USC baseball loses outfielder Brayden Dowd to transfer portal

Coming off the program's first NCAA Tournament appearance in a decade, USC baseball suffered a major loss earlier this month when ace pitcher Caden Aoki entered the transfer portal. This week, the Trojans lost another key player to the portal in outfielder Brayden Dowd.

As a sophomore this year, Dowd started 57 of USC's 60 games. He finished the season batting .324 with 10 home runs, 36 RBIs, and a .970 OPS.

Losing Dowd is certainly a big blow for a Trojans program looking to improve off of this year's run. The Trojans made it to the final of the Corvallis Regional, where they fell to Oregon State. Now, they will need to replace a lot of production in the outfield as they look to build off of this year's run.

USC has made great progress in three seasons under head coach Andy Stankiewicz, but the program still has a long way to go in terms of competing with the country's elite. Expect Stankiewicz to attack the transfer portal hard this offseason as the Trojans look to turn their roster from one of a tournament team into a legitimate national contender.

This article originally appeared on Trojans Wire: USC baseball outfielder Brayden Dowd enters transfer portal