{"id":317062,"date":"2026-06-01T02:17:23","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:17:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/317062\/"},"modified":"2026-06-01T02:17:23","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T02:17:23","slug":"usc-routs-texas-state-to-set-up-regional-final-showdown-with-texas-am-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/317062\/","title":{"rendered":"USC routs Texas State to set up regional final showdown with Texas A&M"},"content":{"rendered":"

Two days after failing to capitalize off numerous scoring opportunities against Texas State, USC<\/a> battered the Bobcats early and often to remain alive in the College Station Regional.<\/p>\n

Third baseman Kevin Takeuchi set the tone with a grand slam in the first inning as USC beat Texas State 15-4 Sunday afternoon<\/a> before a crowd of 6,885 at Blue Bell Park<\/p>\n

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With the victory, the Trojans (45-16) advance to the regional final against Texas A&M on Sunday night. The Trojans must beat the Aggies to force a winner-take-all game Monday at a time to be determined.<\/p>\n

The Trojans avenged the 5-4 loss they suffered against Texas State on Friday night in the regional opener. In that loss, USC stranded 13 runners, struck out 12 times and left men in scoring position in each of the first seven innings.<\/p>\n

The Trojans have been on a tear ever since. They crushed Lamar 19-6 on Saturday<\/a> and then battered Texas State. The Trojans wasted no time jumping on the Bobcats in the rematch.<\/p>\n

Read more: Andrew Lamb draws on MLB roots while helping USC stay alive, rout Lamar in NCAA regional<\/a><\/p>\n

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Abbrie Covarrubias led off with a single. Texas State sophomore right-hander Cade Smith<\/a> then hit Adrian Lopez with a pitch and walked Augie Lopez to load the bases. Takeuchi followed with his grand slam to center.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt just helped me pitch with freedom,\u201d USC freshman starter Diego Velazquez said of the grand slam. \u201cA pitcher always feels good when you\u2019re in the lead, especially with a grand slam. It just keeps everyone positive, so it definitely helped very much.\u201d<\/p>\n

Velazquez gave up two runs on three hits and three walks with three strikeouts in 3 1\/3 innings. He was relieved by fellow freshman right-hander Gavin Lauridsen, who failed to retire a batter while giving up two runs on two hits and two walks. Freshman left-hander Sax Matson then pitched 3 \u2154 scoreless innings of relief to earn the victory.<\/p>\n

Isaac Cadena made it 6-0 in the third with a two-run home run to right field. With one on and two outs in the fourth, Augie Lopez hit an RBI single in the fourth to give the Trojans a 7-0 lead. Reliever Alec Beversdorf then walked Takeuchi and hit Cadena to load the bases. Jack Basseer drew a walk to plate another run to give USC an 8-0 lead, prompting Texas State to make another call to the bullpen.<\/p>\n

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Texas State countered with four runs in the bottom of the fourth, highlighted by Coy DeFury\u2019s two-run home run.<\/p>\n

Lauridsen relieved Velazquez with one out in the fourth, but he couldn\u2019t retire a batter. Brady Boles greeted Lauridsen with a single up the middle. After Jackson Cotton walked, Manny Salas cut USC\u2019s lead to 8-3 with an RBI single through the right side.<\/p>\n

Clayton Namken followed with a walk, prompting USC coach Andy Stankiewicz to call on Matson, who took over with the bases loaded.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt good about Diego on the mound here being able to compete and give us quality innings, and he did that,\u201d Stankiewicz said. \u201cI think he\u2019d probably say he wanted to give us a little bit more, but he gave us three quality innings.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAnd then Sax Matson came in and did a fantastic job. He came in and made some big, big-time pitches to get us out. It could have been a little dicey there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both teams were retired in order in the fifth, but USC\u2019s offense got back on track with a run in the sixth, two in the seventh and four more in the eighth.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it just shows the type of bond we have all together,\u201d Velazquez said. \u201cWe\u2019re all pulling the rope for each other. I think it just shows how strong we are and how we\u2019re able to pull off miracles and stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for more USC news with Times of Troy. In your inbox every Monday morning.<\/a><\/p>\n

This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two days after failing to capitalize off numerous scoring opportunities against Texas State, USC battered the Bobcats early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317063,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[29127,113312,106674,113820,113797,113821,27,3042,29,28,2426,15543,28768,113822],"class_list":["post-317062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-adrian-lopez","tag-cade-smith","tag-college-station-regional","tag-diego-velazquez","tag-grand-slam","tag-kevin-takeuchi","tag-texas","tag-texas-am","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-state","tag-the-trojans","tag-usc","tag-usc-freshman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}