After opening the 2025 season with a three-game series sweep over George Washington, a close win against UC Irvine and a shutout win over CSU Bakersfield, undefeated USC looks to keep their foot on the gas in an upcoming series against Rice University this weekend. 

The Trojans are 5-0 for the first time since 2015, their best start to a season since hiring third-year Head Coach Andy Stankiewicz. A big part of their early success can be attributed to their high-powered offense, which totaled 43 runs — that’s 8.6 runs per game — on 52 hits with eight total home runs. 

Stankiewicz was pleased with his team’s performance in their first few games but cautious not to be overly optimistic based on such a small sample size.

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“We swung the bats well early,” Stankiewicz said in an interview with the Daily Trojan. “It’s a long way to go, but we feel good about [how] the offense has performed, and we certainly pitched well.”

On the other side of the diamond, the Owls (1-3) started their 2025 campaign ice cold, dropping their first three games in the Puerto Rico Challenge against Villanova, Michigan and No. 2 Virginia. They picked up their first win against Sam Houston, 6-1, in their first home game of the season Wednesday.

Unlike the Trojans, the Owls’ bats have failed to come alive, only totaling 14 runs on 26 hits with only one total home run. Rice’s pitching has not been any prettier, allowing 23 runs with a collective 4.76 team ERA. Many of these numbers are blown out of proportion due to junior pitcher Garrett Stratton’s performance against Villanova, where he surrendered four runs in just 0.2 innings pitched.

“Rice is a good opponent — historically a very, very good program. It’s a good challenge for our first road series,” Stankiewicz said. 

Despite a perfect 5-0 record for USC, one of the biggest challenges this season has been finding time to scout and prepare for upcoming opponents. In the Trojans’ first week of baseball, they are scheduled to play games on six out of the first seven days, meaning they have minimal time to prepare for opponents. 

After beating CSU Bakersfield (1-3) Wednesday night, the Trojans have just a few hours of rest before hopping on a flight to Houston on Thursday. This leaves minimal time for Stankiewicz and his staff to scout Rice and their players. 

“Scouting is not easy, because you play four or five games a week, and so you kind of play one game up front,” Stankiewicz said.

There is not much scouting that needs to be done for Rice Head Coach José Cruz Jr. and his staff to know that USC junior infielder/relief pitcher Ethan Hedges is scorching hot. Hedges is putting up video game numbers, hitting .476 with a 1.548 OPS and a 1.048 slugging percentage to go along with 12 RBIs and three home runs. Not to mention, he also pitches.

On the mound, Hedges is the Trojans’ closer and has racked up two saves with a 0.00 ERA and 0.00 WHIP. He’s on another planet right now, and the Owls can only hope he comes crashing back down to Earth this weekend.

Stankiewicz admitted there is some difficulty balancing Hedges’ playing time between playing third base and acting as the team’s closer. Although the Trojans’ coaching staff likes Hedges on the mound late in games, they want to be careful not to overextend him and keep his pitch count low so he can still start every day at third base. 

Facing a quick turnaround, Stankiewicz has a message for his team. 

“We got to play well on the road. I think road trips are great — they give your team a chance to bond a little bit and get away from everybody and other outside noise and just play baseball,” Stankiewicz said.

USC travels down south to Houston this weekend to face Rice in a three-game series. The first game of the series is Friday at Reckling Park, with first pitch at 4:30 p.m.