Trojans earn tight win in finale but drop two of three to Cal Poly

After falling short in a tight 2-1 game Friday night and losing 9-4 Saturday, the Trojans pulled off a 7-6 win on Sunday to avoid a series sweep to the Cal Poly Mustangs at Dedeaux Field.

Friday’s game was a pitcher’s battle between USC redshirt junior Isaac Esqueda and Cal Poly redshirt freshman Drew Thorpe. For both pitchers, breaking balls were the bread-and-butter of the game, allowing them to keep the game scoreless until the fifth inning when the Mustangs put one up on the board.

Following Esqueda’s eighth strikeout of the night in the sixth inning, the Trojans were able to tie the game up with a bases loaded walk to redshirt junior third baseman Ben Ramirez. However, it would be Cal Poly to ultimately score the decisive run in the top of the eighth inning on a two-out RBI single. Despite the USC defense shutting down Cal Poly with three quick outs in the top of the ninth to hold the score at one, the Trojans were unable to even things up, falling 2-1.

On Saturday, the Trojans fought in a back-and-forth offensive battle against the Mustangs until late in the game when the defense struggled to stop the bleeding.

Cal Poly got on the board in the first inning against redshirt sophomore righty Chandler Champlain, but USC answered back when freshman shortstop Nate Clow hit a two-run double to right field, sending Ramirez and redshirt junior left fielder Bart West home. Both teams scored in the third, with USC’s run coming on a solo homer from freshman center fielder Rhylan Thomas.

USC took the lead in the fourth after an RBI from redshirt senior designated hitter John Thomas. Cal Poly later scored in both the fifth and six innings to tie the game up again at four.

The game started to slip away from the Trojans in the eighth inning. USC allowed Cal Poly to put up three more runs with a bases-loaded walk. The Trojans’ defense seemed to be the pitfall of the series as a whole, as the Trojans committed eight errors across the three games. In the ninth inning, the Trojans gave up two more runs — thanks in part to two errors on one play — and were unable to rally, making the final score 9-4.

Redshirt junior right fielder Jamal O’Guinn and redshirt sophomore first baseman Clay Owens, two of USC’s best hitters, went 0-for-13 combined across the first two games of the weekend.

After losing the series, the Trojans needed a win on Sunday to avoid the sweep and managed to pull out a tight 7-6 win to close the weekend.

“With the first two games not going our way, I think everybody came in with a little bit of a different attitude to try and salvage this Sunday,” Ramirez said.

The Trojans established a six-run lead early on in the game with two runs scored by Thomas and redshirt freshman Tyresse Turner in the first inning. In the second inning, the Trojans advanced their lead to 6-0, capped off by a bases-clearing triple from Ramirez, the pitch after a borderline 3-1 offering went the Mustangs’ way.

Starting pitcher redshirt sophomore Alex Cornwell had a strong game with no hits until the fourth inning. He gave up just three hits and two runs over six innings. USC’s starting pitchers performed well throughout the series and were able to limit the Mustangs in the early frames.

Similarly to Saturday’s matchup, Cal Poly took advantage of USC’s defense to make a comeback late in the game, bringing the score to 6-4 when a dropped pop-up by Ramirez allowed a run to score. Clow then came up with a crucial insurance run and homered in the bottom of the seventh to make the score 7-4.

Clow’s home run would end up being the game-winning run, as the Mustangs were able to score two more times — once in the eighth and once in the ninth — to give USC a close win.

Despite the win on Sunday, both Ramirez and head coach Jason Gill credited the Trojans’ lack of confidence on defense as the reason for losing the series and said it was something to work on going into the Southern California College Baseball Classic next weekend against Cal State Fullerton, Pepperdine and UCLA.

“We’re just not playing good catch,” Gill said. “We’re going to have to run some stuff, probably some old school stuff that I haven’t done in a while to get these guys confident and get them playing a better game of catch and having fun doing it.”

Gill and Ramirez expressed optimism in how the team will grow moving forward with more time together and more games under their belt.

“There’s a long season in front of us,” Gill said. “We have a lot of room to grow, which is something that we’re looking forward to doing with these guys.”