heads into the matchup fresh off a four-game sweep of Albany over the weekend at George Page Stadium. The Lions have won 10 of their last 11 games, including five consecutively.

The Lions are batting .295 as a team with a 5.44 staff ERA, compared to the Trojans’ .298 team batting average and 4.72 ERA.

Kreuter admits that LMU might not be as deep as a Pac-10 challenger, but he still feels that the Lions are a tough team on their quirky home field, which sports a close fence in left field with a high wall, similar to Fenway Park’s Green Monster.

“The field plays different, and we need to be able to adjust,” Krueter said. “Our outfielders need to be able to make plays, and our pitchers need to pitch away from that side of the field. We need to prepare for it both mentally and physically.”

Lions junior leadoff man Jonathan Johnson paces LMU with a .351 average, 23 runs scored, six stolen bases and 33 hits, including four triples. Redshirt sophomore catcher Matt Koch leads the Lions with eight home runs, 21 RBI and 10 doubles. He is hitting .301 on the season.

Although USC is coming off a tough opening Pac-10 series loss to Stanford last weekend, Kreuter isn’t looking at this afternoon’s game with any extra sense of urgency. He said his team needs to approach every game the same way.

“Every win is important. Every win is a must. Every game in college baseball is like a playoff schedule,” he said. “We need to win in conference and out of conference as much as possible.”

Kreuter also said his team needs to improve its pitching in the later innings of games and give up fewer runs with two outs and opposing runners in scoring position.

“For me it’s about staying focused, making adjustments,” he said. “We’re heading in the direction of making those adjustments.”