Friday, April 28
Seattle, WA
6:05 PM
University of Washington
vs
USC
USC Comes to Town for Weekend Series
April 27, 2023 | Baseball
PROMOTIONS
β’ Sunday β Craft Brew Day, Sunday Runday
Β
SEATTLE βΒ Hosting the fourth Pac-12 series of the season at Husky Ballpark, Washington welcomes USC to Seattle for a weekend series, Friday through Sunday.
Β
All three games will be available for streaming through Washington Live Stream 2, while links to live stats are available on the GoHuskies.com schedule page and HuskyStats.com.
DAWG BITES
β’ In last season's series, the Dawgs swept the Trojans as part of a 12-game winning streak to close the regular season.
β’ Washington has won five of the last six series against USC.
β’ The Huskies currently sit seventh in the Pac-12 standings with an 8-9 league record. The Trojans are tied for third with an 11-7 league record.
β’ Reigning Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week Kiefer Lord leads the Pac-12 in both strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.67) and WHIP (1.03).
β’ Cam Clayton extended his hitting streak to 10 games on Tuesday.
β’ Will Simpson snapped a seven game homer-less streak against the RedHawks, his longest stretch without a dinger this season.
β’ Clayton and Simpson combined to go 5-for-8, scoring four of Washington's six runs.
β’ Coby Morales and AJ Guerrero have the longest active reached-base streaks for UW, both reaching in each of the last 15 games.
β’ Washington is the only team in the Pac-12 without a three-game losing streak in 2023.
SERIES HISTORY VS. USC
Despite dropping the first 14 and 22 of the first 24 meetings between the two programs, Washington is tied in the all-time series with USC, with both teams taking 43 of the 86 matchups. Oddly, the road team holds a slight advantage on both sides, with Washington leading 24-21 in Los Angeles and USC leading 22-19 in Seattle.
RETURN OF THE SMACK
Will Simpson conceded the Pac-12 lead in home runs for exactly two days, snapping a seven-game homerless streak on Tuesday with an eighth-inning bomb for his 14th big fly of the season. The homer brought Simpson level with Arizona's Chase Davis. The seven-game streak without a dinger was the longest of the season for the Husky slugger.
HE'S GOING STREAKING
Reaching on an infield single on Tuesday, Cam Clayton extended his hitting streak to a season-long 10 games against Seattle U. The Husky shortstop becomes the second UW player to post a double-digit hitting streak this season, joining AJ Guerrero, who has two at 12 and 11 games.
THE LORD'S DAY
For the second time this season, Husky hurler Kiefer Lord has been named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week, joining Oregon's Jace Stoffal as the only players to receive multiple weekly awards from the league this season. Lord twirled eight shutout innings in UW's 9-0 victory at No. 9 Stanford, matching his season-high with 10 strikeouts. The eight innings were tied for the most in an outing in his career and two more than any other game this season. Lord retired the final 16 Cardinal batters he faced.
THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
Laying down a perfect bunt in the 13th inning Friday night at Stanford, McKay Barney became the first Husky to record a sacrifice bunt this season. The Huskies were the second to last team in the nation to lay down a sacrifice bunt, with Texas A&M laying down its first on Saturday.
JOHNNY ROCKETS
Johnny Tincher has thrown out 10-of-23 runners attempting to steal a base this season, good for a 43.5 percent success rate. Tincher's 10 runners thrown out is the second most in the Pac-12, despite only having the 7th most steal attempts against him in the conference. Tincher's success rate is up from 10-of-41 a season ago, a 24.4 percent clip.
CASE CLOSED
When righty flamethrower Case Matter is summoned from the Husky bullpen, a Washington victory is nearly a matter of fact. The UW closer has made 11 straight appearances without allowing a run, totaling 13.1 innings. During the stretch, Matter has struck out 19 batters, while issuing just three hits. Matter has earned four saves this season, sixth most in the Pac-12.
STRIKE EARLY
The Huskies have gotten off to strong starts to games, scoring 37 first inning runs in 2023. Washington has outscored its opponents 72-31 in the first two innings of games.
KEEPING IT CLEAN
Washington continues to boast one of the Pac-12's top defenses. The Huskies rank second in the conference and 14th in the nation with a .980 fielding percentage.
STARTING STRONG
The Dawgs have gotten off to fast starts to innings, having the leadoff hitter to a frame reach 42.8 percent of the time. Four different Huskies are reaching base at least half the time when leading off an inning. 68 of the 132 leadoff baserunners have come around to score.
ON THE CLOCK
22 of Washington's games this season have been completed in under three hours, including six games completed in under two and a half hours.
STOCK UP
The Huskies are on the rise in D1Baseball's positional rankings, with several Washington players making big strides:
UW in D1Baseball's Updated Position Rankings
Kiefer Lord - Starting Pitcher - No. 100 to No. 27 (+73)
Stu Flesland III - Starting Pitcher - No. 166 to No. 41 (+125)
Josh Emanuels - Relief Pitcher - Unranked to No. 44
Will Simpson - First Baseman - Unranked to No. 22
Cam Clayton - Shortstop - Unranked to No. 18
CHIEF KIEF
Throwing six perfect innings with 10 strikeouts against Northern Colorado, Kiefer Lord was named the Week 3 Perfect Game National Pitcher of the Week and Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week. The righty hurler was the first Husky to earn a national pitching award since Joe DeMers in 2018 and the first Husky pitcher to earn a Pac-12 weekly award since Josh Burgmann in 2019.
THAT'S OFFENSIVE
The Dawgs put up astonishing numbers during their four-game series with Northern Colorado. Most notably was the school-record 32 runs scored in the series opener. Those 32 runs are the second most scored by one team in an NCAA Division I game this season (William & Mary, 33 runs). The Huskies outscored the Bears 57-12 for the series, batting .388 as a team with 15 doubles, six home runs, 51 RBIs, 26 walks, 16 HBPs and a .513 team on-base percentage.
HOMEGROWN DAWGS
Nearly half of the Husky roster, 19 of 39 players overall, are homegrown talents from the state of Washington. Of those 19 local products, 16 hail from the greater Seattle Metropolitan area. Below is a breakdown of the counties UW's Washington natives call home.
UW Washington Natives by County
King County - 14
Clark County - 2
Pierce County - 1
Snohomish County - 1
Spokane County - 1
RUN IT BACK
Washington returns nearly the entirety of its offense from the 2022 season with seven of eight positional starters returning that started more than 40 games, the Dawgs are poised once again to put up big numbers on the scoreboard.
Percentage Return from 2022
β’ Games Started - 88.5%
β’ Runs - 87.7%
β’ Hits - 91.4%
β’ Doubles - 92.3%
β’ Triples - 87.5%
β’ Home Runs - 93.8%
β’ RBIs - 90.9%
β’ Walks - 82.5%
THE JUCO JUMP
Washington has 10 junior college products on its roster. Four players come from the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system, with four California Community College system products and two players from Arizona's Maricopa County Community College District.
15 GAMES TO AIR ON PAC-12 FAMILY OF NETWORKS
15 Washington baseball games have been selected to air across the Pac-12 family of networks this season. Six home games from Husky Ballpark will air on your television set, while nine road games are set to be broadcasted. Of the 15 TV games for the Dawgs, 10 will air on Pac-12 Washington.
2018 OMADAWGS
2023 marks the five-year anniversary of Washington's 2018 team that became the first squad in program-history to reach the College World Series. The Huskies ran through the Conway Regional, sweeping three games against UConn and host Coastal Carolina. UW then took a decisive Super Regional Game 3 at Cal State Fullerton, erasing a one-run deficit in the ninth to force extras and walking off the Titans on Kaiser Weiss' sacrifice fly to score Levi Jordan and send the Dawgs to Omaha.
For more information on the UW baseball team, follow @UW_Baseball on Twitter and Instagram.
β’ Sunday β Craft Brew Day, Sunday Runday
Β
SEATTLE βΒ Hosting the fourth Pac-12 series of the season at Husky Ballpark, Washington welcomes USC to Seattle for a weekend series, Friday through Sunday.
Β
All three games will be available for streaming through Washington Live Stream 2, while links to live stats are available on the GoHuskies.com schedule page and HuskyStats.com.
DAWG BITES
β’ In last season's series, the Dawgs swept the Trojans as part of a 12-game winning streak to close the regular season.
β’ Washington has won five of the last six series against USC.
β’ The Huskies currently sit seventh in the Pac-12 standings with an 8-9 league record. The Trojans are tied for third with an 11-7 league record.
β’ Reigning Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week Kiefer Lord leads the Pac-12 in both strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.67) and WHIP (1.03).
β’ Cam Clayton extended his hitting streak to 10 games on Tuesday.
β’ Will Simpson snapped a seven game homer-less streak against the RedHawks, his longest stretch without a dinger this season.
β’ Clayton and Simpson combined to go 5-for-8, scoring four of Washington's six runs.
β’ Coby Morales and AJ Guerrero have the longest active reached-base streaks for UW, both reaching in each of the last 15 games.
β’ Washington is the only team in the Pac-12 without a three-game losing streak in 2023.
SERIES HISTORY VS. USC
Despite dropping the first 14 and 22 of the first 24 meetings between the two programs, Washington is tied in the all-time series with USC, with both teams taking 43 of the 86 matchups. Oddly, the road team holds a slight advantage on both sides, with Washington leading 24-21 in Los Angeles and USC leading 22-19 in Seattle.
RETURN OF THE SMACK
Will Simpson conceded the Pac-12 lead in home runs for exactly two days, snapping a seven-game homerless streak on Tuesday with an eighth-inning bomb for his 14th big fly of the season. The homer brought Simpson level with Arizona's Chase Davis. The seven-game streak without a dinger was the longest of the season for the Husky slugger.
HE'S GOING STREAKING
Reaching on an infield single on Tuesday, Cam Clayton extended his hitting streak to a season-long 10 games against Seattle U. The Husky shortstop becomes the second UW player to post a double-digit hitting streak this season, joining AJ Guerrero, who has two at 12 and 11 games.
THE LORD'S DAY
For the second time this season, Husky hurler Kiefer Lord has been named the Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week, joining Oregon's Jace Stoffal as the only players to receive multiple weekly awards from the league this season. Lord twirled eight shutout innings in UW's 9-0 victory at No. 9 Stanford, matching his season-high with 10 strikeouts. The eight innings were tied for the most in an outing in his career and two more than any other game this season. Lord retired the final 16 Cardinal batters he faced.
THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE
Laying down a perfect bunt in the 13th inning Friday night at Stanford, McKay Barney became the first Husky to record a sacrifice bunt this season. The Huskies were the second to last team in the nation to lay down a sacrifice bunt, with Texas A&M laying down its first on Saturday.
JOHNNY ROCKETS
Johnny Tincher has thrown out 10-of-23 runners attempting to steal a base this season, good for a 43.5 percent success rate. Tincher's 10 runners thrown out is the second most in the Pac-12, despite only having the 7th most steal attempts against him in the conference. Tincher's success rate is up from 10-of-41 a season ago, a 24.4 percent clip.
CASE CLOSED
When righty flamethrower Case Matter is summoned from the Husky bullpen, a Washington victory is nearly a matter of fact. The UW closer has made 11 straight appearances without allowing a run, totaling 13.1 innings. During the stretch, Matter has struck out 19 batters, while issuing just three hits. Matter has earned four saves this season, sixth most in the Pac-12.
STRIKE EARLY
The Huskies have gotten off to strong starts to games, scoring 37 first inning runs in 2023. Washington has outscored its opponents 72-31 in the first two innings of games.
KEEPING IT CLEAN
Washington continues to boast one of the Pac-12's top defenses. The Huskies rank second in the conference and 14th in the nation with a .980 fielding percentage.
STARTING STRONG
The Dawgs have gotten off to fast starts to innings, having the leadoff hitter to a frame reach 42.8 percent of the time. Four different Huskies are reaching base at least half the time when leading off an inning. 68 of the 132 leadoff baserunners have come around to score.
ON THE CLOCK
22 of Washington's games this season have been completed in under three hours, including six games completed in under two and a half hours.
STOCK UP
The Huskies are on the rise in D1Baseball's positional rankings, with several Washington players making big strides:
UW in D1Baseball's Updated Position Rankings
Kiefer Lord - Starting Pitcher - No. 100 to No. 27 (+73)
Stu Flesland III - Starting Pitcher - No. 166 to No. 41 (+125)
Josh Emanuels - Relief Pitcher - Unranked to No. 44
Will Simpson - First Baseman - Unranked to No. 22
Cam Clayton - Shortstop - Unranked to No. 18
CHIEF KIEF
Throwing six perfect innings with 10 strikeouts against Northern Colorado, Kiefer Lord was named the Week 3 Perfect Game National Pitcher of the Week and Pac-12 Pitcher of the Week. The righty hurler was the first Husky to earn a national pitching award since Joe DeMers in 2018 and the first Husky pitcher to earn a Pac-12 weekly award since Josh Burgmann in 2019.
THAT'S OFFENSIVE
The Dawgs put up astonishing numbers during their four-game series with Northern Colorado. Most notably was the school-record 32 runs scored in the series opener. Those 32 runs are the second most scored by one team in an NCAA Division I game this season (William & Mary, 33 runs). The Huskies outscored the Bears 57-12 for the series, batting .388 as a team with 15 doubles, six home runs, 51 RBIs, 26 walks, 16 HBPs and a .513 team on-base percentage.
HOMEGROWN DAWGS
Nearly half of the Husky roster, 19 of 39 players overall, are homegrown talents from the state of Washington. Of those 19 local products, 16 hail from the greater Seattle Metropolitan area. Below is a breakdown of the counties UW's Washington natives call home.
UW Washington Natives by County
King County - 14
Clark County - 2
Pierce County - 1
Snohomish County - 1
Spokane County - 1
RUN IT BACK
Washington returns nearly the entirety of its offense from the 2022 season with seven of eight positional starters returning that started more than 40 games, the Dawgs are poised once again to put up big numbers on the scoreboard.
Percentage Return from 2022
β’ Games Started - 88.5%
β’ Runs - 87.7%
β’ Hits - 91.4%
β’ Doubles - 92.3%
β’ Triples - 87.5%
β’ Home Runs - 93.8%
β’ RBIs - 90.9%
β’ Walks - 82.5%
THE JUCO JUMP
Washington has 10 junior college products on its roster. Four players come from the Washington Community and Technical Colleges system, with four California Community College system products and two players from Arizona's Maricopa County Community College District.
15 GAMES TO AIR ON PAC-12 FAMILY OF NETWORKS
15 Washington baseball games have been selected to air across the Pac-12 family of networks this season. Six home games from Husky Ballpark will air on your television set, while nine road games are set to be broadcasted. Of the 15 TV games for the Dawgs, 10 will air on Pac-12 Washington.
2018 OMADAWGS
2023 marks the five-year anniversary of Washington's 2018 team that became the first squad in program-history to reach the College World Series. The Huskies ran through the Conway Regional, sweeping three games against UConn and host Coastal Carolina. UW then took a decisive Super Regional Game 3 at Cal State Fullerton, erasing a one-run deficit in the ninth to force extras and walking off the Titans on Kaiser Weiss' sacrifice fly to score Levi Jordan and send the Dawgs to Omaha.
For more information on the UW baseball team, follow @UW_Baseball on Twitter and Instagram.
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