A crazy season just keeps getting crazier.

USC baseball had arguably its oddest game of them all Sunday. An 82-minute rain delay stopped the game between the Trojans and the UCLA Bruins during the rubber match of the rivalry series in the seventh inning.

For a team struggling to find an offensive spark, lightning strikes in Westwood did nothing to help USC (8-15, 4-5 Pac-12) as the Bruins (9-12, 4-5 Pac-12) maintained their lead once the game resumed to win 6-3.

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The Trojans have been consistently inconsistent all season, and their first series loss to UCLA since 2021 wrapped all of USC’s season struggles in a bow.

Head Coach Andy Stankiewicz’s team came out to a scorching start in the Friday-night matchup, taking home a 15-2 win. The Trojans played their best complementary baseball of the year, as the 13-run win was the best run differential the team has had in a conference matchup since the 2016 season, and the scoring margin was the biggest for USC in the crosstown showdown series since 2002.

One would expect the Trojans to carry that momentum into Saturday, but the celebration for Friday night’s historic win was short-lived as the Bruins put up five runs before the end of the third inning. While USC attempted a comeback — cutting the deficit to one run in both the sixth and ninth frames — it could not get that final hit, leaving the tying run on base in the final inning.

Then came the rain.

Despite splitting the first two games, the near-comeback could have vaulted the Trojans toward a series-winning blow against the Bruins. But, as the rain started to fall at Jackie Robinson Stadium, USC got stuck in the mud, only able to manufacture three runs off of four hits.

Although the bats went cold in the third game, it was the pitching in the back end of the series that led to the two losses. USC’s mound managers compiled a 7.31 ERA in the defeats as starting depth has been an issue for the Trojans all season.

Beyond junior pitcher Caden Aoki — who has been stellar in his last two games, both quality starts — USC’s openers have struggled. 

Senior pitcher Tyler Stromsborg — the Saturday starter — is now 0-5 on the season with a meager 7.20 ERA. At one point last season, Stromsborg had a stretch of four straight quality starts where he recorded a stellar 1.86 ERA, but it fell apart for him toward the end of 2023 and he hasn’t been able to return to form since.

Stankiewicz tried to change things up in the rubber match, relieving redshirt sophomore pitcher Eric Hammond of his normal Sunday starter responsibilities, putting graduate Jared Feikes on the mound instead. The experiment of putting Feikes — who has been a reliever all season — out to start worked for a time, but everything started to crumble in the third inning for the Santa Clara University transfer, as he closed out his appearance with five earned runs in 3.1 innings.

The silver lining of losing the rivalry series is that the Trojans proved they could put up runs on any given night and, maybe more importantly, certain players are starting to break out of team-wide slumps, particularly Aoki.

On the hitting side, though, it’s the veterans who are starting to break out, after the younger stars made a resurgence last weekend. Senior infielder Ryan Jackson and senior outfielder Carson Wells are the only seniors to take an at-bat this weekend and are slowly, but surely, starting to round into form. Jackson notched five hits — two of which went for extra bases — and Wells tallied four, with two of them also going for extra bases.

This series loss will sting, particularly since the Bruins are beatable with their losing record, but many of USC’s most important pieces at the plate are heating up as the Trojans get into the thick of their Pac-12 season. If the pitching staff can follow suit — or Stankiewicz finds a solution to solving his team’s mound problems — USC might be able to turn its season around.

The Trojans have a midweek game Tuesday night, before hosting the Oregon State Beavers (21-2, 5-1) at UC Irvine’s Cicerone Field for a series that lasts from Thursday to Saturday.