No. 1 UCLA baseball’s (29-2, 15-0) season has been bolstered by its big bats, namely junior shortstop Roch Cholowsky and junior outfielder Will Gasparino, who had combined for 22 home runs coming into this weekend’s series against No. 12 USC (27-6, 10-5). In the first two games of the matchup, the duo struggled with power, recording zero extra base hits.
On Sunday, Cholowsky and Gasparino flipped the script, combining for six RBI and two home runs in a 10-4 win that sealed a Bruin sweep. It was the first series USC lost all season.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Andrew Johnson got the start and the loss, allowing 10 hits and seven earned runs with only two strikeouts in six innings of work.
UCLA was a relentless offensive force from the first pitch. Junior left fielder Dean West worked an early 0-2 count and blasted a leadoff homer to start the game off hot. Junior first baseman Mulivai Levu hit two home runs: a solo shot in the fifth and a two-run long ball in the sixth. Sandwiched between them was Gasparino’s two-run home run that put the Bruins up 5-3. Cholowsky’s three-run jack in the eighth was just the icing on a very triumphant cake.
“Unfortunately we don’t have the home run threat as much,” USC head coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “That’s why we scored four and they scored 10. Is four good enough? Against some teams, but not against the Bruins.”
The Trojans had plenty of chances to even the score, but capitalized on very few of them. Sophomore designated hitter Augie Lopez’s early solo home run tied the game at one apiece in the second, but it was USC’s only long ball in the contest. In the fifth inning, sophomore third baseman Maximo Martinez and freshman shortstop Diego Velazquez scored on a fielder’s-choice-turned-throwing-error from UCLA junior third baseman Roman Martin. Up 3-2, it seemed USC might have some life.
But the Trojans were only able to squeak out one more run, when junior center fielder Kevin Takeuchi scored on freshman reliever Elai Iwanaga’s throwing error in the sixth. On the day, they went 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position.
“We just lost our way, and that’s what a good team will do against us,” Stankiewicz said. “We’ve got to grow up. We’ve got to get better.”
The Trojans certainly have room for improvement offensively. Their top of the lineup – junior second baseman Abbrie Covarrubias, junior right fielder Andrew Lamb and junior first baseman Adrian Lopez – went 0-for-13 on Sunday.
UCLA has now won 23 straight, a new program record and the longest active streak in DI baseball. The Bruins will travel to Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday before taking a cross-country trip to Rutgers for a series this weekend.
With the loss, USC moves to 0-4 against ranked opponents. The good news? The Trojans have likely already faced the toughest competition they’ll see this season. The bad news? More ranked foes linger on the horizon, including No. 19 Nebraska and No. 15 Oregon, both of which will host USC for three-game series.
These conference matchups could have serious implications for the Trojans’ Big Ten tournament hopes come May. With a new format announced – in which the top four-seeded teams essentially receive a bye from the early double elimination round – USC will need every conference win it can get. The team is currently third in the Big Ten behind UCLA and Nebraska, with Oregon and Purdue not far behind.
First, the Trojans will focus on bouncing back from what Stankiewicz called “a kick in the tail” against UCLA, starting with a road game Tuesday at UC Santa Barbara. USC will then host Iowa for a weekend series beginning on Friday.