Baseball gets gritty victory over Fullerton
No. 21 USC baseball kept their winning streak alive after beating Cal State Fullerton 4-3 Tuesday night.
With the win, the Trojans improve to 21-10-1 on the season. Senior catcher Connor Aoki’s late game heroics secured the win, driving in the deciding run in the eighth inning.
“He left a changeup up, I knew that he liked to go soft away,” Aoki said. “So I was just looking for something I could drive, because I didn’t want to rollover on anything. Honestly, it was just the right pitch to swing at.”
The Trojan bats were cold to start off against a strong Fullerton pitching staff, but they put up a run in the fifth inning thanks to an RBI by senior outfielder Cole Gabrielson. Junior outfielder Carson Wells tacked on another run in the sixth inning via a sac bunt RBI. Fullerton scored two runs in the top of the seventh to tie it, prompting Aoki’s heroics in the eighth.
“We never think we’re out of the game, our offense is always optimistic,” Aoki said. “Even if we aren’t doing too well, we think that we’re gonna break through at some point and we did today.”
That run wasn’t the only one the Trojans scored in the eighth inning. Wells also drove in what turned out to be a much needed insurance run, as Fullerton would score a run of their own in the ninth inning before redshirt senior pitcher Garrett Clarke shut it down for his fifth save of the year.
Senior pitcher Blake Sodersten, who got the start, pitched five innings and struck out four batters, working his way out of a couple of jams along the way.
“It was a great game. [Sodersten] battled. Sometimes he struggles a little bit but he’s got good stuff to where he can get himself out of some jams, and that’s exactly what he did,” said Head Coach Andy Stankiewicz. “He just rose to the challenge and he’s faced [Fullerton] before, coming from Northridge, so he knows how they do it. He made big pitches when he had to and he competed, and that’s what we want more than anything else.”
After starting the season 5-7-1, USC baseball is certainly back on track. The win is the Trojans’ fifth in a row and their 16th win in their last 19 games.
It’s the perfect time for the team to heat up as the Trojans now prepare for two pivotal Pac-12 series against Oregon State in Corvallis, followed by a home series against UCLA, who beat the Trojans earlier this season at Jackie Robinson Stadium.
“I think anytime you get a win you feel good about yourself. We got a big weekend out in front of us, and so you can’t make it bigger than what it is,” Stankiewicz said. “It’s baseball, we get back on the road and we go against a great ball club that’s had a lot of success for a long time. So we know that we’ve got a tough task, big challenge in front of us, but surely when you win on a Tuesday against a team like Cal State Fullerton, hopefully you can gain a little confidence and some steam going in.”
Aoki says that the team is feeling good at the right time, and that they’re ready to go and face these two big challenges head on.
“We love each other and we really get behind each other at all times,” Aoki said. “Winning this big game just adds to the fire and fires us up even more and proves to us that we can go and beat anyone.”
USC will travel to Corvallis for a three-game series against Oregon State, with game one starting at 7 p.m. Friday.