The USC baseball team began practicing on its new field in February 2025, a year before the still-under-construction Dedeaux Field welcomed fans for a 2026 season that necessitated the use of portable toilets and a food truck.
By Opening Day 2027, everything should finally be completed. Players will get to take hacks in the indoor batting cages before relaxing in their clubhouse. Fans will enjoy permanent restrooms, concessions and a palm tree-lined entryway.
Just like the facilities taking shape around them, the Trojans have been building season by season under coach Andy Stankiewicz, closing in on a big payoff.
They came two outs away from their first trip to the College World Series in a quarter of a century before things collapsed Sunday during a season-ending loss to North Carolina.
But their first trip to an NCAA Tournament Super Regional since 2005 represented another metaphorical brick in the rebuilding of the most decorated program in college baseball history.
“It’s tough, no question about it,” Stankiewicz told reporters after his team gave up two runs in the ninth inning against the Tar Heels. “But we’re building this thing for the long haul – that’s been the design since we got here.
“We got to the finals of a Regional last year and now the finals of a Super Regional, so we feel like the program is moving well, it’s strong, it’s healthy, we’ve got great young men and skilled young athletes that want to be Trojans and take pride in wearing this uniform. So we’re not going away, we’re going to continue to work and our goal moving forward, we’ll obviously get this program back to Omaha.”
Having largely ridden the 1-2 starting pitching punch of Mason Edwards and Grant Govel to a 48-18 record – the program’s most wins since its last national championship season in 1998 – the Trojans should have another formidable duo in 2027.
A lifelong Trojans fan, expect Govel to return for his junior season to pair alongside Andrew Johnson, one of the biggest breakthrough stars of the postseason. All Johnson did was make superb starts against Texas A&M and North Carolina – combining to allow only five runs in 15 innings – while also pitching twice out of the bullpen.
“What this young man did in the postseason is phenomenal,” Stankiewicz said Sunday, placing his hand tenderly on Johnson’s back as the pitcher sat next to him in the interview room. “His grit, his toughness, skill, attitude – everything you dream about coaching – is what this young man did, and I am certainly very proud of him.”
USC’s batting order that produced 64 runs over one five-game stretch in the postseason could return largely intact.
All the lineup regulars besides outfielder Jack Basseer have remaining eligibility, though a few could commence professional careers after being selected in the Major League Baseball draft next month.
Another big loss will be pitching coach Sean Allen, who is departing to become the head coach at Lamar.
Expect another infusion of transfers alongside a freshman class that probably likes its chances to make immediate contributions given Stankiewicz’s heavy usage of young players this season.
Key freshmen contributors included starting outfielder Walter Urbon, pitcher-infielder Diego Velazquez, and relievers Gavin Lauridsen and Rohan Kasanagottu.
One of the Trojans’ strengths was a resolve that should carry over thanks to players such as Johnson, who told Allen that he wanted to start Sunday’s game even though he had pitched 3⅔ innings of relief two days earlier.
“I mean, you know the goal from the beginning of the season is Omaha, right?” Johnson said after holding the Tar Heels to two runs in 7⅔ innings. “We definitely are not just happy we made it to the Supers and made it past the Regional, but for sure this is a great season to be proud of what we accomplished as a group.”
While acknowledging the impatience that often accompanies a team’s rebuilding efforts, Stankiewicz said he was confident that his team was on the verge of something special.
“Now we just can’t go backward,” Stankiewicz said after completing his fourth season with the Trojans. “This thing has got to continue moving forward, and it will.”
In case the Trojans need any reminders of the intended destination, all they need to do is look at the slogan that’s painted on the wall in preliminary renderings of the batting cages they will soon occupy:
SEE YOU IN OMAHA
