It’s not how you start; it’s how you finish.

Even though USC baseball (31-28, 17-12 Pac-12) was without its normal home stadium, started the season out 3-11 and lost its star pitcher due to injury for over a month, the Trojans still managed to have a winning record and reach 17 conference wins. USC has now hit that conference win total in back-to-back seasons for the first time since the 2001 and 2002 seasons.

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The Trojans were unable to earn an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament, which was a foregone conclusion given they only finished three games above .500 and missed out on a bid last season despite finishing 11 games over .500. Even their strong showing in the Pac-12 Tournament — making it to the finals and losing on an excruciating walk-off — will not be able to save them from their postseason drought. 

This should not take away from what Head Coach Andy Stankiewicz, in his second year at the helm for USC, did for a team that lost two of its best hitters to Major League Baseball after last season, amid all the other adversities.

A step back from the 2023 season to the 2024 campaign might seem disappointing on paper, but the Trojans saw major improvements in important areas. The 2023 squad played to a terrible 6-15-1 mark on the road, but USC secured a 12-11 away record this season.

Arizona (36-21, 20-10 Pac-12) — the winner of the Pac-12 Tournament and the No. 18 team in D1 Baseball’s most recent rankings — was 13-11 on the road this past season, showing nationally ranked teams don’t have to dominate on the road, but rather just stay afloat. 

Where the Trojans failed to progress was playing at home, but this is understandable given the team had three “home parks.” USC had a near-unfathomable 26-6 home record in 2023, but regressed to the mean in 2024, sporting a 16-10 mark at home this year.

If Stankiewicz was able to turn around USC’s road struggles in merely a year, he likely can return the Trojans to home dominance as they get more comfortable playing most of their home games in Irvine, a rather uncomfortable travel situation.

As USC’s skipper enters his third year as the Trojan head coach, the team is, of course, preparing to move to the Big Ten, a conference with six national championships — half of what USC has as a team — and none since 1966.

While the Pac-12 is no SEC — a conference with five of the last six national titles — the Conference of Champions boasts 22 College World Series championships since the Big Ten’s last win. 

The Trojans are leaving the stiff competition of the Pac-12 for a conference of historically worse teams. This season will likely leave a sour taste in fans’ mouths expecting USC’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2015, but the future is still bright for the Trojans under Stankiewicz.

USC currently has Perfect Game’s No. 22 high school recruiting class in the country, the highest ranking of any current or future Big Ten school. Stankiewicz will have another offseason under his belt to develop his No. 22-ranked recruiting class from 2023, a group that already saw significant playing time on the diamond this past season.

Where the Trojans will need to come along heading into next season is in the pop department. USC compiled a Pac-12-worst 35 home runs this past season with a major gap to first place. Comparatively, Oregon State (42-14, 19-10 Pac-12) slugged a whopping 112 round trippers.

The Trojans desperately need some power, as Stankiewicz was often forced to manufacture runs through small ball play this past season. If USC can increase its power, the team will be set up for success in the Big Ten.

Even though the future seems bright for the Trojans, there are still a lot of “ifs” that need to become reality before USC truly returns to the national spotlight.

But for now, the Trojans are in good hands under Stankiewicz.

Thomas Johnson is a rising senior writing about USC’s move to a new conference and all of the implications surrounding the transition in his column, “Big Ten Bites,” which runs every other Wednesday.