Regrets? USC baseball might have a few after ninth-inning collapse
What might go down as the most devastating inning in USC baseball history started with a routine out.Trojans closer Adam Troy induced a ground ball to second base to start the bottom of the ninth inning with his team leading by a run Sunday, putting the Trojans two outs from the College World Series.Troy had already been something of a hero in the decisive game of this NCAA Tournament Super Regional against North Carolina.After relieving Sax Matson in the eighth inning and throwing a wild pitch, the hard-throwing right-hander was not in a great spot.There were runners on second and third with two out.No matter.
Troy struck out the next batter.What happened next, after that out to open the ninth, could leave the Trojans with colossal regrets in addition to a crushing 4-3 loss that ended their season amid a wild celebration by the Tar Heels inside their home stadium.“As the head coach you think, dang it, what could I have done differently, what should I have done differently to help change the outcome?” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said.“So I will have to figure that out, and I will.”Where does he start?With the bases empty and one out, North Carolina’s Cooper Nicholson hammered the second pitch he saw high into the air down the left field line.
With Troy trying to coax the ball out of play by waving his arm, it barely hooked foul.Down 0-and-2 in the count, Nicholson took two balls, fouled off another pitch and took two more balls to draw a full-count walk.That brought up Carter French, who proceeded to take three consecutive balls.Having lost faith in his closer’s ability to throw strikes, Stankiewicz made the rare move of pulling Troy in the middle of an at-bat, turning to Chase Herrell.“Just felt like we brought in Chase, we would throw strikes,” Stankiewicz said.Herrell did just that, delivering two strikes to run the count full before French ripped a full-count pitch through the right side of the infield for a single, putting runners on first and...