USC Baseball Heads to Stanford, Long Beach State

THIS WEEK: The USC baseball team hits the road this week, playing a three-game series at Stanford starting on Friday, and then traveling to Long Beach State on Tuesday.

GAME SCHEDULE:
Friday - USC at Stanford (Palo Alto, Calif.), Mar. 15, 6 p.m. (Stanford Live Stream)
Saturday - USC at Stanford (Palo Alto, Calif.), Mar. 16, 2 p.m. (Stanford Live Stream)
Sunday - USC at Stanford (Palo Alto, Calif.), Mar. 17, 1 p.m. (Stanford Live Stream)
Tuesday - USC at Long Beach St (Long Beach, Calif.), Mar. 19, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)

PROBABLE STARTERS:
Friday - USC: RHP Caden Aoki (0-3, 7.71 ERA) vs. STAN: RHP Matt Scott (2-2, 3.63 ERA)
Saturday - USC: RHP Tyler Stromsborg (0-3, 5.95 ERA) vs. STAN: LHP Christian Lim (1-2, 4.96 ERA)
Sunday - USC: RHP Eric Hammond (1-2, 7.47 ERA) vs. STAN: RHP Nick Dugan (3-1, 7.36 ERA)

BROADCAST INFO: All three of this weekend's contests at Stanford will be broadcast live on the Stanford Live Stream via Pac-12+. Tuesday's game at Long Beach State will be on ESPN+. Links to the broadcasts are available on the baseball schedule page at USCTrojans.com.

FOLLOW: Fans can also follow the action through live stats on USCTrojans.com. Live, in-game updates will be available for all games from @USC_Baseball on X as well.

GET SOCIAL: Follow USC Baseball on social media to get updates on everything going on with the team this season. The Trojans can be found at @USC_Baseball on X, @sctrojans_baseball on Instagram and USC Trojans Baseball on Facebook.

SERIES VS STANFORD: USC leads the all-time series against Stanford, 224-195-2, dating back to the teams' first meeting in 1923. The Trojans won last year's series over the Cardinal, taking two-of-three games at home.

SERIES VS LBSU: The Trojans lead the all-time series against Long Beach State, 85-50, dating back to the teams' first meeting in 1960. The Dirtbags won the lone game between the teams last season, beating USC 8-4 at Angels Stadium.

PAC-12 OPENER VS ARIZONA: USC dropped the first two games of its opening series against Arizona before salvaging a win on Sunday against the Wildcats. The USC arms led the way in the Sunday victory, giving up just one run on three hits. Eric Hammond got the win after 6.0 innings, while Xavier Martinez tossed 2.0 scoreless relief frames and Josh Blum picked up the save with a scoreless ninth.

FIRST ROAD WIN: USC picked up its first road victory of the season at Cal State Fullerton on Tuesday. The Trojans prevailed 6-5, thanks to a KaiKea Harrison two-out double in the 8th inning, in a game that saw the lead change hands or tied seven different times. The Trojan bullpen turned in one of its best peformances of the season, with Xavier Martinez, Jared Feikes and Josh Blum combining to toss the final four innings without allowing an earned run.

HOME-OPENING SERIES WIN: USC picked up its first series win of the season at OC Great Park over the weekend. After dropping the opener on Friday, the Trojans rebounded Saturday with a 6-5 victory thanks to 6 innings of 2-run baseball from Tyler Stromsborg and a walk-off double from Ethan Hedges. Sunday was a resounding victory for USC, topping Portland 10-4 as all nine Trojans in the ordered reached base at least once.

THE STANK EFFECT: After finishing last in the Pac-12 and missing the conference tournament last season, USC has made a remarkable turnaround in head coach Andy Stankiewicz's first season. USC's 34-22-1 record was a 9-win improvement from last season, its 17-13 Pac-12 record was a 9-win improvement and the Trojans' fourth place finish was six spots better than their predicted 10th place finish in the Pac-12 preseason poll. All three marks were the best by a USC team since 2015 (the last time USC made the NCAA Tournament).

PLAYER/TEAM NOTES:

Kevin Takeuchi had the first two-homer day of the season for the Trojans, hitting a pair of homers in the Saturday night game against Arizona. They were the first homers of the freshman's career. Takeuchi also has six doubles on the year, the sixth most in the Pac-12.
Jacob Galloway has been leading the Trojans at the plate all season, hitting a team-high .383 on the year, which is good for ninth in the Pac-12. Galloway also leads the team with 13 RBI and a .458 OBP.
Eric Hammond posted the longest start of his career to lead USC to a much-needed Sunday victory over Arizona, giving up one run on three hits in 6.0 innings pitched. The lone run he allowed was a solo-homer in the first inning.
After a slow start to the year, Austin Overn is heating up. He comes in riding a five-game hitting streak, going 8-for-19 (.421) over that stretch. He has two homers and a triple in his last two games.

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Players Mentioned

Caden Aoki

Josh Blum

Jared Feikes

Jacob Galloway

Eric Hammond

KaiKea Harrison

Ethan Hedges

Xavier Martinez

Austin Overn

Tyler Stromsborg

Kevin Takeuchi