Clay Owens Homers Twice, But USC Baseball Falls to No. 18 Arizona, 8-5

TUCSON, Ariz. – Clay Owens homered twice for the second game in a row, but it wasn't enough for the USC baseball team on the road at No. 18 Arizona as the Trojans dropped an 8-5 decision in the opening game of a three-game series.
 
The loss drops USC to 18-14 overall and 6-7 in Pac-12 play, while the Wildcats improve to 25-11, 10-6.
 
Coming off a two-homer game at home against LMU on Tuesday, Owens went deep in the fourth and ninth innings to move his season total to a team-leading nine long balls.
 
The junior DH's first solo-shot kicked off the scoring in the game, putting USC on top 1-0, but Arizona came back with seven runs in the bottom of the inning and USC was never able to fully recover. The Trojans would give up one run the rest of the way, and scored three in the fifth and one in the ninth, but that was it.
 
Rhylan Thomas drove in two runs in the fifth with a double and Ben Ramirez hit a sacrifice fly in the inning as well. Owens' ninth-inning homer was also a solo-shot. USC brought the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but couldn't complete the comeback on the road.
 
Arizona put up its seven runs on six hits in the fourth inning, including a homer, a triple and four singles.
 
Garrett Clarke took over on the mound in the fifth for USC and would give up one run on three hits the rest of the way. Chase Silseth picked up the win for the Wildcats after pitching into the ninth.
 
TOP PERFORMERS

• Clay Owens: 2-for-4, 2 solo-HR
• D'Andre Smith: 2-for-3, R
• Garrett Clarke: 4.0 IP, 3H, ER, 0BB, 2K

 
UP NEXT
USC continues its series at No. 18 Arizona tomorrow night at 6 p.m. and then wraps things up on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both games will be streamed live via Pac-12+, with links to the broadcasts on the baseball schedule page at USCTrojans.com.