USC baseball coach Jason Gill chuckled as he considered the question -- does he consider this to be Year 2 or Year 1B, after his debut season with the Trojans was cut short at 15 games by the onset of the pandemic last spring?

"I mean, it's Year 2, but that's a great question," Gill said. "I hadn't really thought about it, to be honest with you, but yeah, I don't think you can count last year as a full season obviously. But being here my second year, just building relationships is better and all that stuff."

Gill was hired to get USC back to its familiar place as a perennial postseason team after the program -- winner of a record 12 national championships -- had reached just one NCAA Tournament in the past 14 years before he arrived.

It's hard to say what would have or could have happened last season. USC went 10-5 with encouraging wins over perennial contenders TCU and Vanderbilt, but ultimately it was too small a sample size to draw any real conclusions.

And so the Trojans now reset, hoping for a full-ish season as they continue to try to establish a new foundation under Gill. That process officially gets underway again Friday evening with USC hosting Loyola Marymount at 5 p.m. PT for the start of a three-game series (only the first two games are Dedeaux Field before heading to Westchester for the finale).

As for expectations, postseason goals, etc., that's not the way Gill is approaching it with his team, exactly.

"I try to leave expectations out of it. What we're going to try to do is reach our full potential. And that would put us obviously in a good position to compete for a postseason because we have that kind of talent," Gill told TrojanSports.com. "... That's what we're trying to do, but I don't really try to put those expectations on our team. We're going to go out, try to learn every game right now, we're obviously going to try to win every game, but you've got to learn from it too because we didn't have that fall."

Ah, about that. The effects of the pandemic have already had some impact on this team as well, as USC didn't have the typical fall practice that is so important to college baseball programs. The Trojans got a little work on the field in December, but even then it wasn't the same.

"Our administration worked their tails off to get us out there in December, so we were out here from Dec. 1-19, but that was a little limited as well because guys had to get physicals and do all those things. So we weren't really in full practice mode, but it was still awesome to get the guys out. They were excited to be on a baseball field again, but we didn't really have a fall practice, per se. So we really started up with most everything in January," Gill said.

"It just puts us a little bit behind in our system stuff and guys' development, it slows the development down, especially for our young players. Our older players have a good idea already, but our young players, they're going to miss that. That will hurt there. And then our team in general, not being able to be together -- obviously we're not doing stuff off the field, but not being able to be together on the field all those hours and learning each other and building relationships. ... So there's some fallback, but at the end of the day the most important thing is they get to go out and compete this weekend and do what they love to do."

Weekend schedule (no fans allowed in attendance; the first two games will be live-streamed on USCTrojans.com):

Friday: 5 p.m. vs. Loyola Marymount (Dedeaux Field)

Saturday: 2 p.m. vs. Loyola Marymount (Dedeaux Field)

Sunday: 1 p.m. at Loyola Marymount (Page Stadium)

Here's how the roster sets up entering the season:

USC returns the bulk of its lineup and offensive production from last year, really only losing DH Ben Wanger (team-high .410 batting average) among its top contributors.

Returning is ...

-Redshirt junior 3B Jamal O'Guinn (.378 batting average, .533 on-base percentage, 11 runs scored and 7 RBI)

-Redshirt freshman CF Rhylan Thomas (.356 batting average, team-high 13 runs in 15 games, 6 RBI)

-Redshirt sophomore 1B Clay Owens (.346 batting average, 3 HRs, team-high 17 RBI, 6 runs)

-Redshirt junior SS Ben Ramirez (.310 batting average, 3 HRs, 13 RBI, 10 runs)

-Redshirt freshman LF Tyresse Turner (.257 batting average, team-high 6 stolen bases on 6 attempts, 2 triples, 8 runs)

-Redshirt senior RF Brady Shockey (.235 batting average, 5 runs)

-Redshirt senior 2B Tyler Pritchard (.196 batting average, .302 on-base percentage, 4 stolen bases, 6 runs)

-Redshirt sophomore C Tyler Lozano (.170 batting average, 12 runs, 3 RBI)

-Redshirt junior OF Trevor Halsema (.313 batting average, .450 on-base percentage in 9 games and 4 starts)

-Redshirt junior OF Bart West (.250 batting average, .368 on-base percentage in 10 games and 4 starts)

"I feel like our offense has a chance to be special," Gill said. "It's always a little scary at the beginning of the year to talk about it because offense comes and goes, and really good pitching beats good hitting. But I think over the course of the season our offense has a chance to be special."

Potentially impactful freshmen:

-INF D'Andre Smith: Injured but expected back in four weeks.

-SS Nate Clow: "He's going to be helpful for us this year, and he's going to be a star eventually," Gill said.

-OF Carson Wells: "He is going to help us this year."

-C Garret Guillemette: "I think [he] has a chance to be a superstar catcher."

Gill says: "So we're very pleased with our young talent. The issue again goes back to not having a fall and not letting them develop or learn how to play at this level quite yet and then throwing them into the fire and they're trying to compete against guys who are 22 years old on our team. They're all going to help in some capacity."

USC loses two of its top pitchers from last season in John Beller (3-0, 1.12 ERA, 25 Ks in 24 IP) and Kyle Hurt (2-1, 3.71 ERA, 25 Ks in 17 IP). Hurt was drafted in the fifth round by the Miami Marlins and later traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Beller signed as an undrafted free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals.

Weekend rotation:

-Redshirt junior LHP Isaac Esqueda (0-1, 1.20 ERA, 13 Ks, 6 BBs in 15 IP last year)

Gill says: "I think Isaac has the most experience. It goes back to most innings pitched at this level. He is solid and he's earned it -- he's got good stuff. He competes, he's probably one of the biggest competitors on our team, and our team knows when he goes out there he's not going to be afraid, it's not going to be because of a lack of effort. He's going to leave it all out there for his team, and I think on Fridays that's what you want. You want somebody who is going to represent who your team is, and Isaac personifies our team. He's a hardworking guy who's talented and throws strikes and he's not afraid, so we're excited to have him on Fridays."

-Redshirt sophomore RHP Chandler Champlain (1.23 ERA, 6 Ks, 5 BBs in 7.1 IP)

Gill says: "Chandler is a big guy (6-foot-5, 220 pounds) that's got the stuff. He's got the size, he's got the arm strength and he's got breaking balls and changeups and he's really grown up over this pandemic. So we're excited to see what he's going to be able to do for us. You look at his numbers the last two years -- they probably don't jump out at you. ... But we feel like he's grown up a lot, he's ready to take the ball on Saturdays and put us in a position to win the game.

-Redshirt sophomore LHP Alex Cornwell (2-1, 3.66 ERA, 14 Ks, 5 BBs in 19.2 IP)

Gill says: "Alex has worked tremendously hard over the pandemic. He's added 10 pounds of strength. He was already in good shape -- he's in better shape -- and he's added a couple of pitches to his repertoire now that will really help him out. If you saw him last year, for the 15 games I think he had four starts, he was a junior but he hadn't played before. He had injury problems and redshirted, so the first time he pitched in college was last year. I think you saw a guy with a good arm who has a bright future, and now he's kind of developed a couple more pitches that are really going to help him out. I think he has some strikeout pitches and some neutralizing pitches now to righthanders that are really going to help him out."

Bullpen:

-Redshirt junior LHP Brian Gursky (1-1, 0.00 ERA, 12 Ks, 3 BBs in 12 IP)

-Redshirt freshman RHP Ethan Hoopingarner (1-0, 0.79 ERA, 16 Ks, 4 BBs in 11.1 IP)

-Redshirt sophomore RHP Carson Lambert (0-0, 4.05 ERA, 6 Ks, 3 BB in 6.2 IP)

-Redshirt freshman RHP Ethan Reed (1-0, 6.43 ERA, 10 Ks, 6 BBs in 7 IP)

-Redshirt senior RHP Gus Culpo (0-0, 0.00 ERA, 3 Ks, 3 BBs in 4.2 IP)

Gill acknowledged the Trojans' pitching depth is the biggest question entering the season.

"I feel like if there is a question mark right now that's where it's at, and it's not because we don't have talent -- it's the unknown," he said. "There's not a lot of experienced innings coming back. A lot of those guys were going to get experience last year, and that got cut short. So that would be probably our biggest question mark, and heading into a season that's not what you want -- you don't want to be questioning anything on the mound. But that's the reality. Like I said, I think we have talent -- it's just a matter of, ok, go out and do it so we can see it."

Potentially impactful freshmen:

-RHP Jaden Agassi (son of tennis legends Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf)

-RHP Charlie Hurley

Gill says: "Both of those kids are going to challenge for starting roles or really important roles. They both have really good arms, very coachable young men both of them. So they're learning -- they didn't get a chance to face a Division I hitter until three weeks ago, so they're learning. When you're in high school and you throw a ball at the middle of the thigh 93 miles per hour, it's usually a strike. Well, here it's off the wall. So they just need to learn how to compete at this level. They have the stuff."