USC baseball trounced Cal State Fullerton 7-1 Tuesday night on the road. The final score demonstrated the team’s early-season success on the way to a 5-2 record.
USC went up early in the game with a big lead of 4-0 in the first few innings. The only run that the Trojans gave up came late in the eighth inning when the team had its backups in.
Graduate designated hitter and pitcher Ben Wanger had a terrific night, batting in three RBIs, pitching a perfect 1.1 innings and adding a stolen base for good measure. Wanger finished the game off by getting four straight outs.
“It feels good to put up a bunch of runs against a good team and hit their guys pretty well ... Great momentum moving forward,” Wanger said.
Fellow pitcher junior Brian Gursky also had a great outing, tossing 3.2 scoreless innings and only allowing one hit and a walk.
The Trojans had a couple bumps in the road in the early innings of the game when the Titans had the bases loaded. However, freshman pitcher Ethan Hoopingarner and junior third baseman Jamal O’Guinn both made critical plays in these situations, crucial for a Trojan defense that forced the Titans to leave 14 runners on base on the night.
Sophomore first baseman Clay Owens started off the game well with a two-run triple. Sophomore catcher Tyler Lozano also added to the Trojans’ lead with an RBI.
The Trojans were able to completely expel the Titans’ offense and dominate their defense, a hard feat for a team to accomplish.
“A total team effort for us ... I think our offense for whatever reason is a little underrated,” head coach Jason Gill said. “We got left handers, right handers and guys on the bench who can hit the ball.”
The Titans still lead in all-time play against USC 54-45-1. In the last ten games, USC and Cal State Fullerton have gone 5-5.
After their loss to Keio University, a team from Tokyo, Japan, in an exhibition game Wednesday night, the Trojans’ season will really kick into gear. The team hosts Seton Hall for a three-game series this weekend before a Tuesday game against UC Irvine. Following that is the Southern California College Baseball Classic, in which USC will face TCU, defending national champion and No. 2-ranked Vanderbilt and No. 10 UCLA.
USC’s schedule is not going to get any easier, so it will have to fight to have a better season than last year, which the team finished with a 25-29-1 record.