USC baseball secures deepest NCAA Tournament run in 21 years

Pitching was supposed to carry USC in the postseason, and it hasn’t disappointed.But oh, those Trojans bats.They’ve stirred reminders of the teams in cardinal and gold that once ruled college baseball.Thanks to another offensive barrage Monday night in the NCAA Tournament, these Trojans might just join them.USC is headed to a Super Regional for the first time in more than two decades after clobbering Texas A&M, 7-1, at Blue Bell Park to prevail in a College Station Regional in which the Trojans were widely counted out after dropping their opening game.All they did from there was score 55 runs over four elimination games to remove any doubt that they were the best of this bunch.Bye-bye, Lamar.Bye-bye, Texas State.

Bye-bye, Texas A&M.Bring on North Carolina.Game 1 of USC’s first Super Regional since 2005 will be Friday in Chapel Hill, N.C., against a team seeded No.5 nationally.In what could be dubbed The Year of the Upset – with top-seeded UCLA and second-seeded Georgia Tech among the teams failing to advance from the Regional round – the Trojans pulled off another upset against the No.

12-seeded Aggies.Augie Lopez provided the big blow, crushing a three-run homer to right field in the seventh inning to extend the Trojans’ advantage to 5-1.Lopez finished with five runs batted in after driving in a run with a single in the fifth and a sacrifice fly in the eighth.“That’s an unstoppable offense right there,” Lopez said on the ESPN broadcast after the Trojans piled up 59 runs and 72 hits in five games.

“You know, we talk a lot about in the dugout and our meetings, just stacking quality at-bats and getting four in a row, five in a row – that’s how you lead into some big innings.”The Trojans (47-16) also got some top-level pitching from starter Grant Govel.Pitching on two days’ rest, the sophomore right-hander limited the Aggies to three hits and one run in four innings. “He’s fearless,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz told reporte...