kevin takeuchi

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — USC’s 2026 baseball season will be defined by two words — progress and pain.

Just two outs away from reaching the College World Series for the first time since 2001, USC suffered a devastating 4-3 loss in game three of the Chapel Hill Super Regional, as North Carolina rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth and snatched the trip to Omaha away from the Trojans on Owen Hull’s walk-off RBI double into the left-center gap.

“I’m proud of our boys,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “I’m disappointed in the results, but I’m never disappointed in our guys. They did something pretty special this year.”

Andrew Johnson did everything possible and then some to get USC (48-18) across the finish line. After already throwing 3 ⅔ innings of shutout baseball to close Game 1, Johnson went a season-high 7 ⅔ innings with two earned runs surrendered to get the Trojans to the doorstep of victory. He glided through North Carolina’s lineup for most of the day, at one point retiring 15 out of 17 batters.

North Carolina’s Cooper Nicholson celebrates during his team’s ninth-inning rally to beat USC in their super regional finale Sunday in Chapel Hill, N.C.

(Laura Wolff/For The Times)

He ended the super regional with 133 pitches thrown in a little over 48 hours, on top of the 145 pitches he threw across two appearances in the College Station Regional for a total of 278 tosses in 22 ⅓ innings with five earned runs given up in a heroic postseason stretch.

“The goal from the beginning of the season is Omaha,” Johnson said. “We’re definitely not just happy that we made it to supers and moved past the regional, but for it was a great season and we can be proud of what we accomplished.”

A first inning run off a Caden Glauber balk, plus Kevin Takeuchi and Andrew Lamb’s solo home runs accounted for all the offense on a day when the Tar Heels (50-12-1) had their own star pitcher going. Atlantic Coast Conference freshman of the year Caden Glauber held the Trojans at bay for most of the game, striking out a career high 11 batters in 7 ⅓ innings.

USC coach Andy Stankiewicz talks to his players after their season-ending loss to North Carolina.

(Laura Wolff / For The Times)

Glauber’s work was enough to hold his team in the game, but USC still had a 3-2 lead heading to the fateful bottom of the ninth. After closer Adam Troy retired the first batter, a long, loud foul ball seemed to spark North Carolina.

Third baseman Cooper Nicholson crushed a ball more than far enough for a home run, but just foul into the left field corner. But the near-miss seemed to rattle Troy, who walked Nicholson after getting ahead 0-2 in the count and fell behind 3-0 to nine-hole hitter Carter French.

Stankiewicz made a pitching change mid at-bat, going to Chase Herrell. French lined a 3-2 single through the right side, leadoff hitter Jake Schaffner tied the score on a sacrifice fly and Gavin Gallaher drew a walk, bringing Hull to the plate with the series’ winning run at second.

USC appeared to survive at least with extra innings when a Hull foul ball looked ticketed for the third out, but it dropped with three fielders in the area to give him an extra life. Hull pounded his fourth double of the game, prompting mass hysteria from the 3,913 Tar Heel fans and ultimate heartbreak in the other dugout.

Stankiewicz has built his program in stages, finally making the NCAA tournament last year and then going a step further this year.

But he also knows these opportunities are never guaranteed, and it will take a lot of work to return to the super regional stage.

“It’s a step,” he said. “Things take a moment. Sometimes we want things to happen overnight as humans I guess, but sometimes it takes a moment. We’ve been at this thing for awhile now, and we feel like we’re certainly building it and folks are taking notice. Now we just can’t go backwards. This thing’s got to continue moving forward.”

A positive season, but a nightmare ending sure to haunt the Trojans until they finally return to Omaha.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — As USC baseball coach Andy Stankiewicz noted the next additions that will be made to USC’s refurbished baseball stadium, he paused Monday night as a train rumbled loudly behind Blue Bell Park.

Stankiewicz, 61, smirked at the fitting metaphor after the Trojans clinched their first NCAA super regional berth in 21 years. He, after all, has rebuilt the USC program over his four seasons as head coach.

“Now we have a beautiful stadium,” he said of Dedeaux Field. “We’re going to have a beautiful clubhouse next year, batting cages and all that.”

As Stankiewicz attempted to utter another sentence, the train’s ear-piercing horn sounded.

USC baseball coach Andy Stankiewicz has guided the Trojans to the NCAA super regionals for the first time in 21 years.

(USC Athletics)

“That’s appropriate because we tell people the train’s moving,” Stankiewicz said. “Now we have a train honking its whistle. The train’s moving. We’re certainly excited to see where we’re going.”

The Trojans are definitely going places these days thanks to many players who believed in Stankiewicz’s vision despite knowing their on-campus stadium would be under construction for at least two seasons.

The Trojans had six players on the College Station Regional’s All-Tournament Team. Three of them — Abbrie Covarrubias, Kevin Takeuchi and Andrew Lamb — are upperclassmen who could have been tempted to transfer after they learned that they would be without a home field for two years. Junior shortstop Dean Carpentier is another upperclassman who believed in Stankiewicz.

“You talk about just kind of cornerstones,” Stankiewicz said. “Abbrie and Takeuchi … and Dean Carpentier and Andrew Lamb, these guys, they could have left. … They got here when we had a field, and they chose to stay.

“That’s something that I’m grateful for. It just tells you the quality of young men that they are. They’re here. They got two feet in and said, ‘I’m not going anywhere. I want to help build this program. Then to see the success that, not just Abbrie, but all of them have had, they’re great leaders. They lead by example.”

While Dedeaux Field was under construction, the Trojans played most of their home games in 2024 and 2025 at Irvine’s Great Park, 47 miles and another county away. They practiced at East L.A. College.

Yet, they still reached a regional final in 2025. They have gone a step further this year by climbing out of the losers’ bracket in the regional to eliminate Texas A&M and reach a super regional for the first time since 2005.

The Trojans didn’t just climb out of the losers’ bracket. They rumbled through like a runaway train, dominating with 55 runs over four losers’-bracket wins. They scored 21 of those runs over two victories against SEC power Texas A&M in the regional final.

The Trojans made themselves at home while playing in one of the SEC’s most hostile environments. It was as though the Trojans have grown accustomed to making themselves at home on the road in recent years.

Although parts of Dedeaux Field are still under construction, the Trojans were 32-1 there for the best home record in school history. USC (47-17) eclipsed the 40-win mark for the first time since 2005.

“Obviously being able to play at home this year has been a blessing,” designated hitter Augie Lopez said after he was named the Most Outstanding Player of the College Station Regional. “But the last couple of years we’ve just kinda showed up every day — whether that was in Irvine or East L.A. Community College for practice — just with the same mentality of we’re going to show up and put our work in and dominate no matter where we are.

“Just showing up every day and punching that time card and going to work and just putting your head down and knowing that no matter where you are (or) what home field you have or you don’t have a home field, we’re going to get it done and play quality baseball.”

USC pitcher Grant Govel throws to home against Texas State during an NCAA regional on May 29.

(Sam Craft / Ap Photo/sam Craft)

The 12-time national champions will face North Carolina at the Chapel Hill Super Regional in hopes of reaching their first College World Series since 2001. No player on the current roster was alive when the Trojans won their last national title in 1998.

Only a few were even born when USC made its last super regional appearance in 2005 at Oregon State.

“With the history that this program has, it’s been an honor to wear the Trojan brand on the front of my chest,” Lopez said. “Honestly just knowing that this team is the team to bring USC back to the super regional it’s incredible.

“Honestly, it hasn’t hit me until right now, but we’re just feeling absolutely grateful. I’m super blessed.”

You don’t need to hear the horn to realize USC’s train is moving in the right direction in Stankiewicz’s fourth season at the helm.