In an edge-of-your seat affair that saw back-and-forth scoring, No. 16 Cal Poly out-dueled USC 7-5 in a non-conference game Tuesday night at Baggett Stadium.
Once the sun fell, blankets came out, but the Cal Poly bats stayed hot despite the chilly weather. The Mustangs (18-7) had 10 hits against the Trojans (11-13) and three players had multiple.
Senior center fielder Ryan Lee and junior catcher Ross Brayton each had a pair of hits for the Mustangs. Lee extended his hitting streak to 15 games, which is the seventh longest in Cal Poly’s Division I history and 10 shy of the school record of 25 set by Brandon Roberts in 2004.
Particularly hot was junior first baseman Adam Buschini’s bat, however, as he went 3-4 with a homerun and five RBIs. He saved his best hit for last. In the seventh inning, during a tie game and with two outs, Buschini singled to drive in the two go-ahead runs, making it a 6-4 game.
“Once I hit it, it felt great just to pick the guys up on the team and help out,” Buschini said. “We need to just keep on getting wins like this.”
Erring on the safe side, junior catcher Ross Brayton hit a sacrifice fly to center field in the eight inning to bring home sophomore third baseman J.J. Thompson, who reached third on an errant throw while stealing second.
Cal Poly survived a late rally by the Trojans as USC scored once and had runners on the corners with two out in the ninth inning. Mustangs’ head coach Larry Lee turned to trustee starter junior right-hander D.J. Mauldin to relieve senior right-hander Eric Massingham.
Senior left-hander Jared Eskew threw the first pitch of the game and his last pitch closed out the fifth inning. He gave up three earned runs on seven hits. Junior right-hander Mark DeVincenzi (3-0) got the win as he pitched two scoreless innings with four strikeouts. Massingham came in for relief and set up Mauldin for his first save of the season.
“The key was when DeVincenzi came in with runners on second and third with nobody out and he gets out of the inning without giving up any runs,” Lee said. “But overall all of our pitchers tonight did extremely well.”
Kevin Couture started for the Trojans, allowing four runs on six hits in three innings of work. He passed the ball over to right-hander Chad Smith (2-2) who gave up two runs on two hits in 3 1/3 innings for the loss.
Tuesday night’s win was the first against USC in 34 years, but the Trojans still lead the all-time series 18-4.
The Mustangs were without their top two offensive performers in their battle against USC. Junior first baseman Wes Dorrell was out with a back injury, while freshman second baseman Matt Jensen was ill. Dorrell is hitting .407 and Jensen carries a .404 average.
“We were without our two best hitters tonight,” Lee said of his players after the game. “We just really came together as a team and did just enough to get a win against an established program.”