Cal Falls To USC In Opener
IRVINE – The California baseball team's offense was held in check by USC starter Tyler Stromsborg who threw seven shutout innings, meanwhile, the Trojans offense got enough run production early to take game one of the three-game series 5-1 on Friday evening at Great Park.
Cal (26-17, 12-13 Pac-12) finished the night with one run on five hits, two from catcher Caleb Lomavita who went 2-for-4 with a solo home run in the ninth. The home run was his 14th of the season and 37th of his career. He passes former teammate Dylan Beavers for sole possession of seventh on Cal's career top-10. He now trails Clint Hoover (1998-01) by two home runs for sixth all-time. PJ Moutzouridis, Seth Gwynn, and Nico Button also collected hits.
USC (22-23, 12-9) finished the night with just nine hits but made them count, scoring five runs, four in innings four through six to put the game out of reach for the Golden Bears. Brayden Dowd, Ryan Jackson, and Abbrie Covarrubias all had multiple hits on the night. The big hit was a solo home run in the bottom of the fourth by catcher Joey Galloway that proved to be the game-winning run. The home run for Galloway was his ninth of the year.
Austin Turkington (1-1) took the loss. He served as the opener and pitched two effective innings, surrendering two hits and a run while striking out three.
The Trojans scored the game's opening run in the bottom of the first inning. Jackson led off the game with a double to right center. A ground-out to third moved Jackson up 90 feet and he scored on a sacrifice fly from Kevin Takeuchi. Turkington did an excellent job of pitching in traffic, holding the Trojans 0-for-3 with runners on.
Cal's offense could not figure out Stromsborg (3-8). The senior went seven complete, scattering three hits, with no walks and four strikeouts. He did not allow a hit after the fifth inning.
The Trojans defense did their part to support Stromsborg's effort. Lomavita singled with 2-outs in the first and was thrown out at second attempting to steal. In the fifth inning, Gwynn started the inning with a single to center field and advanced to second on a failed pickoff attempt. USC got out of the inning unscathed when Button smashed a line drive right at the first baseman Dean Carpentier who threw over to second catching Gwynn off the bag for the rally killing double play.
Luke Short entered the game in the third and went 3.0 innings, allowing five hits, three runs with a walk and two strikeouts. Connor Sullivan pitched three strong innings to finish the contest, scattering two hits and an unearned run with a walk and four strikeouts.
Game two between the Bears and Trojans is tomorrow at 2 p.m.
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