USC baseball lost to UC Irvine 5-1 Tuesday night at home despite junior left-handed pitcher Brian Gursky pitching six no-hit innings.
Gursky struck out a career-high seven batters while walking two and giving up one unearned run.
“He had command of three pitches, he was down in the strike zone so when they did put the ball in play they were pretty much chopped ground balls at our middle-infield,” head coach Jason Gill said.
However, he faced adversity in the sixth inning as UCI loaded the bases with one out on the board due to an error, a hit batter and an intentional walk. Gursky managed to hold UCI to just one run in his final inning.
“If I was going to take one thing out of tonight it was our defense,” Gill said. “With the exception of the one error which was an aggressive error, our first steps on defense were outstanding and the starting pitching.”
In the seventh inning, sophomore right-handed pitcher Ethan Reed took over for Gursky and allowed a home run from UCI senior outfielder John Jensen with two runners on UCI a 4-0 lead.
USC catcher and first baseman Clay Owens went two-for-four at the plate with an RBI. However, Gill was less than satisfied with the production at the plate.
“Where we didn’t go well [sic] tonight was our offense,” he said. “We struck out ten times on a Tuesday. I’ll tip my cap to their pitcher, but we’ve got to do better than that.”
Gursky wasn’t discouraged by the lack of run support.
“I think we have the best hitting team in the Pac-12 hands down,” he said. “You can’t bring your hitting every day, but our guys no doubt are going to bounce back. We just have too much talent to not bounce back.”
To close out the game, senior right-hander Gus Culpo dominated in the eighth inning one with two grounders and a popup. In the ninth inning, USC made an effort to reconcile the deficit but ended the game with four hits in total.
“At the end of the game we didn’t give up, we got a run right there at the end,” Gursky said. “Of course, we wish we got the win, there were some positive things we could learn from going forward into the tough weekend we’re about to have.”
The game gave insight into how the team is gelling with each other, a new coach and a new batch of freshman players.
“Since day one we’ve all had a great relationship with the coaches, we’ve all bought in,” Gursky said. “We’re making strides and we’re excited about it. Of course, you know today we should have won, but at the end of the day we know we can do a lot better and we’re trying to show that this weekend.”
The loss drops USC 7-4, while the Anteaters improve 6-6.
There was a team mindset to learn from its mistakes, but not forget the game as a whole.
“I don’t know if you forget about it, I think you learn from it, I don’t know if you ever forget about performances like tonight,” Gill said. “I think you’ve got to keep them in your mind so they don’t happen again. It’s definitely a learning experience. All of us are new together, so we’re all kind of learning together. So I think they’re frustrated. I’m frustrated a little bit.”
The team seems to be working out the kinks of its game to game consistency early in the season.
“I think we’ve been a little bit inconsistent,” Gill said. “Some days we come and get 14 hits and then other days we’re not hitting at the same level. If we can try to get a little bit more consistent that would be great.”
The Trojans host the Southern California Baseball Classic this weekend. They play TCU Friday, Vanderbilt Saturday and UCLA Sunday at Dedeaux Field.
Friday’s first pitch is set for 6 p.m., Saturday’s game will start at 2 p.m. and Sunday’s weekend finale begins at 3 p.m.