LOS ANGELES – Omaha was, oh, so close to picking off a second straight Pac-12 team.
The Mavericks, who beat UCLA 9-4 Wednesday, took Southern Cal to extra innings before falling 4-3 in 12.
Omaha (2-4) held a 2-1 lead at the seventh-inning stretch after
Grant Goldston homered with two outs in the top half. The Trojans (3-2) responded with two in the bottom to take a short-lived 3-2 advantage.
Jack Lombardi led off Omaha eighth with a double, moved to third on a
Harrison Denk bunt and then scored on
Cam Frederick's sacrifice fly. It was the final run until USC got its walk-off win in the 12th.
Mark Timmins got the start for Omaha and pitched into the seventh. He allowed three runs, two earned, on six hits while striking out five. Timmins kept the Trojans off the board until the bottom of the fifth.
The Mavericks answered USC's first run with one of their own in the sixth. Lombardi doubled down the line with one out and then scored when the Trojans threw the ball away on
Harrison Denk's bunt single.
After Lombardi scored in the eighth,
Joey Machado held USC without a run for four consecutive innings.
Omaha didn't have batter reach base in the final four frames. Rhylan Thomas led off the Trojan 12th with a double. Machado struck out the next two batters, then Trever Halsema doubled to the wall to end it. Machado suffered the loss after fanning eight batters in 5.1 innings of relief work.
Charley Hurley got the win for Southern Cal.
