San Diego State University will play a midweek baseball game against the University of Southern California on March 17 at Dedeaux Field in Los Angeles, with first pitch scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Pacific Time and live coverage available through Big Ten Network+.
The matchup comes after San Diego State secured a series win over Washington State, taking two out of three games during the opening weekend of Mountain West Conference play. The Aztecs recorded a total of 42 hits across the series, including a season-high 19 hits and 15 runs in the final game.
Anthony Marnell IV led San Diego State offensively over the weekend with a .600 batting average and five runs batted in, while Max Farrell contributed eight RBIs and hit his first career grand slam. On the mound, junior right-hander Bryce McKnight is expected to start for San Diego State, coming off a performance at Cal State Fullerton where he struck out seven batters over six scoreless innings. USC is projected to start sophomore Chase Herrell, who allowed one run and struck out seven in his last outing against Long Beach State.
As of March 16, San Diego State leads the Mountain West Conference in earned run average (5.61), strikeouts per nine innings (10.9), and strikeout-to-walk ratio (2.68). Several players are ranked among conference leaders: Aidan Russell leads with a 0.55 ERA; Rohan Lettow tops the league with 38 strikeouts; Jabin Trosky ranks second in hits and has been one of the toughest players to strike out this season.
USC enters the contest ranked No. 13 nationally by Baseball America and D1Baseball.com despite having its season-opening winning streak snapped by Northwestern on March 14. Trojan pitchers lead the nation in several categories including ERA (1.61) and WHIP (0.92). Outfielder Kevin Takeuchi leads USC with a .351 batting average, while infielder Abbrie Covarrubias has ten stolen bases.
Following this game, San Diego State will continue its road trip with non-conference games against San José State and Connecticut at Excite Ballpark in San Jose.
