USC baseball completes sweep of Purdue with runaway victory

TL;DR

USC baseball completed a three-game sweep of Purdue with an 11-4 victory at Dedeaux Field. This win comes after the Trojans faced a similar sweep against Nebraska the previous week.

Key points

USC baseball won 11-4 against Purdue
The victory completed a three-game sweep
USC had previously been swept by Nebraska
Andrew Johnson pitched five scoreless innings

USC TrojansPurdue BoilermakersNCAA Baseball

Seeking a reversal of fortunes, the USC baseball team went back to one of its mantras.

All ways always.

The saying means that the No. 23 Trojans can win in a variety of ways, which they showed once more Sunday at Dedeaux Field by pulverizing Purdue, 11-4, to complete a three-game sweep one week after suffering the same fate at the hands of Nebraska.

USC pitcher Andrew Johnson pitched five innings of scoreless relief Sunday against Purdue. Chris Mora

USC won each game against the Boilermakers in differing fashion after rallying for a 4-3 victory in the series opener. On Saturday, the Trojans rode a masterpiece from starting pitcher Grant Govel, who took a perfect game into the eighth inning of his team’s 6-1 triumph.

The series finale was an unlikely runaway after USC gave up three runs in the first inning. Andrew Johnson pitched five innings of scoreless relief and the Trojans pounded out 12 hits against five Purdue pitchers to notch their fourth consecutive victory.

“We’re always going to be competitive no matter what day it is,” USC left fielder Andrew Lamb said of the team’s mentality, “and this week we showed we could do it all ways.”

The sweep vaulted USC (34-11 overall, 16-8 Big Ten) past Purdue (28-15, 15-9) into fourth place in the conference standings and improved its home record to a sterling 25-1.

Once more, the Trojans had found a way.

“That’s part of good programs, right?” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “Good teams figure out ways to win a game. Winning’s hard, and it’s really difficult to sweep. I liked the mentality today. You know you win two games, you’ve won the series, sometimes you let off the gas pedal a little bit. When they jumped out early, a little bit lesser team would go, ‘OK, we’ve already won the series, it’s whatever — whatever happens, happens.’