“You ever played Mafia before?”

I had asked Connor Clift, a senior catcher for the USC baseball team, about the Trojans’ trying season.

“We play Mafia for hours,” Clift said.

It’s a video game.

“You have a sheriff, and you have townies, and the mafia tries to kill the townies, and the sheriff tries to catch the mafia,” he said. “Nobody knows who is who, and then you fight it out.”

The Trojans play for hours, because they ride the bus for hours. They are a team without a home.

They practice half an hour from campus — an hour, with traffic. They play most of their home games an hour from campus — two hours, with traffic.

“Beat the traffic,” sophomore outfielder Austin Overn said, “or else you’re screwed.”

The most distinguished team in college baseball history is homeless. The 12-time NCAA champion Trojans cannot play on campus because of construction that includes upgrades to Dedeaux Field and new facilities for the USC football team.

When USC hired Andy Stankiewicz as its new baseball coach two years ago, he said had been assured whatever construction would take place would displace the team for the 2028 season.

“That’s it. One year,” he told The Times then. “When it’s over, we’re going to be in a gorgeous, brand new Dedeaux.”

That timeline changed last summer. The baseball team had to vacate last fall — and for two years, not one.

“That was a little bit of a surprise, honestly,” Stankiewicz said. “You have to learn to make the adjustment on the fly and keep going.”

Coaches and administrators scrambled. Baseball teams long have been barnstormers, but the Savannah Bananas do not have to worry about classes.

For fall practices, the Trojans bused to El Camino College in Torrance. The community college had priority for the baseball field in the afternoon, so the USC players shifted their classes to the afternoon and departed for El Camino as early as 7 a.m.

On occasion, Stankiewicz said, the Trojans would get there and the gates to the field would be locked, and the team would have to wait for campus security officers to come by and open up.

To leave El Camino at 11 a.m. and get to class at USC at noon, Overn said, could mean rushing to get in a shower and a couple bites of lunch in between.

Bobby and Blaire Burkitt, and their children Tre, 8, Nicholas, 6, watch USC warm up before a game at the Great Park in Irvine on May 3. Admission is free for the Trojans’ games in Irvine.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

“It was,” he said with a smile, “a little fast for me.”

The Trojans already had their 2024 schedule. No school would displace its own team so USC could play there. And, as USC associate director of operations and event management Garrett D’Angelo said, “We wanted one spot that was home.”

In Irvine, on the site of the former El Toro Marine base, voters rejected a proposed international airport two decades ago. Since then, a community sports mecca dubbed the Great Park has blossomed there, surrounded by thousands of homes. The NHL’s Ducks built themselves a practice rink there, not far from a stadium used by a minor league soccer team.

That is where USC found its home away from home, at a sparkling 1,300-seat ballpark designed to host championship games of youth tournaments. The ballpark is surrounded not by campus landmarks, but by an iconic orange balloon on one side and a water park on another side.

No one expected students would show up, but USC has a robust alumni base in Orange County.

“This was the best option on short notice,” said Rock Hudgens, USC director of baseball operations.

The Trojans built their own locker room, because the one in Irvine had 12 lockers and USC needed 40. They rented an ice machine and arranged for regular deliveries of ice.

The ballpark did not include a batter’s eye. The Trojans contracted with an event production company to deliver one, and so the makeshift batter’s eye is framed in the same way a concert stage would be.

The Great Park in Irvine did not include a batter’s eye. The Trojans contracted with an event production company to deliver one, and so the makeshift batter’s eye is framed in the same way a concert stage would be.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

To make the place feel like home, they wrapped ballpark columns and draped railings with USC decor. They used Velcro, because the wraps and drapes come off when the stadium is used by others — including the weekends USC had to rent fields at Loyola Marymount and UC Irvine because the ballpark already had been reserved.

At the start of May, when USC had its finals week, players normally would have walked to class Thursday and Friday and taken their exams. Instead, because USC had a home game Friday night in Irvine, the players bused to Orange County Thursday afternoon and took finals in a hotel Friday morning.

The Trojans have fallen on hard times since the glory days of Tom Seaver and Fred Lynn, Mark McGwire and Randy Johnson, Barry Zito and Mark Prior. They have not won an NCAA championship in 26 years.

Over the past 18 seasons, they have posted three winning records and made one postseason appearance.

The Southland is not exactly a hotbed for college baseball — Cal State Fullerton and Long Beach State aside — but the Trojans have not averaged even 1,000 fans for years. In 2015, the last time USC posted a winning record, the average attendance was 826.

Josh Boatright, 14, shows off his autographed baseball before the USC-Cal game on May 3. Boatright said he’s been to a few games this season but doubts he would go if the Trojans played on campus as opposed to his neighborhood.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

That is what makes this home-away-from-home season such a pleasant surprise. The students may not be here, but admission is free, and youngsters playing on adjacent diamonds stop by with their families.

Josh Boatright, 14, rode his bike past the ballpark one day and checked out a few innings. He has been back three times, although he admits he would not be as interested in the Trojans if the team played at Dedeaux Field instead of in his neighborhood.

“If I go all the way to L.A.,” he said, “I’d probably go for a Dodger game.”

The Trojans have averaged 740 fans at the Irvine ballpark this season, more than they averaged at Dedeaux Field last season, even for a team with a losing record. USC has three games left in Irvine this season.

“I feel like, as of now, it’s a home,” Overn said. “For the most part, I feel like we’re here all the time.

“It’s a home. It’s obviously not the home we were expecting this year.”

And, after we talked, Overn walked into the Friday night — not to a dorm room or an apartment or a fraternity, and not to a campus party, but to a bus that would take him to a Marriott hotel within walking distance of an outdoor mall that celebrates “life at its most stylish, delicious and exciting.”

Jerry Rice is widely considered one of the greatest wide receivers in NFL history. Rice’s son, Brenden Rice, followed in his father’s footsteps and recently became an NFL receiver.

The younger Rice finished his college football career with 1,821 receiving yards. Earlier this year, he declared for the NFL Draft, and last month fell to the Los Angeles Chargers in the seventh round. 

While many projections had Brenden as a Day 2 or Day draft pick, his slide to the final round of the draft took some by surprise — especially his Hall of Fame father.

“My dad was hot,” Rice told reporters as he smiled. “You guys get the flash like … the humble dude, right? Me, he’s like, ‘Hell no, we’re going to take this to a different level. These guys going to feel us.’”

Rice attended his friend’s funeral on the same day the Chargers called and told him he would be one of their draft picks.

“It was just like a blessing from God because he allowed me to go ahead and just mourn the death of my friend,” Rice said, “and then after that just go ahead and be happy, and it was a glorious day.”

NFL LEGEND JERRY RICE’S SON BELIEVES HE AND CALEB WILLIAMS COULD BE NEXT TOM BRADY-ROB GRONKOWSKI DUO

He found the silver lining in his unexpected tumble in the draft. The 22-year-old now gets the opportunity to catch passes from quarterback Justin Herbert.

“I’m in the best position possible to go ahead and make my mark and make my own legacy. I went from Caleb Williams to Justin Herbert, and I’m in a room that’s going to allow me to compete, day-in and day-out,” Rice said.

Former pro football player and member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame, Jerry Rice, talks with his son, Brenden Rice #2 of the USC Trojans, following the spring football game at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on April 15, 2023 in Los Angeles, California. (Jayne Kamin-Oncea/Getty Images)

The Chargers moved on from wide receiver Mike Williams and traded away six-time Pro Bowler Keenan Allen this offseason, which gives Rice an opportunity to play a significant role in the team’s offense.

“Everything’s upon me. If you guys don’t see me coming on this fall, that’s on me. If you guys see me out there, then I put in the necessary work to put my best foot in the door and go out there and produce.”

USC quarterback Caleb Williams, right, talks with Austin Jones, #6, Brenden Rice, #2, and Tahj Washington, #16, at Pro Day at USC on Wednesday, March 20, 2024. (David Crane/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News via Getty Images)

Rice spent the first two seasons of his college football career at Colorado, before transferring to USC in 2022.

Brenden suggested that it remains to be determined whether he is a better athlete than his father was, but he is certainly motivated to surpass his dad’s NFL rookie production.

“I feel as though we’re neck and neck. I’m faster, and I heard his rookie season in the NFL wasn’t good,” Rice said. “I gotta go top him.”

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Miguel Berry’s goal deep in stoppage time Saturday gave the Galaxy a 2-2 tie with Real Salt Lake before a sellout crowd of 25,220 at Dignity Health Sports Park.

Berry came off the bench in the 69th minute, then 25 minutes later banged in a cross from Riqui Puig on the final touch of the game to rescue a point. The Galaxy’s other score came from Gabriel Pec, whose low left-footed shot deflected off RSL keeper Zac MacMath early in the second half to snap the team’s 269-minute scoreless streak dating to April 21.

Cristian Arango got RSL’s two scores in a 21-minute span of the first half. Even with the late score RSL (6-2-4) extended its MLS-best unbeaten streak to eight games and its lead atop the Western Conference table to two points over Minnesota United, the Galaxy’s next opponent.

The Galaxy (5-2-5), winless in their last three, remained third in the standings.

The Galaxy were on the front foot from the start, outshooting RSL 9-0 in the first 19 minutes. But the visitors made their first shot count, with Arango beating defender Maya Yoshida to a high cross in the center of the box, then heading it past former LAFC teammate John McCarthy in the 21st minute.

Arango beat McCarthy from the center of again 21 minutes later, this time with his right foot, one-timing home a nifty pass from Andrés Gómez. That goal was Arango’s 11th of the season, tying him with DC United’s Christian Benteke and Inter Miami’s Luis Suárez for the MLS lead.

Pec pulled that back after an RSL turnover 10 minutes into the second half.

Winger Joseph Paintsil wound up with the loose ball and sent it on to Riqui Puig, who dribbled across the top of the box before right-footing a soft feed in front of a hard-charging Pec on the left wing. After the goal, his third of the season, Pec lifted the bottom of his jersey to show a message on his white undershirt that dedicated the goal to the people of Rio Grande do Sul, his home state in southern Brazil, which has been devastated by recent floods.

Puig also assisted on that goal and leads the team with seven. More importantly, however, the score gave the Galaxy life and they pushed hard for the equalizer, outshooting RSL 23-12 and putting six shots on target. They also had 10 corners to RSL’s four.

But MacMath was stout in goal until the final seconds, making five saves, before Berry finally got a right-footed shot past him for his first score with the Galaxy.