COLLEGE STATION, Texas — After spending most of Friday night wasting scoring opportunities, Adrian Lopez and his USC teammates headed into the ninth inning with plenty of confidence. Unfortunately for the Trojans, Texas State wasn’t done yet.

Lopez gave the Trojans the lead in the eighth inning with a home run at Blue Bell Park, but USC couldn’t close out the opener of the NCAA tournament’s College Station Regional.

Texas State’s Chase Mora greeted USC closer Adam Troy with a monstrous two-run home run to left field in the top of ninth, propelling the Bobcats to 5-4 upset before a crowd of 6,956.

“To take the lead right there late, we’re riding high feeling real good and confident going into the ninth,” Lopez said. “I think … the ball fell how it fell. It is what it is. But we’re pretty stoked and excited going into the ninth with the lead.”

Texas State coach Steve Trout mused that it felt as though the Bobcats were “on the ropes” all night. As trite as that might sound, he’s right.

Unfortunately for the Trojans, they never could deliver the knockout punch. Texas State wasn’t as forgiving. Mora was sitting on Troy’s fastball, and he pounced for his 11th home run of the year.

“Sure enough,” Mora said, “I got the pitch I was sitting on and made a good swing.”

Troy’s blown save was a major part of the story. He arguably wasn’t the biggest reason USC lost, though. The Trojans had plenty of chances. They wasted most of them, leaving 13 men on base on a night they struck out 12 times.

Moreover, the Trojans wasted a major bases-loaded scoring opportunity when Isaac Cadena was picked off at second base for the second out of the fifth. Walter Urbon then flew out to right to end the threat.

“We got picked off there at second base with one out,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “That was kind of a gut shot. We have to be better on the bases. We have to be a little more aware when we get off the bag there.

“I thought we executed fine to get runners where we needed to get them. The second part is we got to get them across home plate. That’s the part we didn’t do as well tonight.”

The Bobcats’ shaky defense spotted USC two unearned runs. The Trojans will surely lament, however, stranding runners in scoring position in each of the first seven innings.

The Trojans will now prepare to face Lamar University, which blew a five-run lead in a 7-5 loss to host Texas A&M earlier Friday.

If Stankiewicz’s Trojans return to the College World Series for the first time since 2001, the 12-time national champions must do it out of the losers’ bracket.

“We’re just going to battle our tails off to keep showing up,” said Abbrie Covarrubias, who gave the Trojans a 3-1 lead with a home run in the fourth inning. “We’re in the fire, so we’re just going to battle our way through and pour our hearts out really.”

USC right-hander Grant Govel, an All-Big Ten First Team selection, settled for a no-decision after giving up three runs on four hits with two walks and six strikeouts over 5 ⅔ innings.

He was relieved by freshman left-hander Sax Matson with one on and two outs in the top of the sixth. Matson escaped unscathed in the sixth, but he was relieved by right-hander Andrew Johnson with one on and two outs in the seventh.

The Trojans, who reached the Big Ten Tournament semifinals, have lost four of their last five games.

“We left some runners in scoring position,” Stankiewicz said. “I’d like to have those back. But they made some pitches when they needed to.”

Stankiewicz, Adrian Lopez and Covarrubias are adamant that they believe in Troy, who has a team-leading 12 saves this season. No other Trojan has more than three saves.

“He’s been our guy, like coach said,” Lopez said of Troy. “He has a number … of saves. We trust him with everything we have. I wouldn’t want anyone else throwing the last couple pitches of the game. Going tomorrow, everyone’s available. If he’s back in that same situation, I’m just as confident as ever.”

The Waco Bridge is a nonprofit local news organization supported by The Texas Tribune, reporting on Waco government, education and community. Sign up for the Bridge’s free newsletter here.

Jim Wallingsford drove his white Chevy truck one morning last month down North Walnut Street in Lacy Lakeview, dodging potholes on his way to inspect a repair project on a sewer lift station.

As public works director for this Waco suburb of 8,000 residents, Wallingsford is always triaging the city’s needs: Cracked and cratered streets, aging pipes and pump stations and the old water tower, which needs a $1 million facelift.

“I want to be a good steward of the City of Lacy Lakeview with the money I’m given to spend,” he said. “So I give everything a weighted scale and I base it off of the likelihood and consequences of failure.”

Lacy Lakeview, population 8,000, is typical of many small Texas towns that lack the resources to keep up with streets and pipes that are wearing out. Most of that infrastructure in Lacy Lakeview was installed more than 50 years ago. And the longer maintenance is deferred, the faster it deteriorates.

Mayor Chuck Wilson has pointed to the city’s maintenance backlog to justify the pursuit of a data center. He wants to partner with Infrakey to develop and annex a proposed $10 billion data center north of town near Ross.

That development represents tax base that would increase Lacy Lakeview’s tax base enough to increase city tax revenues from $6.5 million to $50 million a year. But the project has drawn a backlash from neighbors of the Infrakey site, as well as from some Lacy Lakeview residents, who just elected data center opponent Amy Gage to the City Council.

As Wallingsford sees it, the city needs new development, or the existing taxpayer and utility ratepayers will be on the hook for improvements.

“Everything that we purchase is going up, literally,” he said. “The only other solution is that we have to have a rate increase just to be able to keep up.”

Wallingsford stopped his truck at the Meyers water pump station, which was under repair after it was observed to be leaking.

“The consequence of them failing is pretty high but their issues aren’t critical and they continue to operate,” he said. “The city only needs one pump to operate and we have three, so there’s a backup.

“At the end of the day when something fails, we go back and work off of the plan.”

Wallingsford, a former city of Waco staffer, said utility infrastructure like this typically has a 50-year lifespan, and the ideal practice in public works is to set aside 2% of the system’s cost each year for replacement.

“I haven’t worked for a city that’s ever done that,” he said.

Even more visible is the wear and tear on Lacy Lakeview’s 30 miles of city streets. Asked which ones need to be repaved, he didn’t hesitate.

“All of them,” he said. “They all need to be done. I’d say we have about 15 critical streets” that need to be repaved.

The city is now repairing and reconstructing streets using a $9.5 million bond issue that voters approved in 2024. To save money, the city is using its own workers and equipment to grind up and recycle pavement, which is then compacted and resealed.

Among the most critical projects is Walnut Street, which is being reconstructed along with replacement of water, sewer, fiber optic and gas utilities under the street. That project is to be completed in February 2027.

This article first appeared on The Waco Bridge.