The USC baseball program announced its 2008 schedule with the Trojans set to open with their first-ever appearance at Florida International (Feb. 22-24) in Miami, Fla. This will be the first year that the “uniform starting date” set by the NCAA will be in effect, which accounts for the later starting date for USC.
USC will host Arizona, California, Washington and Oregon State in Pac-10 Conference play with road trips to Arizona State, UCLA, Stanford and Washington State in the final season with nine teams before Oregon rejoins the conference in 2009.
The Trojans will also make their first-ever appearance at Winthrop in Rock Hill, S.C., in a three-game series, March 7-9.
A total of 25 games are on tap at Dedeaux Field. Other home games for USC this season include Southern (Feb. 29), Bethune-Cookman (March 2), Pepperdine (March 5), Long Beach State (March 15), Loyola Marymount (March 25), UC Riverside (April 1), Cal State Fullerton (April 8), UC Santa Barbara (April 19), Cal Poly (May 6) and Cal State Northridge (May 10-11).
On Saturday (March 1), USC and UCLA will play one nonconference game at the MLB Urban Youth Academy in Compton, Calif.
This season, USC will also play UC Irvine twice (Feb. 27 at Irvine and March 12 at Dedeaux Field). Both games will draw more intrigue this season after Mike Gillespie, former USC head coach and father-in-law of current USC head coach Chad Kreuter, was hired at UC Irvine to lead its program earlier this month.
For the 2008 season, the Trojans return freshman All-America shortstop Grant Green and freshman All-America pitcher Brad Boxberger. All but two pitchers from last year’s staff return under the supervision of first-year assistant coach Tom House, including junior left-hander Tommy Milone, who was named Cape Cod Baseball League Pitcher of the Year this summer.
Catcher/pitcher Robert Stock, outfielder Nick Buss and third baseman Roberto Lopez anchor the group of returning position players with the addition of senior first baseman Mike Roskopf, who transferred from North Carolina State after hitting 13 home runs last season for the Wolf Pack.
All 56 games will be broadcast live on usctrojans.com, with live video webcasts courtesy of TrojanTV All-Access for all home games. This season, TrojanTV All-Access will bring an improved broadcast with the usage of four remote-control cameras at Dedeaux Field.
