USC-UCLA Baseball Series Review

USC Trojans (19-25, 6-15) baseball fell flat in a backbreaking series at home against rival UCLA Bruins (24-20, 13-8). Here’s the recap of the series.

Game 1: UCLA 2 USC 0

W: Griffin Canning (5-2) 9 IP 10 K 7 H BB

L: CJ Stubbs (0-4) 6 IP 2 ER 5 K 7 H BB

Top Performers:

Chase Strumpf (UCLA) 2-4 HR 2 RBI R

Frankie Rios (USC) 2-4

USC bats were shut down by Canning all night, as he went the distance while striking out 10. The good news for the Trojans, this wasn’t Canning’s first dominant performance as the Bruins ace has been on a tear recently. Stubbs pitched a tremendous game up until the eventual breakthrough.. Read a more detailed recap here.

Game 2: UCLA 4 USC 2

W: Nick Scheidler (2-4) IP H 2 K

L: Connor Lunn (0-1) 1.1 IP 2 ER 3 H BB 2 K

Top Performers:

Frankie Rios (USC) 4-5 RBI 2B R

Ryan Kreidler (UCLA) 2-4 3 RBI 2B

After a hot start, forcing out UCLA starter Tejada after only 1.1 IP, the Trojans went cold producing no runs on seven hits for the rest of the game. The Bruins later tied the game due to a big double and homerun. The Bruins finally broke thru on a big 2 RBI single up the middle from Kreidler in the ninth, the game winning hit. Read a more detailed recap here.

Game 3: UCLA 13 USC 0

W: Jon Olsen(4-1)

L: Marrick Crouse (2-7)

Top Performers:

Michael Toglia (UCLA) 3-5 HR 2B 6 RBI R

Adalberto Carrillo (USC) 1-2 2B BB

The Bruins jumped on the Trojans early, building a 6-0 lead after only two innings. Although Crouse gave up a total of six runs on 1.2 IP, only two were earned. UCLA then exploded for a big sixth inning totaling another five more runs thanks to RBI’s on a single, double and home run. USC was shut down producing no runs on only five hits.

Despite an overall solid pitching performance from USC in the first two games, the Trojan offense struggled to muster up anything to support them. As talked about in the preview, UCLA had very strong pitching heading into this weekend series, and proved to be very dangerous to a streaky Trojan offense. This ended up being a nightmare for a USC team that only produced two runs in three games. The Trojans have now fell to six games below .500, marking their worst percentage of the season as they desperately look to turn around this series losing slump. USC will head to Utah next weekend for a very winnable series.