Baseball takes on Arizona seeking to climb up Pac-12

Though the baseball team dropped its single game series against UC Irvine on Tuesday 6-5, the team is looking to maintain its form from last weekend — when their bats came alive to take two of three games from Washington State — against Arizona on Thursday.

After winning the first two games of the series against the Cougars, the Trojans lost in the finale Sunday 9-2 in Pullman. Their two victories were largely brought on by the offensive production from junior catcher Jeremy Martinez, who was named offensive Pac-12 Player of the Week. Martinez went 2-of-3 at the plate with a double and a run scored in the first game of the series as the Trojans won a rain-delayed 10-inning contest 4-2 on Friday, and added to the Trojans 3 home-run effort with a solo home run on Saturday as they won 6-2.

With an 18-21 overall record and 7-8 conference record, head coach Dan Hubbs says that he told his team after Tuesday’s loss to remain focused on ultimately winning the Pac-12 title because, the winner of the conference automatically advances to the postseason, noting that the team is only two games removed from first place and has a multitude of conference opponents left on their schedule. Though USC is certainly looking to make a run at the conference title, Hubbs said that he has cautioned his players not to put the entire burden of pressure on themselves individually, but rather that they need to rely on their knowledge of fundamentals and teammates to begin to accumulate wins.

“It seems like this daunting task, so they put that pressure on every play and on every at bat,” Hubbs said, “We have 18 games left. [The players] cannot think about going 18-0. We have got to try and win the first inning on Thursday first and see what happens.”

Hubbs said that in order for USC to go on this winning streak, his pitchers need to perform like “Pac-12 starters.” While freshman pitcher CJ Stubbs recovered to throw three scoreless innings Tuesday against UC Irvine after allowing 2 runs in the first, Hubbs notes that his team has to stop allowing multiple runs to score in the same inning. Though USC held the lead from the second inning until the seventh, the defense allowed 2 runs in the first inning, 2 runs in the sixth inning and 2 runs in the seventh to eventually lose 6-5. Hubbs is hoping that his pitching rotation against Arizona of redshirt junior Joe Navilhon Thursday, sophomore Mitch Hart Friday and senior Kyle Davis Saturday will give his team “a chance to win every game.”

“Sometimes you are going to give up a run, but can you minimize and make it one instead of two?” Hubbs said. “We practice it over and over again, but it comes down to whether guys can slow the game down and make plays.”

Hubbs says that Arizona is playing with “a lot of confidence” as they find themselves in the mix of teams in striking distance to win the Pac-12 title after sweeping Cal last weekend, without failing to mention that they had also won their single game series against Arizona State Tuesday, 8-0. Though he admits that Arizona boasts strong pitching, Hubbs notes that the team is capitalizing off of the “clutch hitting,” from Wildcats batters who are have a great deal of momentum after scoring 5 runs in the eighth inning Sunday to rally from being 4 runs down and complete their sweep of first place Cal on the road.

“I think [USC players] are frustrated with where we are at, but we need to stop looking at where we are at and where we need to go and just focus on that,” Hubbs said. “Arizona has a lot of momentum, and we know are going to have to match that with enthusiasm and attention to detail in our performance.”

The three-game series will begin Thursday at Dedeaux Field at 7 p.m.