Connor Clift explains how a Polar Express reference helped USC turn its season around

USC baseball started the 2024 season poorly, and none of the players and coaches have hid from that reality as the Trojans got hot during the second half of the year. And a win away from the Pac-12 Tournament semifinals, catcher Connor Clift explained how they started to get right midstream.

The beginnings of USC’s turnaround was a speech by assistant coach Travis Jewett, in which he invoked the 2004 film adaptation of “The Polar Express.” Clift explained it further on the Pac-12 Network broadcast.

“It’s a speech that Coach Jewett actually gave us. Did you guys ever see the movie the Polar Express? The Christmas movie? And if you ring the bell and you can hear, it means you believe in Christmas. Well sometimes you just gotta ring the bell and you can see who believes,” Clift said.

Through the first 16 games of the 2024 season, USC was 4-12 overall, looking listless and out of sorts. But a 24-15 run to end the season set the Trojans up at least in a position to fight for an NCAA tournament bid.

And the bells must be ringing loud and clear for USC by this point, as the No. 4 seed Trojans are a win away from advancing into the tournament semifinals an keeping NCAA tournament hopes alive.

“And that’s kind of been the mantra for the second half of the season as we’ve been able to turn around after the first 15, 18 games, whatever it has been, whatever it was,” Clift said.

2024 Pac-12 Baseball Tournament bracket, schedule

All times for Pac-12 Tournament PST.

POOL A: No. 1 Arizona, No. 6 Cal, No. 9 Washington
POOL B: No. 5 Arizona State, No. 2 Oregon State, No. 8 Stanford
POOL C: No. 3 Oregon, No. 4 USC, No. 7 Utah

Tuesday May 21

Stanford vs. Arizona State | Stanford wins, 8-7
Utah vs. USC | USC wins, 7-6
Washington vs. Cal | Cal wins, 12-0 (7 innings)

Wednesday May 22

Oregon State vs. Stanford | Stanford wins, 2-1
Oregon vs. Utah | Utah wins, 4-2
Arizona vs. Washington | Arizona wins, 6-5

Thursday May 23

Arizona State vs. Oregon State | Oregon State wins, 3-2
USC vs. Oregon | 2:30 p.m.
Cal vs. Arizona | 7:00 p.m.

Friday May 24

Semifinal 1 | 2:30 p.m.
Semifinal 2 | 7:00 p.m.

Saturday May 25

Pac-12 Championship Game | 7:00 p.m.