USC Baseball Hits the Road Against No. 18 Oregon

THIS WEEK: The USC baseball team heads up north to Eugene for a three-game series with No. 18 Oregon starting on Friday. USC will then return home to host San Diego on Tuesday at Great Park before another nonconference tilt with No. 12 UC Irvine on Wednesday at Anteater Ballpark.

GAME SCHEDULE:
Friday - USC at Oregon (Eugene, Ore.), April 12, 5 p.m. (Oregon Live Stream)
Saturday - USC at Oregon (Eugene, Ore.), April 13, 2 p.m. (Oregon Live Stream)
Sunday - USC at Oregon (Eugene, Ore.), April 14, 12 p.m. (Oregon Live Stream)
Tuesday - USC vs. San Diego (Irvine, Calif.), April 16, 6:30 pm (USC Live Stream)
Wednesday - USC at UC Irvine (Irvine, Calif.), April 17, 6 p.m. (ESPN+)

PROBABLE PITCHERS:
Friday - USC: RHP Tyler Stromsborg (2-5, 5.35 ERA) vs. ORE: RHP RJ Gordon (4-2, 4.07 ERA)
Saturday - USC: RHP Eric Hammond (2-2, 6.94 ERA) vs. ORE: LHP Grayson Grinsell (3-2, 3.79 ERA)
Sunday - USC: RHP William Watson (0-0, 3.21 ERA) vs. ORE: RHP Kevin Seitter (4-1, 5.02 ERA)

SCHEDULE UPDATE: Starting last weekend against Washington, USC has moved its Saturday home games to 2 p.m. (excluding the regular-season finale against Utah, which remains at 1 p.m.). USC has home series remaining against Sacramento State/Santa Clara (April 19-21), Cal (May 3-5) and Utah (May 16-18). All four series will be at Great Park in Irvine.

BROADCAST INFO: All three games in Oregon will be broadcast on the Oregon Live Stream, Tuesday's matchup San Diego will be broadcast on the USC Live Stream and Wednesday's contest at UC Irvine can be found 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 OREGON: USC is 17-22 all-time against Oregon. The Trojans took two out of three against the Ducks last season, winning games one and three of the series at Dedeaux Field in May 2023. The last time the schools met in Eugene, the Ducks won two out of three, similarly bookending a series in March 2022.

SERIES VS SAN DIEGO: USC is 6-4 all-time against San Diego. The Toreros won the lone previous matchup this season, a 9-3 victory over the Trojans in San Diego on April 2. USC has lost three straight in the series, its last win coming on April 2, 2008 in San Diego.

SERIES VS UCI: USC is 12-25 all-time against UC Irvine. The Trojans won the first of two meetings this season, taking down the No. 12 Anteaters 12-5 at Page Stadium on April 9. That win snapped five-game UC Irvine winning streak in the series dating back to 2018. The Trojans last road win over the Anteaters was a 9-7 victory on April 17, 2017.

TOP-12 TROUNCING: USC picked up its third win over a top-15 opponent this season, knocking off UC Irvine in blowout fashion 12-5 on Tuesday night. The win improves the Trojans to 3-3 against ranked opposition in 2024. USC scored six runs in the opening inning to take control of the game, and three different Trojans — Ryan Jackson, Ethan Hedges and Dean Carpentier — hit home runs to put the contest out of reach.

WEEKEND VS WASHINGTON: USC swept its series against Washington, beating the Huskies for the first time in two years. The three wins give USC wins in 6 of their last 7, 12 of their last 16 and series wins in 3 of their last 4 weeks. Since starting the season 3-11, USC is 12-4.

UCSD SHUTOUT: The Trojans posted their first shutout of the season on Wednesday against UC San Diego, holding the Tritons to just two hits in a 5-0 win at LMU. Tyler Stromsborg tossed 6.0 innings in the start, facing just two batters over the minimum, Michael Ebner tossed 2.0 hitless and scoreless relief innings and Josh Blum struck out three batters to close things out in the ninth. Kevin Takeuchi led the way offensively with three hits and three RBI in the game.

SERIES VS OSU: USC won both of its games against then-No. 2 Oregon State this past week, with the finale getting rained out on Saturday. The Trojans won the opener in dramatic fashion, picking up a 2-1 win thanks to a walk-off single from Brayden Dowd in the bottom of the ninth inning. Caden Aoki tossed 6.0 brilliant innings in the start as the USC pitching staff held the Beavers to one run on four hits. It was the first time Oregon State had been held to one or fewer runs since April of 2023.

The second game of the series was a blowout for the Trojans, with USC winning 17-4. The Trojans broke the game open with 10 runs in the fifth inning and the USC pitching staff again held the Beavers in check with four runs on six hits. It was the most runs Oregon State had given up since 2022 and the 13-run margin was the largest defeat for the Beavers since 2012. The two victories marked the first series win over Oregon State for USC since 2019. It also marked the second straight year that the Trojans have picked up a series win over a Top 2 opponent, with USC taking two-of-three from No. 2 Stanford last year.

PLAYER/TEAM NOTES:

The Trojans come into play this weekend having won 8 of their last 9 and 11 of their last 14. Since starting the season 3-11, the Trojans have gone 13-5.
USC is 9-5 in Pac-12 play and a half game out of first place.
The Austin Overn triple machine keeps rolling as he has five triples this season, good for the most in the Pac-12 and third most in the country. Overn set USC's single season triples as a freshman last year with 14, and is now just one away from tying the program's career record at 20.
Overn also has 35 runs scored on the season, good for 2rd in the Pac-12. His 12 stolen bases are 3rd most in the Pac-12.
Jacob Galloway has been leading the Trojans at the plate all season, hitting .371 on the year with a team-high 29 RBI. Galloway also leads the team with a 1.058 OPS. He owns 9 Multi-hit games, 7 multi-RBI games and had a 22 game hitting streak earlier this year, all good for team highs. Galloway has reached base in all 32 games so far this season.
Dean Carpentier has homered in each of his last three games. Carpentier hit his first career home run in USC's win over Washington on Saturday, following it up with another in Sunday's series finale and a third in Tuesday's win over UC Irvine. His three home runs in 2024 are good for third on the team this season.
Since being inserted into the starting lineup at Stanford, Brayden Dowd has been on a tear at the plate. He now owns USC's second-best batting average hitting .333, and in 18 games he has 7 RBI and 11 runs scored. Dowd was the hero in the opener against Oregon State, hitting a walk off single in the bottom of the ninth.
Caden Aoki has now put together three straight stellar starts following the worst start of his career four weeks ago against Arizona (2.2 IP, 9 ER). He had his best start of the season in a 5-2 win at Stanford, tossing 6.0 innings and giving up just one run on four hits and then matched that performance last week against Oregon State. After giving up a run in the second inning, Aoki allowed only one runner past first base the rest of his outing. He followed that up with 6.0 IP, 5H, ER, 2BB, 4K against UCLA. Aoki was through six scoreless innings before giving up a solo-homer in the seventh against Oregon State. He also had a career-high 8 strikeouts against the Beavers. Over his last three starts, Aoki has lowered his ERA by over 2 full runs.
Xavier Martinez leads USC with 16 pitching appearances this year, good for 3rd in the Pac-12 and 41st in the country.
Trojan closer Josh Blum has struck out 27 batters in just 16.1 innings pitched this year, holding opponents to a .161 batting average. He has struck out 43% of the batters he has faced (24-of-64)
USC is 2nd in the Pac-12 with 34 stolen bases this year.
USC owns a .974 fielding percentage, 3rd best in the Pac-12.

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Players Mentioned

Caden Aoki

Josh Blum

Dean Carpentier

Brayden Dowd

Michael Ebner

Jacob Galloway

Eric Hammond

Ethan Hedges

Ryan Jackson

Xavier Martinez

Austin Overn

Tyler Stromsborg

Kevin Takeuchi

William Watson