An owl and a Trojan walk into a bar.

This past weekend, that bar was Dedeaux Field, and as would likely be the case in a real bar fight, the Trojan pummeled the Owl. USC baseball (7-0) swept the Rice University Owls (3-5) at the end of a three-day battle, continuing their dominant form from their sweep of Pepperdine University (1-6) from Feb. 13 to 15 on the backs of excellent pitching performances.

“It’s certainly a good start,” Head Coach Andy Stankiewicz said in a postgame interview Friday. “If you pitch well, you’re gonna put yourself in a good position to win games. And we’ve been able to do that thus far.”

Edwards and Co. put on a show

Junior starting pitcher Mason Edwards set the tone in last week’s season opener when he punched out a career-high nine Pepperdine hitters and only allowed one hit in five innings. He did all that and more in a terribly cold Friday night series opener against Rice, accumulating 11 strikeouts through six shutout innings to lead USC to a 5-0 win.

“He’s establishing himself as a pretty good pitcher,” Stankiewicz said of Edwards. “[I] can’t say enough about the job he’s done in the first two outings.”

On the other side of the mound, the offense looked effective, albeit sporadic — which would continue across the weekend. 

But on Friday, the Trojan offense was kick-started early by an unlikely figure: In the third inning, redshirt freshman outfielder Will Stickney homered in his first collegiate plate appearance. According to Stankiewicz, he debuted Friday because the coaching staff wanted more right-handed hitters facing the Owls’ redshirt sophomore lefty Brayden Sharp.

Although Stickney — who also led the team with two hits — was the man of the hour on offense, USC succeeded as a team. Six different Trojans tallied a hit, with junior infielder Adrian Lopez’s two-RBI single in the seventh inning being especially important; the entire team struck out only five times, their fewest in the season to that point. 

“We just want to play good fundamental baseball,” Stankiewicz said.

In his second appearance of the season, freshman pitcher Gavin Lauridsen closed out the game with a near-spotless final three innings, securing the long save and the win for USC.

Govel continues excellence, offense to be desired

Govel toed the rubber Saturday night and made Friday feel like déjà vu. 

Like Edwards, Govel tallied a career-high 11 strikeouts across six scoreless innings, letting up only a single hit. USC’s pitching staff has become its hallmark to start the season, and Govel, who was honored as the National Pitcher of the Week for his performance against Pepperdine — and who led USC to a 4-1 win Saturday — is arguably its current centerpiece. 

The offense once again got off to a slow start, scoring just two runs and stranding seven runners on base off five hits in the first four innings.

“Guys get anxious to play. They chase out [of] the zone. They get big, and usually good things don’t happen,” Stankiewicz said in a postgame interview Saturday. “I mean, the good thing is you got runners on, right?”

However, the gates broke open in the fifth. The Trojans combined good contact with taking advantage of Rice mistakes like a throwing error and a hit-by-pitch — something Stankiewicz said is key to the Trojan brand of baseball — to put the score at 4-0. 

The team’s momentum was interrupted in the seventh when graduate pitcher Henry Chabot, who came in to relieve Govel, loaded the bases with no outs; Rice capitalized to score a run, but Chabot got out of the jam with just one run surrendered. That limitation would prove to be enough as junior pitcher Sax Matson and redshirt junior pitcher Adam Troy finished the game out for a guaranteed series win.

“The emotions are high because the game could speed up on anyone super fast,” Govel said in a postgame interview Saturday. “That’s a huge win for us.”

Lopez goes long, Trojans close out sweep

Akin to last week, Trojan pitching was class through Sunday. Sophomore pitcher Andrew Johnson — who is much more of a groundball pitcher compared to the strikeout power of Johnson and Govel — produced five innings of one-run ball with six strikeouts on just four hits. Although Rice pressure in the second inning scored an earned run off Johnson, he did more than enough to provide USC with the keys to victory.

USC’s hitting also struck first blood early: In the first inning, sophomore catcher Augie Lopez hit his first homer of the season, driving in himself and junior infielder Abbrie Covarrubias. However, the Trojan offense went to sleep after the third inning, not reaching base a single time for the final six frames; only three Trojans — Lopez, Covarrubias, and junior outfielder Kevin Takeuchi — collected a hit all day.

USC collectively hit 0.172, its worst mark since the first game of the season against Pepperdine. The Trojans also had zero walks, their first time doing so in the regular season since Michigan State destroyed them 15-5 last May.

“We got to get more stingy offensively. We gotta grind out some better at-bats,” Stankiewicz said in a postgame interview Sunday. “You can’t score early and just shut it down, right? That’s a good way to get snakebit.”

The team dipped heavily into the bullpen, using five relievers across the next four innings. Highlights included the collegiate debuts of freshmen pitcher Rohan Kasanagottu and infielder Diego Velazquez, who both threw shutout innings, the latter of whom consistently threw over 90 miles per hour. 

Troy closed out the 4-2 match — one that showcased some prevalent USC issues, but also one that lifted the Trojans to 7-0, their best record to start a season since 2015.

“I really think with the new stadium, we’re really just coming into our own, and it’s only up from here,” Johnson said in a postgame interview Sunday.

However, the team will now return to what was normal the last two years: playing away from Dedeaux. USC will head up north to face Cal Poly San Luis Obispo (4-3) in a rare four-game series starting Thursday at 6:05 p.m.