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College  | Story | 3/17/2020

Scout Take: USC

Photo: Ben Ramirez (Josh Dunst)

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USC Trojans

What Happened: Hosting the Southern California College Baseball Classic, USC squared off against three teams ranked in the Perfect Game Top 20 (No. 3 Vanderbilt, No. 5 UCLA and No. 20 TCU). The Trojans made a pretty big statement with 2-1 victories Friday night against TCU and Saturday against Vanderbilt before getting thumped by UCLA on Sunday 15-3. A victory over their Pac-12 rivals probably would have propelled the Trojans into the Top 25. With the multiple 2-1 victories and a 3-0 win over Seton Hall, USC have as many wins in 2020 scoring three or less runs as they did over the entire 2019 season. The Trojans have won all of their weekend series which included another round robin format series playing in the Tony Gwynn Classic.

Carrying Tool: Starting pitching. The Trojans have a veteran group in the starting rotation that consists of PG All-American Kyle Hurt and southpaws John Beller, Alex Cornwell, Isaac Esqueda and Brian Gursky rounding out the rotation. All have sub-4.00 ERAs with both Hurt and Cornwell having their’s inflated by one poor outing early on. Hurt looked every bit of the Friday Ace against TCU in a dominant outing and Beller followed that with an equally, if not more impressive outing against Vanderbilt. With five errors on Sunday, the defense let down the staff allowing nine unearned runs.

Concerns: The way the defense played on Sunday that could be seen as a concern, but the bullpen depth is the bigger long-term concern. Graduate transfer (from Yale) Ben Wanger has been a rock as the closer getting saves in both of their victories on this weekend and has yet to allow an earned run in six appearances (he’s also leading the Trojans in hitting). Freshman Ethan Hoopingarner has also been a rock early on, but the rest of the bullpen has shown inconsistencies and a propensity for walks which has been a major issue for the Trojans the past few years.

Best Player on the Field: After his Friday night start it’s hard not to at least mention Kyle Hurt. He’s been very good too many times to not mention him including fall looks where he was 96-97 mph. On multiple occasions, even going back to high school, he’s looked like a day one guy. Against TCU he dominated with primarily the fastball, commanding it better than in previous looks. If you’re looking for a bat, the Trojans have a handful of guys to consider including some underclassmen who could be cornerstone players for the Trojans then next few years. Clay Owens, the Trojans first baseman, has bounced around defensively trying to find a home, but the bat has played regardless of position. Owens has a presence in the box and swings with intent to do damage and consistently puts the barrel on the ball. Hitting in the middle of the Trojans’ lineup, Owens was leading the team in most power numbers early on in 2020.

Fearless Forecast: The new staff at USC seems to have changed the culture of the storied program and definitely seems to be headed in the right direction. Like Long Beach State and Cal State Northridge, who also have new staffs, the programs all seem to be headed in the right direction and all have identical 10-5 records. Most of the projections had the Trojans pegged for the bottom half of the Pac-12, but the combination of talented and experienced arms and a deep offensive lineup makes it easy to believe that they would have competed with the big boys and ended up in the Field of 64.

Previous player reports:
March 6:
 Kyle Hurt, Benjamin Wanger
March 7: John Michael Beller
March 8: Alex Cornwell

Players Covered: Ben Ramirez, Clay Owens, Jamal O'Guinn, Rhylan Thomas, Tyresse Turner



Ben Ramirez, SS
Standing at 6-foot-3, 200-pounds, Ramirez is long, lean and athletic. A PG All-American the summer of 2016 out of Eastlake High School, he has bounced around the infield during his college career, logging innings at second base, shortstop and third base, settling in as USC’s regular shortstop in 2020. He had a bit of a rough weekend defensively at the Southern California College Baseball Classic committing a few errors, but he also made some highlight-type plays, particularly one behind the bag at second base and firing a strike.

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