Baseball drops two of three games against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo


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Tyresse Turner swinging at a pitch against LMU in a USC baseball game.
Redshirt freshman Tyresse Turner’s RBI single in the first inning Sunday helped USC jump out to an early lead and avoid a series sweep against the Mustangs. (Charlie McCollum | Daily Trojan)

USC baseball completed its second series of the season this past weekend at Dedeaux Field. The Trojans dropped the first two games of the series before avoiding a sweep with a victory Sunday.

The Trojans were hoping to build upon their first series in almost a year after winning two out of three against Loyola Marymount University last weekend. Prior to the series against LMU, the Trojans had not played competitively in nearly a year due to the coronavirus pandemic.  

“Without having a fall to work out some of the kinks we usually get to with a normal season I think we are definitely trying to work through some of those things with real games right now,” redshirt junior Ben Ramirez said. “Every game that goes by I think we are getting a little bit better, so I’m excited to see where we are at as the season goes on.”

USC lost the first game against Cal Poly San Luis Obispo on Friday evening with a score of 2-1. The Mustangs were coming off a four-game series against Nevada in which they lost three-straight after winning the opening game. The game saw a flurry of late action as neither team scored in the first four innings. 

Cal Poly broke the deadlock in the fifth inning with an RBI single from redshirt senior Myles Emmerson. USC tied the game at one in the bottom of the sixth with a walk from Ramirez. 

USC redshirt junior pitcher Isaac Esqueda allowed just one run in six innings, but the Trojans’ bullpen could not match Esqueda’s dominance. Freshman pitcher Jaden Agassi allowed a go-ahead run from Cal Poly redshirt junior Matt Lopez in the eighth inning which ultimately led to USC’s loss. The Trojans dropped the second game of the series in a different fashion, as an offensive showcase from the Mustangs buried the Trojans Saturday by a score of 9-4. 

The game was closely fought with USC and Cal Poly tied at 4-4 after the first seven innings. Redshirt freshman outfielder Rhylan Thomas added his first career solo home run as the Trojans hung with Cal Poly early. Head coach Jason Gill spoke highly of Thomas and others at the top of the lineup, saying their plate approaches improved from last week against LMU.

“The first weekend, I don’t think Rhylan Thomas and Tyresse Turner, the top of our lineup guys that we count on to get on base and touch home plate … were as locked in.” Gill said. “This weekend I felt like those two guys did a really good job of setting the table and sometimes the middle of our lineup wasn’t there.” 

Shortly after Esqueda’s removal, Cal Poly scored three runs in the eighth and two in the ninth to go up on the Trojans and secure the win Saturday. 

After consecutive losses Friday and Saturday, USC finished the series with a 7-6 win Sunday. Gill and company came out strong with both Turner and Ramirez recording RBI singles in the first inning, helping USC jump out to a 6-0 lead after two frames. 

“With those first two games not going our way, I think everyone came in with kind of a different attitude trying to salvage the Sunday,” Ramirez said. “We definitely had some more fight towards the beginning of the game. We still have some stuff to work on as the game goes on, but it was definitely a good fight.”

After redshirt junior outfielder Jamal O’Guinn had an RBI single and Ramirez recorded a bases-loaded triple, the Trojans enjoyed their largest lead of the three-game series.

The Trojan offense and pitching staff cooled down as the game wore on, as Cal Poly did not allow USC to score in the following four innings while scoring four of their own in that time span. 

“We definitely need to try and work on focusing a little more towards the end of those long games so we can finish strong,” Ramirez said. 

The Trojans held on after both they and the Mustangs traded runs late in the contest. Despite avoiding the series sweep, Gill wasn’t pleased with USC’s defensive efficiency.

“Where the fault was, was our defense and that’s not what you’re gonna see out of our teams typically,” Gill said. “We are just not very confident defensively.” 

USC comes out of this series with a 3-3 season record, one game off the pace it set after six games last season.

“It’s so early in the season. Sure we’d like to be 6-0. We don’t like being .500. We definitely didn’t like being under .500 going into the day. That’s not what we’re about,” Gill said. “But there’s a long season ahead of us, and we have a lot of room to grow, which is something we are looking forward to doing with these guys.” 

This week the Trojans will host Cal State Fullerton Friday, Pepperdine Saturday and will travel to UCLA Sunday as part of the Southern California College Baseball Classic. The Trojans defeated then-defending national champions Vanderbilt in last year’s classic while also defeating TCU and suffering a blowout loss to UCLA.