USC Baseball Walks Off No. 2 Oregon State, 2-1
IRVINE, Calif. – The USC baseball team got a walk-off single from Brayden Dowd in the bottom of the ninth to take down No. 2 Oregon State on Thursday night in Irvine.
The Trojan arms, led by Caden Aoki, were brilliant, holding the top scoring offense in the Pac-12 to just one run on four hits. With the win, USC improves to 10-15 overall on the year and 5-5 in Pac-12 play. Oregon State suffers just its third loss of the season, falling to 21-3 overall and 5-2 in Pac-12 action.
Aoki turned in his third consecutive stellar start, tossing 6.0 innings and giving up just one run. He was through six scoreless, before giving up a solo-homer to the first batter of the seventh. Xavier Martinez came in and kept the Beavers at bay, however, working out of a bases loaded jam to end the seventh. Jacob Galloway got the final out of the frame from behind the dish, picking off OSU's Travis Bazzana at first to keep the game tied at 1-1.
Martinez would set the side down in order in the eighth, and Josh Blum threw a scoreless top of the ninth to set things up for Dowd in the bottom half of the inning.
Austin Overn and Jacob Galloway were both hit by pitches to start the ninth for USC, and Ryan Jackson laid down a sac bunt to advance the pair to second and third with one out. Dowd came up with the infield drawn in and slapped a grounder down the third base line to win it.
USC opened the scoring in the game thanks to a solo-homer from Ethan Hedges in the bottom of the fourth inning.
TOP PERFORMERS
- Caden Aoki: 6.0 IP, 4H, R, 2BB, 8K
- Xavier Martinez: 2.0 IP, 0H, 0R, 3BB, 3K
- Brayden Dowd: 2-for-4, GW-RBI
- Ethan Hedges: 2-for-3, HR, BB
COMING UP
The Trojans continue play against No. 2 Oregon State at UC Irvine on Friday at 6:30 p.m. and then close things out on Saturday at 1 p.m. Both games will be streamed live on Pac-12+ via USCTrojans.com. Links to follow can be found on the baseball schedule page at USCTrojans.com.
Hear from the man of the hour, @braydendowd! pic.twitter.com/W0OCV9XL7y
— USC Baseball (@USC_Baseball) March 29, 2024