Los Angeles, CA – A walk, a hit and some energy to the USC baseball crowd.
Tyler Pritchard walks up as the Trojans (21-21, 9-14) trailed 8-0 in the bottom of the sixth inning to the visiting California Golden Bears (25-19, 10-13).
But that deficit didn’t faze him one bit as he smashed a ball to right field for a three-run bomb and the Trojans finally had some fight in them in game two of the series on Saturday.
“(My first at bat) was an out and I was really just trying to get something going,” Pritchard said. “It felt pretty good to have runners on base and find my pitch.”
This was Pritchard’s first home run, ever, and ended the game 3 for 6 with 3 RBIs and a homerun.
A seven-run offensive explosion for the Cal in the top of the fourth was thrown away as USC kept fighting, scoring three in the sixth and five in the eighth to tie the match.
“It really shows the resiliency of the team,” USC head coach Dan Hubbs said. “We were down early but kept fighting, it was a real team effort.”
Eventually the Trojans and Golden Bears would take it all the way to the 15th inning, where a bases loaded walk would end the game, 9-8.
The Trojans finished with nine runs, 13 hits and three errors; while the Golden Bears has 14 hits and two errors with eight runs.
“(Tyler) didn’t even start today,” Hubbs said. “Chase got a little sick, but (Tyler) came in and did a good job.”
Hubbs added that he felt the game could have ended earlier, but the win was really brought together by guys who showed up during heir opportunities.
The Trojans will look to sweep the series against Cal on Sunday at 1 p.m.
