May 6, 2008

Box Score

LOS ANGELES - Sophomore right-hander Kevin Couture (Coronado/Coronado HS) threw six scoreless innings while senior first baseman Derek Perren (Chatsworth/Granada Hills/L.A. Pierce College) registered four RBI Tuesday as the USC Trojans beat the Cal Poly Mustangs, 9-3. The Trojans broke open a scoreless tie with four runs in the sixth.

USC improved to 22-25 overall while Cal Poly fell to 22-24 on the season. Brent Morel went 3-for-5 for the Mustangs with two doubles, a home run and two RBI.

Couture countered a combined effort from Brian Grening and Grant Theophilus, who threw 4 2/3 scoreless innings. Mustang reliever Kevin Castner (1-2) entered the game in the fifth to strikeout Hector Rabago, but ran into trouble in the sixth. He walked Roberto Lopez and Nick Buss before hitting Grant Green to load the bases. Perren then hit a two-run single to center for the first two runs of the game. Derrick Saito came in for the Mustangs, but later threw a wild pitch to score Green as designated hitter Mike Roskopf singled to right to plate Perren and give USC the 4-0 lead.

The Trojans changed pitchers in the seventh and the Mustangs quickly made it a one-run deficit on a solo homer by Logan Schaefer, followed by Morel's two-run shot to left. In the bottom of the seventh, Lopez and Buss set the table again for the Trojans with back-to-back singles before Green's RBI single and Perren's two-run double to left started a five-run inning.

USC will host Cal State Northridge in a two-game series this weekend, Saturday-Sunday (May 10-11). Saturday's game starts at 7 p.m. with a 1 p.m. start on Sunday. Both games will be broadcast via a video webcast on usctrojans.com, courtesy of TrojanTV All-Access.

CP	 000-000-300---3-10-2
USC	 000-004-50x---9-9-1
WP - Couture (5-2)   LP - Castner (1-2)
T - 3:06   ATT - 227
Records: CP (22-24), USC (22-25)
Grening, Theophilus (4), Castner (5), Saito (6), Mueller (6), Maudlin (7) and Hensley.
Couture, Vasquez (7) and Stock.