Feb. 28, 2009

Box Score

Los Angeles, Calif. - After surrendering its one-run lead with a two-spot in the home half of the fifth inning, Western Carolina pushed across two runs in the top of the seventh inning and held the 24th-ranked USC Trojans scoreless the final three frames to remain perfect on the young season with a 3-2 win Friday evening in the nonconference series opener at Dedeaux Field.

Both teams managed six base hits, with Western drawing six walks against USC's three. All told, the Catamounts stranded 11 base runners in the win with the Trojans leaving six on the base paths

Western Carolina (4-0) continues its three-game series with Southern Cal on Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET.

Senior right-hander - and California native - Garrett Ozar earned his second victory of the season in relief of starter Mike Tavernier, who pitched 4.2 innings of two-run, four-hit baseball in the no-decision. Ozar went 3.1 innings allowing just one hit and working around one walk with three strikeouts. Junior closer Daniel Ottone picked up his second save of the season, working a perfect bottom of the ninth inning by striking out the side.

Junior Nick Liles led the Catamounts with a 2-for-5 showing at the plate with a run scored, while true freshman Ross Heffley went 1-for-3 with a walk and his first collegiate home run. The Snellville, Ga., native belted one over the fence in right with two outs to give Western the early 1-0 lead after three and a half innings played.

Sophomore Matt Johns' lone hit of the contest drove in junior transfer Trevor Collias to tie the game in the top of the seventh, with senior J.C. Lyons lifting a sacrifice fly to left to plate Liles with the game-winning run with two gone in the same frame.

WCU loaded the bases twice against USC starter Brad Boxberger in the third and sixth innings, but could not score as he got out of both jams unscathed. Boxberger allowed just two hits in six innings but surrendered five walks with five K's.

Down one, USC (2-3) managed to take the lead in the fifth on RBI singles from Joe De Pinto and Hector Rabago before WCU pushed two across in the seventh off reliever Ryan Cabral, who suffered the loss. Johns singled to center, plating Collias from second for the tying run. Junior Brent Greer was hit by a Cabral pitch to load the bases before Lyons hit a long fly ball to left for the eventual winning run.

The Trojans' Keith Castillo singled with one out in the bottom of the ninth, but Ottone struck out Kevin Roundtree and Alex Sherrod to secure the win for the Catamounts.

The series continues tomorrow with a 2:00 pm PT / 5:00 pm ET start and a 1:00 pm PT / 4:00 pm start on Sunday (March 1). Both games will be broadcast by a live video webcast on usctrojans.com, courtesy of TrojanTV All-Access.