USC swept by rivals UCLA in three-game road series


The USC baseball team convenes before the first pitch. They are looking to right the ship during the final stretch of the season. Emily Smith | Daily Trojan

The UCLA Bruins swept the USC Trojans in this weekend’s three-game series. The Bruins improved their record to 25-10 on the season while the Trojans now sit at .500 with a record of 18-18 on the year.

Game one saw USC freshman pitcher Kyle Hurt take the mound against UCLA senior pitcher Jake Bird. Experience was key in this matchup as Bird and the Bruins took game one by a resounding scoreline of 16-1.

The game started off poorly for the Trojans as the Bruins scored 5 runs in the first inning. The Bruins would go on to score 2 more runs in the next inning. Hurt then kept the Bruins quiet through his final two innings on the day as he went on to pitch four innings in total. Hurt faced 23 batters on Friday’s game, and allowed seven earned runs on eight hits, but managed to strike out five batters. Comparatively, Bird went for seven innings and faced 28 batters on the day; however, he only allowed one earned run on eight hits with just one strikeout on the day.

The rest of game one wasn’t pretty for the Trojans either as freshman pitchers Riley Lamb and Augie Sylk collectively gave up 9 runs to the Bruins in five innings. While the Trojans weren’t lacking in hitting, having recorded eight hits on the day, their defense and pitching ultimately failed them as they were unable to capitalize and score any runs.

Game two Saturday didn’t fare any better for the Trojans as the Bruins obliterated them 19-2 at Jackie Robinson Stadium. Junior pitcher Solomon Bates took the mound for the Trojans against the Bruins’ star freshman pitcher Zach Pettway. Pettway has been impressive all season, posting a 6-1 record on the year after Saturday’s game. He aims to be a potential star pitcher in the Pac-12 for years to come. After Saturday’s game, Bates now has a 3-2 record on the year.

The Bruins got off to an early lead, putting up 2 runs in the first inning. However, the Trojans fought back in the second and brought the scoreline to 2-1. The highlight of the game for the Trojans occured in the second inning as freshman shortstop Ben Ramirez hit a solo homerun, his second this season.

However, the Bruins got hot in the next three innings, scoring 3 in the third, 1 in the fourth and 6 in the fifth to put the scoreline out of reach at 12-2 in favor of the Bruins after five innings.

The Trojans showed a little more grit in game three, but were unable to stop the Bruins from scoring in the end. Junior pitcher Quentin Longrie took the mound for the Trojans on Sunday, and showed real composure throughout the game. Through the first six innings, he only allowed the Bruins to score 3 runs, an impressive feat considering the Bruins’ quality of batting order and previous results.

The Bruins got off to an early lead scoring 1 run in each of the second, fourth and sixth innings to take the scoreline to 3-0 through six. However, in the seventh inning, the Trojan bats came alive as junior left fielder Lars Nootbaar hit another 2-run homerun, taking his tally to 5 on the year. That brought the scoreline to 3-2 through the top half of the seventh. But the Bruins fought back and put up 4 runs of their own in the bottom half of the seventh, halting all of the Trojans’ momentum. USC was able to put up 1 more run late in the ninth to bring the final tally to 7-3 in favor of the Bruins.

After the UCSB game Tuesday, head coach Dan Hubbs urged his team to limit mistakes on the defensive side.

“If we don’t make those mistakes we can limit the damage,” he said. “When you’re not playing great can you limit innings to 1 or 2 [runs] instead of 3 or 4?”

Yet, this weekend’s series showed the opposite from the Trojans. They were unable to limit the scoring damage in several innings, rendering each game out of reach. The Bruins are one of the best baseball teams in the country, and they proved that this weekend. Ultimately, the Trojans did not do enough to limit their innings and fight back.

The Trojans will look to end their current three-game losing streak in their next game against Long Beach State Tuesday night at Dedeaux Field. The Trojans will follow up that game with a weekend series against Pac-12 rivals Oregon in Eugene.

Oregon is 19-18 on the season and 6-12 in the Pac-12.