LOS ANGELES >> Coach Dan Hubbs assembled the USC baseball team before a recent practice and had some news to share.
The Trojans were picked to finish 10th in the Pac-12 preseason poll, as voted by the conference’s coaches, Hubbs told them.
Then came his kicker.
Last season, Utah was picked to finish last. At the end of May, the Utes were atop the standings and conference champions.
Second baseman Frankie Rios smiled when he recalled the conversation earlier this week.
“Rankings are just rankings,” Rios said. “It’s not how you start, it’s how you finish.”
USC hopes the maxim holds true, as it looks to rebound when its season opens Friday with a three-game series against Coppin State at Dedeaux Field.
Two seasons ago, it ended a decade-long postseason drought when it made the NCAA Tournament, a breakthrough point for the program as it took eventual national champion Virginia to extra innings in the regional final. But rather than return to the postseason in 2016, the Trojans fell short of that mark, finishing .500.
As the field of 64 teams was revealed on Memorial Day weekend, players and coaches opted against meeting together to watch the selection show. They knew their season was over. Their fate was sealed.
“It was pretty upsetting,” Rios said.
The redshirt junior carried particular disappointment. He missed the team’s postseason appearance in 2015, out for the season with knee tendinitis.
“Obviously that’s your goal when you start out at the beginning of the season, even in the fall when you’re training,” senior outfielder Corey Dempster said. “You’re always trying to find some motivation. It’s working toward the end of the season, make the postseason and get to go to Omaha (for the College World Series). Not getting to do that was frustrating.”
Hubbs anticipates his team to be in the postseason mix, certainly not second-to-last among the 11 teams in the Pac-12.
“I understand the perception from the outside,” he said, “but I also understand what we think of ourselves, and my honest assessment is I don’t think that’s close to where we’re going to be. Now we have to go prove that.”
There are reasons why most of the conference’s coaches are not pegging this to be a banner year for the Trojans.
Most notably, experience is lacking.
USC had a school record 12 players selected in the MLB Draft last June. That included departures by four of its top six hitters, along with the ace of the pitching staff, Kyle Davis, and Joe Navilhon, who threw a team-high 82 2/3 innings.
It leaves Mitch Hart, a junior right-hander, to take over as the team’s Friday night starter.
Hart was named a freshman All-American in 2015, but missed the first half of last season with biceps tendinitis.
“Now we need him to make that jump,” Hubbs said.
Faced with the new role, Hart sounded upbeat.
“It’s been a dream of mine ever since high school,” he said.
He is their most polished starter, able to throw four pitches: A fastball, changeup, curveball and slider.
On the Trojans’ pitching staff, Hart was not the only one to face arm trouble last season. Marrick Crouse, who will be a sophomore, also missed the first half because of a forearm injury. Brad Wegman, a junior, was shelved for the second half because of an elbow injury.
As a result, the history is not extensive.
Hart has thrown 115 1/3 innings in two seasons, but the next highest workload on staff comes from CJ Stubbs, who threw 42 innings, all last season as a midweek starter.
Some experience is leftover, including Dempster, the outfielder who will return in the leadoff spot. He was drafted in the 37th round.
Hubbs compared this team to his 2014 team, an unheralded group that was picked ninth in the Pac-12 in the preseason before narrowing missing the tournament. It finished 29-24 overall and was among the “first four out.”
“It was kind of the same thing,” Hubbs said. “There wasn’t a lot of track record. It’s like I tell these guys, you make your own track record. You gotta go out there and prove it.”
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