USC has an opportunity to bounce back against Seattle


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Redshirt sophomore infielder/outfielder Tyresse Turner totaled 2 base hits from 11 at-bats over the course of the Oregon series. (Polina Past | Daily Trojan)

USC baseball is preparing for its upcoming game against Seattle University after dropping its previous series to conference foe Oregon. The Trojans currently sit at 14-8 on the season and will play a stand-alone game against the Redhawks on Wednesday.

The team is recovering after their away series against the Ducks. The Trojans lost on Friday 9-7, won Saturday’s game 6-5 and finally suffered a heartbreaking loss Sunday’s game 7-6. 

USC was up 6-1 until the seventh inning Sunday with key offensive contributions from sophomore catcher Garett Guillemette, redshirt senior outfielder Trevor Halsema and junior first baseman Nick Lopez. Batting in the fifth spot in the lineup, Guillemette hit a single RBI that brought in D’Andre Smith. Halsema’s single in the first inning brought in Guillemette and Tyresse Turner. In the same inning, Lopez hit a two-run homer to right field.

The Ducks sparked a rally in the seventh inning after outfielder Colby Shade hit a 2-run home run. Following Shade was a 3-run homer from catcher Josiah Cromwick in the eighth inning to tie the game, and finally outfielder Tanner Smith hit one out of the park for the go-ahead run. 

Head Coach Jason Gill said he recognizes that USC can’t afford to throw away innings.

“On Sunday, we basically lost two of nine innings, and unfortunately in our sport, sometimes when you do that, you lose the game,” Gill said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “I think walking away from there, as hard as it was to feel like we were a good team and we got better, we certainly did.”

Gill said the team agrees this loss is not reflective of their progress thus far in the season. 

“Our season isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon. We still have well over half of our conference games left, so I feel like we got better in a lot of areas,” Gill said.

On the season, redshirt sophomore outfielder Adrian Colon-Rosado leads the board with a .360 batting average and 27 hits. Close behind are redshirt sophomore infielder/outfielder Tyresse Turner and redshirt sophomore outfielder Rhylan Thomas, averaging .346 and .330, respectively. Turner has 28 hits and Thomas has 30 hits. 

Colon-Rosado, Turner and Thomas have all significantly contributed offensively for the Trojans this season so far, but Gill saids there is no single player that leads this team.

“One of our strengths is that we play together as a team, and we have a different hero pretty much every day,” Gill said. “We’re going to do our best to continue to throw strikes at a high level and compete in the strike zone. Offensively, when we play together and we don’t take individual at-bats — we take team at-bats, I think that’s our strength.”

Gill’s Trojans remain optimistic as they look forward to their match against the Redhawks. The first pitch is set for Wednesday at 6 p.m.