After falling to Hawai’i in a midweek contest, the Trojans looked to bounce back as they welcomed Gonzaga to the Great Park.
Heading into Thursday’s matchup, junior left-handed pitcher Caden Hunter was coming off a brilliant outing of one-run baseball at Penn State where he took a tough loss when the offense failed to provide run support.
Gonzaga jumped all over Hunter early in Game 1. The first four batters reached, and a redshirt junior left fielder Gage Mestas triple helped Gonzaga to a three-run first.
The Bulldogs’ sophomore righty Finbar O’Brien was perfect through four innings, silencing the Trojan bats while striking out six.
Gonzaga struck again for three in the third off Hunter. The big blow came from Bulldog senior first baseman Tommy Eisenstat, who launched a three-run home run — his third home run of the season.
Hunter was relieved after four innings — his shortest start of the year.
“We’ve got to get Caden Hunter back going again,” head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “He didn’t have a good [Thursday] night. But that’s baseball — sometimes everybody can’t be great every night.”
This was also the fourth game in his last five where Hunter gave up three or more earned runs.
Sophomore righty Andrew Harbour didn’t fare much better, as the Bulldog bats continued to build their lead.
Down 8-0, USC finally showed signs of life in the fifth behind sophomore first baseman Adrian Lopez’s triple which helped ignite a three-run response that trimmed the deficit.
USC got within two, but that was as close as it would get. The Trojans were shut out the rest of the way as Gonzaga took the opener, 9-6.
“I think that’s been kind of our nemesis,” Stankiewicz said. “Sometimes we’re not as consistent as we need to be. It’s about being solid every day — not worrying about being great every day.”
In Game 2, the Trojans sent senior right hander Caden Aoki to the hill to try and even the series. Aoki ran into trouble early with Gonzaga getting a quick 1-0 lead.
This was the fourth game in a row where the Trojans found themselves with an early deficit.
Lopez, who sparked a late rally in the previous game, wasted no time this time around. His two-run homer in the first inning gave USC an early lead.
USC was getting production from unexpected places — which was critical, considering two of its usual offensive cornerstones had quiet weekends.
Junior third baseman Ethan Hedges, typically a key contributor, went 0-for-10 and failed to reach base in the first two games. Sophomore center fielder Brayden Dowd, another mainstay in the lineup, was just 2-for-9 in those contests and finished the series 3-for-13.
“Dowd hasn’t really been himself, and Hedges just hasn’t been himself,” Stankiewicz said. “So we need somebody to pick up the slack a little bit.”
Aoki settled down after the first, pitching perfect second, third and fourth innings. The Trojans gave their starter more insurance as Lopez doubled and eventually scored, extending the USC lead to 4-1. Two strikeouts, however, stranded runners on second and third.
After Gonzaga tied it in the fifth, sophomore left fielder Kevin Takeuchi — not known for his power — gave USC the lead back with his first home run of the season.
With Aoki out of the game, Gonzaga tied it at five off freshman reliever Andrew Johnson in the seventh.
The bottom of the seventh saw USC pull away. Back-to-back doubles from redshirt junior shortstop Bryce Martin-Grudzielanek and Lopez made it 6-5 Trojans. USC ended up plating four runs in the inning to take a 9-5 lead, which would hold.
Martin-Grudzielanek has reached safely in 17 of his last 18 games, with 11 of those being multi-hit efforts.
“Just staying calm at the plate, whether the count’s 0-2 or 0-0,” Martin-Grudzielanek said. “Staying calm and trusting my ability and just attacking the ball.”
Johnson went the rest of the way, not allowing another hit. Lopez had three hits for the second straight game, driving in three.
The third and final game was set for Saturday, and it was all USC. Sophomore lefty Dylan Osborne got the start, aiming to deliver a stronger outing than Hunter and Aoki.
“We’re trying to figure out that third starter,” Stankiewicz said. “And Dylan Osborne did a great job — probably his best start in his entire college career.”
USC got on the board early, as Hedges snapped his 0-16 dating back to Penn State, his longest hitless stretch of the season.
In the fourth, after the first two Bulldogs reached base, Osborne was met on the mound by pitching coach Sean Allen, who tried to settle his young starter. Osborne responded by inducing a critical double play from Eisenstat.
In what was Osborne’s first start with the Trojans, he finished with 3.2 innings of one-run baseball, tying his season high for innings pitched, while also marking a career high in pitches with 66.
In the bottom half of the fourth, junior outfielder Jack Basseer doubled the Trojans’ lead to 4-1 with a two-run home run — his fourth of the year.
Lopez added another two-run homer in the sixth, going the opposite way for his second long ball in as many games.
“Adrian had a great weekend, hitting the ball well,” Stankiewicz said. “A home run to the opposite field, staying on the baseball. He stepped it up and did a nice job of giving us really quality at-bats.”
With 13 hits in his last six games—eight coming in this series—Lopez has been one of the hottest bats in the lineup.
The Trojan bullpen — consisting of a trio of sophomores shut down the Bulldogs the rest of the way.
The Trojans pulled away in the eighth with a five-run outburst, capped by Martin-Grudzielanek’s two-run single, continuing his consistent offensive presence throughout the series.
“Just one at-bat at a time,” Grudzielanek said. “Just get to first and keep putting quality at-bats together.”
The game was called in the eighth with the 10-run rule taking effect as the Trojans were leading by 10 after seven innings. The afternoon ended with USC winning 11-1, securing the series win for USC.
“The goal is to win weekends,” Stankiewicz said. “That’s a good program over there. They’re first place in the [West Coast Conference] for a reason. That’s a scrappy ball club — they don’t strike out, they compete. To come back and get the next two after a tough loss on Friday, it’s big.”
As USC enters the back half of the season, the Trojans head to Long Beach State in a crucial midweek matchup.