USC cruised to a series-clinching 7-1 win over the Nebraska baseball team Sunday in Irvine, Calif. The loss left the Huskers with a 3-5 record in an eight-game, 11 day roadtrip through Southern California, including just one Big Ten win against five losses.
The Trojans scored a run in the first and another in the second to build a 2-0 lead. In the bottom of the fourth, Richard Tejada hit a two-run single to double USC’s lead.
Then in the sixth, back-to-back home runs by Maximo Martinez and Bryce Grudzielanek boosted the Trojans’ lead to 6-0. Adrian Lopez’s homer in the seventh pushed USC’s lead to seven. Nebraska finally got on the board in the eighth with a Cayden Brumbaugh sacrifice fly.
Lopez, Martinez and Grudzielanek all had two hits and an RBI each to lead the Trojans’ offense. Grant Govel (2-2) earned the win on the mound for USC, throwing five shutout innings with four hits, no walks and four strikeouts.
Jackson Brockett (0-2) took the loss for the Huskers, allowing four runs (two earned) in 3.2 innings pitched. Dylan Carey and Case Sanderson paced the Nebraska offense, both hitting 2-for-4.
Nebraska will return to the midwest to take on Kansas State Tuesday at 6 p.m. pregame coverage begins at 5:30 p.m. on KLIN.