The very first thing that catches your eye as you enter new Dedeaux Area — when you’ve navigated the bottom flooring of the parking construction, previous the short-term batting cages within the building zone past heart discipline, down the trail strewn with electrical scooters, round “CONSTRUCTION ACCESS GATE #3” and onto the warning monitor of USC’s soon-to-be baseball dwelling — is the precise discipline itself.

A brand new taking part in floor wasn’t one thing Trojans baseball gamers have been clamoring for. They beloved previous Dedeaux Area and its charms. However plans for a soccer follow facility necessitated rushing up the timeline for upgrades on the half-century-old venue, and USC’s baseball program, with twice as many titles as some other faculty in NCAA historical past throughout that point, was advised to make the very best of it.

In fact, nobody throughout the program was complaining in regards to the prospect of a shiny new ballpark — least of all Andy Stankiewicz, the Trojans’ coach. However with a clean canvas on which to construct a brand new model of Dedeaux Area, there was some upside. One is that each sq. inch of the park, all the way down to the filth, may now be given cautious, meticulous consideration — with no expense spared.

“Every detail, every material was hand-picked,” says Scott Lupold, USC’s director of turf. He believes there will likely be no equal within the ranks of school baseball fields when his work is completed. The grade of the infield, he says, is completely flat. The gleaming inexperienced grass — Tahoma 31 Bermudagrass — is the best available on the market, the identical you discover in Dodger Stadium. And the filth? You would possibly catch your self questioning if it’s filth in any respect. “We were literally able to design every aspect of the surface how we wanted it,” Lupold says. As sports activities turf goes, that is his Sistine Chapel.

The remainder of new Dedeaux Area requires a bit extra creativeness because it’s nonetheless an energetic building website. A symphony of equipment fills the air on a latest Wednesday afternoon in early Might as USC’s baseball staff gathers for early batting follow. Swaying palm timber share the panorama behind dwelling plate with a row of moveable restrooms. Bulldozers lug a great deal of filth throughout the place the concourse will quickly stand. Past proper discipline, the towering skeleton of USC’s Bloom Soccer Efficiency Middle takes form within the distance.

USC’s new baseball stadium isn’t slated to open to the general public till early 2026, however the Trojans started practising right here on the sector in February, as quickly because the sod had set. Nobody, by that time, may bear to attend any longer. Not after the higher a part of two seasons spent in exile, with out a dwelling discipline. It didn’t even matter that there was nonetheless no locker room wherein to stash their belongings.

USC gamers huddle earlier than a recreation in opposition to Cal final season at Nice Park in Irvine, the place the staff performed its dwelling video games whereas Dedeaux Area is renovated.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Instances)

“These guys have spent a lot of time on a bus,” says Stankiewicz, who’s in his third season as coach. “They needed a light at the end of the tunnel.”

And positive, they made the very best of these weekday rides to follow and the weekend collection in Orange County. Some gamers mentioned the time gave the Trojans a crucial chip on their shoulder. Most others tried to brush it off. (“Not having a home, it’s really not as tragic as it sounds,” one mentioned.) However when the staff entered by means of CONSTRUCTION ACCESS GATE #3 in February and onto the sector they’d been promised, it felt like a weight was lifted.

To pitcher Caden Aoki, “it was genuinely like Christmas morning.”

“We were all looking around at each other, and we all had big smiles on our faces,” mentioned Ethan Hedges, USC’s star third baseman and nearer. “It was a big moment for us.”

The second was the primary of many in what has felt to most across the program like a breakthrough season. The Trojans have since received 34 video games getting into Large Ten match pool play in opposition to Penn State on Thursday, good for his or her third straight 30-win season beneath Stankiewicz, who inherited a program that had only one such season in its earlier 17 earlier than he took over. By means of one torrid stretch from March by means of early Might, the Trojans received eight consecutive collection, together with one over crosstown-rival UCLA that rocketed them into the highest 25.

An NCAA match berth appeared assured at the moment, till USC completed out its common season on a poorly timed skid, with losses in 5 of its final seven. The Trojans now discover themselves firmly on the bubble, in want of at the very least a win or two in Omaha this week to safe a spot within the NCAA match for the primary time since 2015.

Nobody across the program is downplaying what that milestone would imply now.

“It would mean — everything,” Hedges mentioned. “That is everything we’ve been building towards.”

USC third baseman Ethan Hedges makes a sidearm throw throughout a recreation in opposition to UC Santa Barbara in March.

(Kyusung Gong / Related Press)

For the Trojans coach, it will be an particularly necessary benchmark, three seasons into rebuilding a program that was as soon as school baseball’s crown jewel. But Stankiewicz can be fast to remind that there are many steps left within the course of he’d got down to undertake. Early in his tenure as USC’s coach, he began utilizing the slogan “brick by brick” to remind his staff in regards to the significance of incremental progress and constructing a basis. Three years in, the catchphrase has turn into part of the Trojans’ DNA, and the progress Stankiewicz promised is lastly beginning to present.

As USC’s coach sits in a barren concrete dugout, staring out at a soon-to-be state-of-the-art stadium nonetheless beneath building, the metaphor all however writes itself.

“We want to build this thing for the long haul,” he says. “And to build a home, you have to build a strong foundation so it can withstand the weather. The same thing applies here. I want to be here for a long time.

“This is where I grew up. This is where I’d love to be. So we have to build this to stay strong for years.”

There wasn’t a lot of a basis in place when Stankiewicz was employed because the coach. The turbulent tenure of his predecessor, Jason Gill, had been marred by unrest within the clubhouse and middling outcomes on the sector. When Gill was fired in 2023 after simply two shedding seasons and one other shortened by the pandemic, hypothesis ensued over whether or not the USC job was actually as illustrious because it as soon as was.

Uncertainty over Dedeaux Area’s future amid potential plans for the 2028 Olympics didn’t assist that notion. Nor did the truth that two high candidates, Texas’ Troy Tulowitzki and UC Santa Barbara’s Andrew Checketts, pulled their names out of the working quickly after USC expressed curiosity. Ultimately, USC would land on Stankiewicz, a former main leaguer who grew up in close by Cerritos and performed at Pepperdine. As a child, he sat within the stands at previous Dedeaux Area as its namesake led the Trojans on a dynastic run, at one level successful 5 nationwide titles in a row. He understood USC baseball — and nonetheless believed in what it might be at its finest.

“Those teams were powerful,” Stankiewicz mentioned. “They were strong. They were, at times, pretty intimidating. That was SC. We have to help restore that respect back here.”

So with that in thoughts, Stankiewicz stood in entrance of his staff early in his tenure and tried to handle the tradition challenge head on. He requested gamers what they thought different groups say critically about their program.

USC baseball coach Andy Stankiewicz has guided the Trojans to 3 consecutive 30-win seasons with hopes of returning to the NCAA match this spring.

(USC Athletics)

A couple of gamers raised their palms, Stankiewicz mentioned, and shared variations of the identical reply:

Mushy. Entitled. Wealthy.

Others nodded alongside.

“The only ones who can change that perception is you guys,” he advised them. “You write your own story. You want to change that perception, then go out there and don’t be soft.”

Stankiewicz introduced in big-name alums resembling Randy Johnson and Mark McGwire to talk to the staff and assist drive dwelling that message. He needed them to know that necessary folks have been paying consideration, that it meant one thing to put on the uniform.

Immediately, the staff appeared to take that message to coronary heart. After ending final within the Pac-12 in 2022, the Trojans received 34 video games in Stankiewicz’s first season and seemed properly on their solution to ending their prolonged NCAA match drought.

But when the sector was introduced, USC was overlooked. The snub was a intestine punch to the clubhouse.

“It felt like we could’ve easily broken through then,” infielder Bryce Martin-Grudzielanek mentioned.

USC’s Bryce Martin-Grudzielanek prepares to take a swing throughout a recreation in opposition to Stanford.

(Kyusung Gong / Related Press)

As a substitute, that fall, the Trojans would instantly discover themselves with out a dwelling discipline to play on.

Stankiewicz was assured when he took the job a 12 months earlier that the town’s plans to construct a brand new aquatics heart on USC’s campus forward of the 2028 Olympics would solely displace the staff for the 2028 season, after which the Trojans would have an upgraded stadium. However the Olympic plan fell aside. The athletic director who employed Stankiewicz, Mike Bohn, resigned the next Might. And Jennifer Cohen, his alternative as USC’s athletic director, had made constructing a brand new soccer facility on the identical property a precedence.

Cohen met with Stankiewicz throughout her first week on the job to debate plans. Not lengthy after that assembly, he says he obtained a name.

“They told me, ‘Hey, we’re going to start on your new stadium,’” Stankiewicz recalled. “Well, I thought it was going to be after the year was over. But no, it’s, ‘We’re going to find a place for you to play that spring.’ That’s, umm, a little bit different. But we’re going to make it work.”

They spent the 2024 season taking part in dwelling video games primarily at Nice Park in Irvine, making the very best of the scenario. They wrapped the ballpark’s columns in USC decor and draped the railings in cardinal and gold. For practices within the fall, they bused every morning to El Camino School in Torrance and crossed their fingers that the gates weren’t locked.

The circumstances weren’t very best. However after a gradual begin, the Trojans would end the season on a tear with wins in 9 of their final 10 video games.

“The mindset he’s taught of us, just about how it doesn’t matter what we have or who we have,” Hedges mentioned. “It’s just about showing up every day with 100% of what you have. Like, OK, we didn’t have a field. So what? You can’t use that as an excuse.”

Nonetheless, there was no avoiding the ripple results of that actuality. It meant explaining to recruits and potential transfers that they’d be with out a discipline to play on or batting cages to hit in or a locker room to retreat to. It additionally meant shedding a number of of their very own gamers to the switch portal who “didn’t want to keep getting on a bus” for an additional season.

Stankiewicz understood. He didn’t maintain it in opposition to any of those that couldn’t keep affected person. Those that did keep the course, sticking it out by means of two nomadic years at USC, say one thing completely different has taken maintain throughout the staff on this third season.

“A team is very hard to cultivate, like an actual team, where every single person is bought in,” Aoki mentioned. “I feel like I would be lying if I said every single person was bought in the first two years I was here. But I can say with 100% certainty that everyone here is bought in. That makes a difference.”

It doesn’t damage, both, to have unearthed a two-way star in Hedges, who led the Large Ten in saves (9) in his first season as a pitcher whereas hitting .346 with 12 dwelling runs and 54 RBIs to anchor USC’s bullpen and batting order. And to suppose, that breakout had come totally out of desperation for pitching depth.

“Ethan Hedges, jack of all trades, master of everything,” Aoki mentioned with amusing.

USC infielder Abbrie Covarrubias, making a throw in opposition to Lengthy Seaside State, is batting .300 this season.

(Kyusung Gong / Related Press)

Others have made their very own main leaps. Switch first baseman Adrian Lopez noticed his common skyrocket from .223 as a Lengthy Seaside State sophomore to .333 as a junior at USC, the place he’s hit 9 dwelling runs. Infielder Abbrie Covarrubias is hitting .300 as a sophomore after slashing .232 as a freshman, whereas catcher Andrew Lamb is hitting .344 with an OPS of 1.031, each of which might lead Large Ten catchers in the event that they certified.

USC’s pitching employees, by far the most important concern coming into the season, has been a pleasing shock, due to Hedges, who hadn’t pitched since his days at Mater Dei Excessive, in addition to a bevy of unproven relievers.

“It would be really hard for any team in the country to do what we’re doing,” mentioned Aoki, who has a 4.54 ERA with a 5-4 document this season. “But we’re doing it because every single person who has stepped up on that mound has stepped up and really flourished in their own right.”

Whether or not that’ll be sufficient this week to safe an NCAA match berth stays to be seen. However the basis for one thing even greater and higher has undoubtedly been set at USC, even when there are a number of extra bricks left to be laid.