Baseball hosts Huskies in final regular season series

After finally ending a nine-game losing skid in a 14-9 win over Oregon on Saturday, USC will look to finish the season on a high note in the baseball team’s final series of the season against Washington.

When USC defeated No. 1 Oregon State in a 10-inning thriller back in April after losing seven of its last eight games, it looked as though the Trojans might be able to turn their season around. The opposite occurred, however, as the team went on to lose three consecutive series to conference foes UCLA, Utah and Oregon. Sitting at 20-31 overall and in the Pac-12 basement before Tuesday’s contest against UC Santa Barbara, USC’s three-game set against Washington this weekend is an opportunity to salvage some momentum heading into next season.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, this weekend’s games will not take place at Dedeaux Field, where the team has gone a solid, if unspectacular, 14-14. Instead, head coach Dan Hubbs and his squad will travel to Seattle carrying a dismal 5-17 record on the road this season.

Like the Trojans, the 26-25 Huskies have experienced their fair share of struggles this season. They are currently tied with UCLA for the Pac-12’s worst team batting average at .257. They have also recorded the second-fewest RBIs. In many ways, Washington is the polar opposite of USC, which has struggled to find consistency on the mound all spring. Washington has the fourth-best team ERA in the conference, with star pitchers Joe DeMers and Noah Bremer both allowing fewer than three earned runs per game.

In contrast, the USC’s bullpen never quite found its footing this year. The Trojan relief corps have given up the most home runs (40) and hold the second-highest ERA (5.44) in the Pac-12. The young pitching staff has had a tendency to let events snowball, leading to lopsided, taxing games — such as a 13-0 loss to UCLA in early May. Only one Trojan hurler, sophomore Quentin Longrie, sported an ERA under four heading into Tuesday night.

Given the two teams’ varying strengths and weaknesses, this weekend’s series should be a competitive one. The Huskies’ excellent bullpen will have to face several hot bats in the USC lineup, including junior Frankie Rios (team-best .354 average), sophomore Brandon Perez (.326, 22 RBIs) and sophomore Lars Nootbaar (five home runs and 30 RBIs).

If the Trojans are able to best the Huskies in these next three contests, it would be the team’s first Pac-12 series win since late March, when they won two out of three games against Arizona State at home. Since then, USC has won just six of its last 29 games. Conversely, the Huskies have captured two of their previous four conference series, entering the weekend series with more momentum than the struggling Trojans.

Because the Pac-12 does not hold a conference tournament like most major conferences, these games will almost certainly be the last of the season for both Washington and USC. The two programs will hope to finish out strong and look to rebound from disappointing 2017 campaigns next year.