Pitching was supposed to carry USC in the postseason, and it hasn’t disappointed.
But oh, those Trojans bats.
They’ve stirred reminders of the teams in cardinal and gold that once ruled college baseball.
Thanks to another offensive barrage Monday night in the NCAA Tournament, these Trojans might just join them.
USC is headed to a Super Regional for the first time in more than two decades after clobbering Texas A&M, 7-1, at Blue Bell Park to prevail in a College Station Regional in which the Trojans were widely counted out after dropping their opening game.
All they did from there was score 55 runs over four elimination games to remove any doubt that they were the best of this bunch.
Bye-bye, Lamar. Bye-bye, Texas State. Bye-bye, Texas A&M.
Bring on North Carolina.
Game 1 of USC’s first Super Regional since 2005 will be Friday in Chapel Hill, N.C., against a team seeded No. 5 nationally.
In what could be dubbed The Year of the Upset – with top-seeded UCLA and second-seeded Georgia Tech among the teams failing to advance from the Regional round – the Trojans pulled off another upset against the No. 12-seeded Aggies.
Augie Lopez provided the big blow, crushing a three-run homer to right field in the seventh inning to extend the Trojans’ advantage to 5-1. Lopez finished with five runs batted in after driving in a run with a single in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in the eighth.
“That’s an unstoppable offense right there,” Lopez said on the ESPN broadcast after the Trojans piled up 59 runs and 72 hits in five games. “You know, we talk a lot about in the dugout and our meetings, just stacking quality at-bats and getting four in a row, five in a row – that’s how you lead into some big innings.”
The Trojans (47-16) also got some top-level pitching from starter Grant Govel. Pitching on two days’ rest, the sophomore right-hander limited the Aggies to three hits and one run in four innings.
“He’s fearless,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz told reporters, “and he wanted the baseball in his hand.”
Relievers Chase Herrell (5-4), Sax Matson and Adam Troy combined for five innings of scoreless relief.
Troy’s perfect ninth inning was especially meaningful given he had surrendered game-winning home runs in each of his previous two outings against UCLA and Texas State.
What it means
The program that produced a record 12 national championships under coaches Rod Dedeaux and Mike Gillespie is back in the national spotlight after two decades of obscurity.
In just his fourth season, Stankiewicz has put the Trojans on the verge of their first appearance in the College World Series since 2001.
“It’s a legacy, it’s a big one,” Stankiewicz said. “Obviously, we all know about coach Dedeaux and coach Gillespie and what they’ve done, and we want to put a nice name back on USC baseball.”
Turning point
Trailing, 1-0, entering the fifth inning, USC showed it was not about to go down quietly.
After Dean Carpentier led off with a bloop single to single to center and advanced on a sacrifice bunt, he scored on Abbrie Covarrubias’ single to left-center.
Covarrubias then stole second base with two out and scored the go-ahead run on Lopez’s two-out, two-strike single to right-center.
The Trojans were on their way to scoring the game’s final seven runs.
MVP: Augie Lopez
Lopez racked up five hits and seven runs in the final two games of the series against Texas A&M to help the Trojans beat the Aggies on back-to-back days.
Did you see that?
A heads-up play by USC first baseman Adrian Lopez prevented Texas A&M from scoring a run in the fourth.
With two on and two out, the Aggies’ Jorian Wilson beat out an infield single. Lopez, realizing that a runner rounded third base and was trying to come home on the play, fired the ball to catcher Isaac Cadena, who applied the tag for the final out of the inning.
Up next
USC will open the Super Regional on Friday against the Tar Heels.
