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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.

COLLEGE STATION, Texas — On a night when the crowd at Blue Bell Park saw some of the most majestic home runs you’ll see in college baseball, USC’s Andrew Johnson showed why pitching is still paramount.

The sophomore right-hander delivered arguably the most important pitching performance of the season for USC on Sunday night, beating Texas A&M 14-3 to propel the Trojans to a winner-take-all College Station Regional Final on Monday.

After needing five pitchers in a rout over Texas State earlier in the day just to reach the regional final out of the losers’ bracket, USC coach Andy Stankiewicz rode Johnson.

Two nights after throwing 21 pitches over 1⅔ innings, Johnson threw 124 pitches over 7⅓ strong innings to beat the host Aggies (41-14) before a crowd of 6,934.

“I’ll say this, I’ve been here [as USC’s head coach] four years,” Stankiewicz said. “That’s the best pitching performance I’ve seen in four years, hands down.

“In a big moment when we needed somebody to step up to take the ball, there hasn’t been a guy that’s done that as well as [he] did … this evening.”

Leading 11-2, Johnson retired the first batter in the top of the eighth inning before Nico Partida singled to right. Jake Duer followed with an RBI triple to right field, prompting a call to right-hander Rohan Kasanagottu.

Johnson (8-2) held the Aggies to three runs on nine hits and two home runs with one walk and four strikeouts. Kasanagottu added 1⅔ perfect innings of relief with two strikeouts.

“It was just basically [Stankiewicz] coming up to me and looking at me, and me just nodding at him,” Johnson said. “And he’s like, ‘All right, let’s go.’

“I don’t know if I’ve thrown 120-whatever before, but I honestly feel pretty good. I’ll pitch tomorrow if it [means] we’re going to win some more.”

USC junior Kevin Takeuchi bats against Texas A&M in the NCAA regionals on Sunday.

(Chris Mora / USC Athletics)

The Trojans (46-16) have scored 48 runs over three wins since falling into the losers’ bracket. They beat Lamar 19-6 on Saturday, and then they beat Texas State 15-4 on Sunday afternoon before pummeling the Aggies (41-15).

Chris Hacopian gave the Aggies a 1-0 lead with a home run in the first. The Trojans countered with four runs in the bottom of the inning with Kevin Takeuchi’s two-run single and Andrew Lamb’s two-run double.

“Yeah, we never want to lose,” Texas A&M coach Michael Earley said. “We never want to get our [butt] kicked. That always sucks, but it is what it is. It’s baseball.

“They beat us, period, from the freaking first pitch. But we got a game tomorrow, and we’re excited to get out there.”

Lamb greeted reliever Cooper Powell with a three-run home run over the right-field bleachers in the third inning. Augie Lopez gave USC a 9-1 lead with a two-run home run in the fourth.

Gavin Grahovac tagged Johnson for a monstrous solo home run to cut USC’s lead to 9-2 in the fifth. Lamb, who singled in the fifth, added another two-run double in the ninth.

“I’m going to flush this thing here in about five minutes,” Earley said. “We’re going to move forward and we’re going to come out tomorrow and get to play in front of our home crowd.

“What more could you want, man? What more could you want?”

That’s the same mentality USC has taken since losing their opener.

“I think we’re seeing the ball really well,” Takeuchi said. “We’re sticking to the middle of the field and kinda just letting the park do its thing. Just trying to put [the] barrel on the ball.

“But when you have pitching like these guys have been, they’ve been lights out. They keep us in every ballgame, so it’s really good for us to just be able to compete for them and kinda just to rack up the hits. I think we’re just seeing the ball really well, and we’re going to continue to do that tomorrow.”

Karen Bass, Spencer Pratt and Nithya Raman each came into tonight’s mayoral debate with goals for what may be their only time together on stage.

As the incumbent mayor, Bass had to weather blows from her challengers while trying to sell voters on her fitness for another term, despite a disastrous 2025.

As a reality TV star with no political experience, Pratt needed to show that he could offer substance instead of just AI fanboy videos and the name-calling — “Karen Basura” — he has indulged in on social media.

Raman’s task was perhaps the hardest. As a city councilmember whose two previous campaigns were backed by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, she needed to convince Pratt-curious voters that she’s more conservative than Bass. Yet for others, she needed to appear liberal enough to peel away support from the mayor and come out as a progressive lioness to excite Democrats in a year where GOP candidates like Pratt have to answer for the disaster that is President Trump’s second term.

Only one of the three failed.

At times, Raman was tongue-tied trying to answer simple questions. Moderators kept telling her she was going over her time. Answering a yes/no question about whether noncitizens should be allowed to vote in city elections, the councilmember went on and on, until the moderator cut her off.

While Raman offered some policy plans, she also played a card straight out of Trump’s arsenal. She claimed that Pratt and Bass were teaming up against her — an unlikely scenario that drew laughs from the audience. She got more and more frustrated, to the point that when Bass was allowed time for a rebuttal, she dejectedly proclaimed, “I haven’t been offered that in a lot of this debate.”

Raman, who had endorsed Bass’ reelection before throwing her hat in at the last minute, came off as inexperienced, touchy and unprepared.

The line of the night was Pratt dismissing Raman as a “random councilmember” — which is how the L.A. political world responded to her entry into the race. She was so upset about Pratt’s remark that she continued to whine about it to a KNBC reporter after the debate.

What’s shocking about Raman’s flop is that she should know how important it is to project well to a television audience, given that her husband is a screenwriter. Her tone was flat, when she needed to be passionate.

No one had to remind Pratt of that. He was parrying tough questions on a big stage for the first time, facing an audience who knew him only as the Angry L.A. White Guy he has reveled in playing.

He mostly succeeded.

At his best, Pratt came off as a boisterous bro with enough charm to call himself “humble” without coming off as obnoxious. He dominated the flow of conversation without coming off as commandeering, even interrupting Raman at times to let Bass speak. At one point, he even said “Sorry” when he had taken up too much time and the moderators cut him off.

He was light on specifics, other than saying he was going to do better than the others and that he would prioritize public safety above all. Instead, he was the one person on stage who used anecdotes to sell himself, citing conversations about abused animals, downtown workers too afraid to eat outside and film producers hiring local gang members to keep their shoots safe.

As a TV personality-turned-influencer, Pratt knows that storytelling is far more effective than drowning the audience in statistics, as Bass and Raman did.

But the bad Pratt flared up at times. He earned a reprimand from KNBC anchor and debate co-moderator Colleen Williams when he called the mayor an “incredible liar.” Affecting high-pitched voices to mock Bass and Raman came off as juvenile and possibly sexist. And when it came to last summer’s federal immigration raids that terrorized Southern California, Pratt appeared flummoxed when Bass pointed out that 70% of those arrested didn’t have criminal records — a use of stats that hit.

Bass was also who she had to be — measured, forceful and raring to defend her record, without coming off as defensive. She wasn’t exactly inspirational, but she didn’t have to be. The city’s powerful labor unions have backed her, along with much of the Democratic establishment.

Raman and Pratt are right in deeming Bass the old guard of a beat-up city — but the old guard didn’t get there without knowing how to win.