LOS ANGELES, Calif. --- UC Irvine struggled to get home the runners it put on base haunting them with an 8-2 loss Tuesday night to USC in Head Coach Mike Gillespie's final trip to his old stomping grounds of Dedeaux Field.

Neither offense could figure out a way to score runs early as the game remained scoreless through three innings. The Anteaters (29-21, 10-8) left runners on in each of the first three innings while USC (24-23, 11-16) couldn't take advantage of four walks from starter Nick Anderson.

The bough finally broke in the fourth inning as a would-be double play was dropped at the bag at second by Cole Kreuter, and the Trojans knocked jump on it scoring three runs, two earned, highlighted by Brandon Perez's RBI double into the corner giving USC a 3-0 cushion through four innings.

Trojan starter Brian Gursky making his first career start rolled right along shutting the 'Eaters out until he was lifted after his fiving innings. Fellow left-hander John Beller followed suit keeping UCI off the board until the eighth. By then, the Trojans had added a fourth run as Konnor Zickefoose punched a two-out single to center field drawing the Trojans to within 4-1, and the tying run came to the plate in Parker Coss, but Chris Clarke came in to strike Coss out and preserve the lead.

USC then pounced on Ryan Johnston making his first pitching appearance of 2018 adding four runs in the bottom half of the inning all but sealing the Anteaters' fate for a final of 8-2.

With the 8-2 defeat, UCI finishes the season with an 8-2 record in midweek matchups. It also goes 19-13 in non-conference action with a 4-3 record against the Pac-12.

Nick Anderson drew the loss in his fourth start of the year now at 3-2. Gursky improved to 3-1 while Clarke picked up his first save.

Dillon Paulson, Ben Ramirez, and Brandon Perez each had two hits for the Trojans. Kaleb Murphy stepped up with two RBI. UCI had 11 hits on the evening, two each from Christian Koss, Parker Coss, and Brendan Brooks. The staff walked eight batters in all between four arms.

The next stop on the ledger is a final home series at Anteater Ballpark starting Friday night at 6:30 p.m. with the UC Riverside Highlanders. The game will be preceded by a ceremony to honor legendary head coach Mike Gillespie starting around 6:00 p.m.