The Oregon State Baseball team heads south for their final road games of the season as the Beavers invade Rod Dedeaux field looking to keep pace in the Pac-12 title and national seed pictures. For OSU (40-8-1, 16-7-1), this marks the last time they’ll have to leave the state of Oregon this season with the exception of going to Omaha. Let’s break down the Trojans and see what sort of challenge they’ll offer the Beavers this weekend. Not a subscriber? Click here to sign up now!

Into enemy territory

Record: 24-23 overall, (11-16 Pac-12) RPI: 110 Best win(s): March 11th vs UCLA 3-2 win @ Dodgertown Classic Worst loss(s): March 23rd-25th vs Stanford. Lost all three games by a combined 32 runs. Stats to watch .255 batting average (9th in Pac-12) .359 slugging percentage (10th) .338 on base percentage (10th) 23 home runs (10th) 5.20 ERA (9th) 2.62 opponent batting average (7th) 409 hits allowed (4th) 239 walks allowed (11th) Spin-> In a true sense of deja vu, previewing this USC series was eerily similar to when I was previewing the Utah series. On paper, the Utes’ stats were borderline abysmal and I didn’t think the Utes stood a chance against the Beavers. Well, we all know how that turned out as the Utes took ⅔ from the Beavs. However, the Beavers and Pat Casey won’t make the same mistake twice. The Beavers perhaps underestimated the Utes on their home turf and at this point in the season with a lot more on the line, the Beavers won’t drop this matchup. The biggest and glaring stat in OSU’s favor is that USC allows the most walks in the conference and leads that category by a sizable margin. Given that the Beavers on the other hand are the Pac-12’s leader in walks, OSU has to been licking their chops in preparation for this matchup. The Beavers pride themselves on grinding out at-bats and earning walks and now their going up against a team who’s the worst in the conference at allowing walks. Additionally, USC’s ERA and batting average leads me to believe that they aren’t a complete team. The Trojans RPI is high and they have an offense and defense that are subpar. Statistically speaking, the Beavers are the odds on favorite to sweep this weekend. Pitcher to watch No. 32 Solomon Bates 6’2 210 RHP Victorville, Calif. 3.55 ERA, 4-3 W-L, 63.1 IP, 25 ER, 16 BB, 64 SO, .217 opposing batting avg. Hitter to watch No. 15 Chase Bushor 6’0 190 JR INF Solona, Calif. .301 avg, 43 H, 9 2B, 1 HR, 17 RBI, .399 SLG %

Threat level (1-5)