USC picked 5th in 2024 Pac-12 Baseball Preseason Coaches Poll
The USC Trojans were picked to finish fifth in the Pac-12 in 2024 in a vote of the league’s coaches released Thursday.
Oregon State is the overwhelming favorite among Pac-12 coaches this season. The Beavers received eight of the 11 first-place votes. Stanford was picked second and received two votes. UCLA is third and received one vote. Oregon, the defending Pac-12 tournament champion, is in just ahead of USC at No. 4
USC was the surprise team of the Pac-12 in 2023. It was the Trojans’ first year under head coach Andy Stankiewicz and USC was picked to finish 10th in last year’s preseason coaches poll. But the Trojans put together an impressive season, finishing in fourth place in the conference, just a half-game behind Washington and one full game behind Oregon State.
The Trojans went 3-2 against UCLA, including a win in the conference tournament. And USC won two out of three games against both Stanford and Oregon.
USC brings back a few key players from last year’s squad and three of them earned recognition on the preseason All-Conference team.
Pitchers Caden Aoki and Josh Blum, and outfielder Austin Overn made the 33-player preseason All-Conference team.
Aoki has a chance to improve on an impressive 2023 season. He was picked by D1Baseball as the Pac-12 Preseason Pitcher of the Year.
Eric Sorenson of D1Baseball said: “All Caden Aoki did last year after transferring in from Notre Dame was lead the Pac 12 in ERA at 2.98 among starting pitchers. Aoki also had a really strong fall, punctuated by his giving up just one hit in four innings in the Cardinal vs. Gold series.”
Overn exploded onto the scene as a true freshman last season. After spending the fall as a walk-on with the football team, Overn hit .314 with a .530 slugging percentage and a .402 on-base percentage. He his seven triples in USC’s first 11 games of the season and eventually ended the season with 14 triples, a new single-season USC record. He finished last season as a Freshman All-American, an All-Pac-12 Selection and a Pac-12 All-Defensive Team Selection.
Blum pitched in 30 games as a reliever for the Trojans. He finished with a 3.34 ERA, striking out 40 battles in 32.1 innings pitched.
USC will open the season on February 16 in Mesa, Arizona at the MLB Desert Invitational. Due to ongoing construction at Dedeaux Field preventing the Trojans from playing on campus, USC will play most of its home games at OC Great Park. Three midweek games will be held at LMU and a three-game series against Oregon State in late March will be played at UC Irvine.
All USC home games are free and open to the public this season.
