Huskies Drop Second Straight Game to USC

Seattle -- The Washington baseball team (8-8, 0-2) dropped another tight affair on Saturday night, falling to the USC Trojans (8-6, 2-0) by a score of 7-5.

With two separate rain delays, the game took nearly five hours to complete, but the teams battled through the conditions and UW did not go down without a fight.

The Huskies got off to a quick start, hanging a three-spot in the first inning. After two quick outs to start the bottom of the first, true freshman Nick Kresnak helped start a two-out rally for the Huskies when he ripped a single up the middle. Will Simpson reached on a fielding error and Dalton Chandler followed with an infield single to load the bases for Christian Jones. After falling behind 0-2, Jones worked a full count before launching a 93 mph fastball deep into the right-center field gap for a bases-clearing double that put UW up 3-0.

After a brief rain delay in the bottom of the second, the Trojans were able to find a couple of runs in the top of the third. The first four batters all reached, starting with a leadoff home run to make it a 3-1 game. A single, walk and another single made it a one-run game before Jack Enger battled out of the inning to keep USC from scoring any more runs. 

The Huskies had an immediate answer in the bottom of the third, as Will Simpson led off the inning with a double and came around to score on a Dalton Chandler single. A couple of batters later, Kelly Corl lifted a sac fly to center field to score Chandler and give UW a 5-2 lead. 

After a second rain delay in the fourth inning that lasted over an hour, the Trojans came out ready to hit, as they would tie the game in the top of the fifth. A leadoff single and wild pitch gave USC a man on second to start the inning. After an RBI single to make it a 5-3 game, a two-run home run to right field tied things up at five. 

The Trojans kept up the scoring in the sixth, as they loaded the bases with no outs to start the inning. Colton Charnholm was able to get a double play ball and thanks to runners interference, no one scored on the play. However, with two outs and men on second and third, USC used a single to left field to take a 7-5 lead. 

While Gabe Smith would enter in the seventh and throw three scoreless innings to keep the Trojans from adding any more runs, the Huskies were unable to even things up. 

Christian Jones belted his third double of the game to lead off the eighth inning, but was stranded on second. UW rallied with two outs in the ninth, getting the tying run to first base after back-to-back singles from Nick Kresnak and Will Simpson. However, the Huskies could not push the tying run across and lost their second straight game to open their Pac-12 slate.

Game three of Washington's series against USC is scheduled for tomorrow at 1:00 p.m..
Husky Notes

• With his HBP in the fourth inning, Braiden Ward extended his on-base streak to all 16 games this season.
• With three scoreless frames, Gabe Smith has now thrown eight straight scoreless innings across his last four games.
• Christian Jones' three doubles were the most by a Husky in a game since Preston Viltz had three against UC Irvine on 2/28/20.