USC Baseball Hosts Cal for Pac-12 Series

THIS WEEK: The USC baseball team welcomes in California this weekend for a three-game series at Great Park in Irvine, Calif. To open up the following week, the Trojans travel down to Long Beach Tuesday night for a midweek matchup to round out the season series with the Dirtbags.
 
GAME SCHEDULE:
Friday - USC vs. California (Irvine, Calif.), May 3, 6:30 pm (USC Live Stream)
Saturday - USC vs. California (Irvine, Calif.), May 4, 2:00 pm (USC Live Stream)
Sunday - USC vs. California (Irvine, Calif.), May 5, 1:00 pm (USC Live Stream)
Tuesday - USC at Long Beach State (Long Beach State, Calif.), May 7, 6:00 pm (ESPN+)
 
PROBABLE PITCHERS:
Friday - USC: RHP Tyler Stromsborg (2-8, 5.55 ERA) vs. CAL: RHP Austin Turkington (1-0, 3.60 ERA)
Saturday - USC: RHP Michael Ebner (2-1, 6.31 ERA) vs. CAL: LHP Ian May (0-1, 3.09 ERA)
Sunday - USC: RHP William Watson (2-1, 4.03 ERA) vs. CAL: TBD
 
SCHEDULE UPDATE: Starting April 6 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 Cal (May 3-5) and Utah (May 16-18). All series will be at Great Park in Irvine.
 
BROADCAST INFO: All three weekend matchups against California will be broadcast on the USC Live Stream, and Tuesday's contest at Long Beach State 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.
 
WEEKEND IN THE DESERT: After dropping the opening two games of the series on the road at Arizona State, USC bounced back with an offensive explosion in weekend finale. Ryan Jackson recorded a 4-hit game, Dean Carpentier went 3-for-4 with 3 RBIs and Kevin Takeuchi added a pair of hits and RBIs of his own as the Trojans plated 11 runs — their ninth game with at least 10 runs scored this season.
 
SERIES VS CALIFORNIA: USC is 24-29 all-time against California. The Trojans won the most recent series, taking two out of three in Berkely in March 2023 with their only loss coming in 10 innings by just one run in game two.
 
SERIES VS LONG BEACH STATE: The Trojans own a 19-20 all-time record vs. the Dirtbags. The two schools met in Long Beach earlier this season on March 19, ending in a 7-3 USC victory that snapped its two-game skid in the series. The Trojans are looking to make to back-to-back wins in Long Beach for just the second time (2018-2019) since 2010.
 
TOP-20 DOUBLE: USC picked up a pair of top-20 victories over the UC Irvine over the last two weeks. The Trojans scored 24 combined runs in the two contests, taking down the then No. 12 Anteaters 12-5 on Apr. 9 before repeating the feat with a 12-4 victory at No. 17 UC Irvine on Wednesday night. Wednesday's win improved the Trojans to 5-5 on the season against ranked opposition and winners of five of their last seven against top-25 teams.
 
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:

• Since starting the season 3-11, the Trojans have gone 18-12.
• USC is 11-9 in Pac-12 play and a just 2.5 games out of first place.
• The Austin Overn triple machine keeps rolling as he has five triples this season, good for second in the Pac-12 and eighth 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 45 runs scored on the season, good for third in the Pac-12. His 14 stolen bases are also third most in the Pac-12.
• Jacob Galloway has been leading the Trojans at the plate all season, hitting .314 on the year with a team-high 33 RBI. Galloway also leads the team with a .901 OPS. He owns 11 Multi-hit games, seven multi-RBI games and had a 22 game hitting streak earlier this year, all good for team highs. Galloway has reached base in 39 of 44 games so far this season.
• Ryan Jackson has been swinging a hot bat of late. Jackson has three multi-hit games in his last six, going a combined 10-for-29 (.345) with six runs scored over that stretch. He is now tied for second on the team in batting average, hitting .302 this season.
• Since being inserted into the starting lineup at Stanford, Brayden Dowd has been on a tear at the plate. He now owns one of USC's top five batting averages hitting .299, and in 30 games he has 11 RBI and 19 runs scored. Dowd was the hero in the opener against Oregon State, hitting a walk off single in the bottom of the ninth.
• Xavier Martinez leads USC with 22 pitching appearances this year, good for 2nd in the Pac-12 and 39th in the country.
• Trojan closer Josh Blum has struck out 35 batters in just 22.2 innings pitched this year, holding opponents to a .122 batting average. He has struck out 40% of the batters he has faced (35-of-87), and his 6 saves are good for third in the Pac-12 and 36th in the country.
• USC is 2nd in the Pac-12 with 43 stolen bases this year.
• USC owns a .974 fielding percentage, 3rd best in the Pac-12.
• The Trojans lead the Pac-12 in both sacrifice bunts (27) and sacrifice flies (21).