Garrett Stubbs went 4-for-5 with four singles and two steals Friday night. (Charlie Magovern/Neon Tommy)

The Men of Troy launched a deliberate comeback Friday night and beat the Oakland Golden Grizzlies (1-4), 8-6, after surrendering some runs early.

Bernardo Flores was stellar in relief of starter Brent Wheatley, striking out seven Grizzlies in 3 2/3 innings of work and settling down the Trojans after a tumultuous fourth inning. 

“I treated this as if it was going to be a deciding game, going to Omaha,” Flores said. “The only thing I was thinking was make my pitches, go one pitch at a time with it and hit my spot at any costs.”

“We needed every bit of what Bernardo gave us,” head coach Dan Hubbs said. “He really kept [Oakland] off-balance.”

Catcher Garrett Stubbs said of Flores, “He doesn’t overpower you. He doesn’t throw 95 or a big powerful curveball, but he knows what his game is and he gets the job done.”

Flores received a standing ovation for his work.

“It was kind of spine-tingling, just kind of mind-blowing,” Flores admitted. 

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Jeff Paschke rescued Flores in the top of the eighth, getting Oakland catcher Ian Yetsko to fly out to center. 

The Trojans got into a bit of trouble in the top of the ninth. With men on first and third and one out, closer Marc Huberman induced a 5-4-3 double play to end the game and salvage the undefeated season.

Trojans catcher Garrett Stubbs had a monster evening, finishing 4-for-5 with four singles, two stolen bases and two runs scored. Still, the senior was humble after the game.

“Not everything was alive tonight. We didn’t play our best tonight," Stubbs admitted. "But it was a good game, and we'll take the win for what it's worth. 

USC went wild on the base paths, stealing three bases in the all-important fourth inning. The Trojans’ stealing strategy threw off Oakland starter Jason Hager’s rhythm and led to the mid-game offensive outburst.

“We were trying to do something to get us jump-started,” Hubbs said.

Stubbs claimed that the presence of new volunteer assistant coach Chris Duffy has aided in the team’s new style on the base paths.

“It’s become a lot of our game,” he said. “[Duffy] looked at our stats last year and saw we didn’t steal a lot of bases. We took it upon ourselves this fall to work on our base-stealing and base-running in general.” 

Oakland got out to an early 1-0 lead after Wheatley surrendered back-to-back doubles in the top of the second.

Wheatley lost control in the top of fourth, giving up five runs to eight batters. He struggled with his control early in at-bats and was put in multiple 2-0 and 3-0 counts. The Oakland hitters jumped on his careful pitches and grew their lead to 6-1 by the end of the inning. 

“Early on, he was just working too hard, taking him six, seven, eight pitches to get through the at-bat,” Hubbs said after the game. “He got frustrated. He’s gotta be able to temper that emotion a little bit so that he can focus on the next pitch and getting us out of it.”

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Following his stellar outing on opening night, Wheatley was pulled after just four innings.

“Brent didn’t have his best stuff today,” Stubbs offered. “He gave us some good innings, just enough to set up [Flores].”

Third baseman Blake Lacey had three pivotal hits, including two RBI singles, that drew the Trojans closer to victory.

Lacey laced an iron rope to center in the sixth, driving home first baseman Jeremy Martinez and putting the Trojans ahead for good.

His long double down the left field line ignited USC’s comeback in the fourth inning. Lacey would score later that inning on a Bobby Stahel single. 

Despite the Trojans’ four errors and early blunders, the team is proud to take their sixth victory.

“I’m not too proud to take a win anyway we can get it,” Hubbs summed up.

The still-unbeaten Trojans play Oakland tomorrow at 2pm and Sunday at 1pm.

Reach Sports Director Jeremy Bergman here. Follow him on Twitter @JABergman.