Published Mar 28, 2024
Preview: Oregon State Baseball Set To Face USC
circle avatar
Brenden Slaughter  •  BeaversEdge
Publisher
Twitter
@b_slaught
Advertisement

WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE

Oregon State (21-2, 2-1) vs USC (9-15, 4-5)

Irvine, Calif. - Cicerone Field

Thursday 6:30 p.m. - RHP Aiden May (1-0, 2.92) vs. RHP Caden Aoki (2-3, 5.28)

Friday 6:30 p.m. - RHP Jacob Kmatz (3-0, 2.08) vs. RHP Jared Feikes (1-1, 4.50)

Saturday 3/30 1:00 p.m. - RHP Eric Segura (4-0, 4.06) vs. RHP Will Watson (0-0, 2.35)

TV - OSUBeavers.com Live Stream

Radio - Beaver Sports Radio Network

OSU Quick Hits

- Travis Bazzana has hit a leadoff home run in four consecutive games and enters the series as the reigning Pac-12 Player of the Week. It was the fourth selection of his career, and he became the first Beaver in school history to tally that many.

- Bazzana has eight home runs over his last five games and leads the Pac-12 with 14. Those 14 home runs are tied for the sixth-most in a single season at OSU. He also came into this week's action tied for third nationally.

- Oregon State as a team has 46 home runs this season, which ranks first in the conference and the Beavers entered the week ranked 15th nationally.

- The Oregon State pitching staff limited Washington to three runs, 15 hits, four walks and did not hit a batter in the series sweep. That's a WHIP of 0.70.

- OSU's starting pitchers versus Washington - Aiden May, Jacob Kmatz and Eric Segura - combined to limit the Huskies to 12 hits and two runs in 15 2/3 innings.

- The Beavers' 46 home runs this year already rank ninth for a single season at OSU dating back to 1967.

- OSU closes out March with the visit to the Trojans, and the Beavers have a 13-1 record entering the series. It's the most wins in a month since the 2018 Beavers went 13-4. Oregon State's 15 wins in March of 2017 are a single-year record.

- OSU has won six straight and eight of its last 10 games against the Trojans. The six-game win streak is the longest in the Beavers' history versus USC.

- Oregon State has won three straight series versus USC, as well as 7-of-8 and 8-of-10.

- OSU went errorless in the sweep of Washington, doing so for three straight games for the first time this season. The Beavers improved their fielding percentage to .975

USC Quick Hits

- The Austin Overn triple machine keeps rolling as he has four triples this season, good for the 3rd most in the country and 1st in the Pac-12. Overn set USC's single season triples as a freshman last year with 14, and is now just two away from tying the program's career record at 20.

- Overn also has 27 runs scored on the season, good for 2nd in the Pac-12. His 10 stolen bases are 3rd most in the Pac-12.

- Jacob Galloway has been leading the Trojans at the plate all season, hitting a team-high .356 on the year. Galloway also leads the team with 25 RBI and a 1.022 OPS.

- Caden Aoki has now put together back-to-back stellar starts following the worst start of his career three weeks ago against Arizona (2.2 IP, 9 ER). He had his best start of the season in a 5-2 win at Stanford, tossing 6.0 innings and giving up just one run on four hits on Friday night.

- After giving up a run in the second inning, Aoki allowed only one runner past first base the rest of his outing. He followed that up with 6.0 IP, 5H, ER, 2BB, 4K last week against UCLA. Over his last two starts, Aoki has lowered his ERA by nearly 2.5 runs. His 1.76 walks/9 are 2nd best in the Pac-12.

- Xavier Martinez leads USC with 12 pitching appearances this year, good for 41st in the nation and 4th in the Pac-12.USC is 2nd in the Pac-12 with 29 stolen bases this year.

- After starting the year 3-11, USC has won 6 of its last 10.

Beavers In The Rankings

Oregon State Baseball Ranks 3/28
OrganizationRank

D1Baseball.com

2nd

Baseball America

3rd

Perfect Game

3rd

NCBWA

2nd

USA Today

2nd

Pac-12 Standings