On Friday, the USC baseball team opened up NCAA Tournament play in the College Station Regional against Texas State. This marked the second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance for the Trojans, who had only made the tournament once in the two decades prior to last year.
Unfortunately, the game did not go well for the Trojans, as USC — up 4-3 in the ninth inning — booted a chopper to third and then gave up a go-ahead two-run home run to Texas State’s Chase Mora. The offense was unable to capitalize in key moments, including the bottom of the sixth, in which the Trojans stranded a leadoff double and couldn’t get a runner home from third with one out. The end result was a 5-4 loss in a game USC led multiple times. 3-1 and 4-3 leads slipped away, as the Trojans wasted Adrian Lopez’s go-ahead home run with two outs in the bottom of the eighth.
As a result, USC now finds itself in a less than ideal position. If the Trojans want to advance, they will need to win four games in three days. While that is certainly possible—Oregon State did it in USC’s regional last year—it is definitely not where the Trojans wanted to be.
USC will now play an elimination game against No. 4 seed Lamar on Saturday. First pitch is set for 1 p.m. Pacific time/3 p.m. Central time on ESPN Plus.
This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: Ninth-inning error costs USC dearly in brutal loss to Texas State
Reporting by Adam Bradford, Trojans Wire / Trojans Wire
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
