How USC pitcher Mason Edwards became a potential first-round draft pick

in summer 2021Josh Goosen-Brown — now USC baseball’s director of player development — was coaching at a junior college in Los Angeles when an awkward, left-handed pitcher came looking for lessons. The kid had just finished his sophomore year of high school and was determined to get better, but with a fastball in the mid-70s, he didn’t exactly profile as a college recruit, let alone a star at the next level.

Five years later, that kid — USC junior pitcher Mason Edwards — is almost unrecognizable. One of the most influential pitchers College baseball and a A likely first-round Major League Baseball draft pick.

“When I started hearing the projections for the draft and everything, I was just like, ‘Damn, it’s pretty surreal to think about how it all started, where he’s been and what he’s accomplished,'” Goosen-Brown said.

Edwards’ rise was anything but conventional. He wasn’t a showcase regular and wasn’t interested in high school until late in high school. In his first two seasons at USC, he showed potential without sustaining it. Last summer, he turned down an opportunity to play in the Cape Cod League to train at home, and the results have been better than expected. Through 12 starts, Edwards is 7-0 with a 1.74 ERA and leads the nation in strikeouts (132 in 72⅓ innings). Last week, he set the Big Ten single-season strikeout record with 101 in conference play.

These numbers reflect a development story years in the making.

As his momentum went from the 70s to his junior year of high school, Edwards was confident that he had a future in baseball. There is always a need for left-handed pitching.

“I knew I had the golden ticket in high school,” he said. “I was like, ‘What if I work hard and make something out of this?’

So, he did. And with that work came results. His velo ticked from 82-83 at the start of his junior year to 87-88 at the end. The most significant milestone came that summer during a bullpen session with Goosen-Brown. With a camera rolling, he hit 90 mph for the first time.

It was a bit late to the recruiting game for a player going into their senior year, but word traveled fast. After posting footage of his bullpen session on social media, Edwards said he heard from about six schools that day. Two and a half weeks after receiving his first scholarship offer, Edwards decided to stay closer to home and committed to USC.

“The left-hander — that’s always a valuable commodity,” USC coach Andy Stankiewicz said. “It wasn’t overly powerful, but you could see the power building. It was projectable.”

The 2024 and 2025 seasons have been an adventure for USC. After undergoing significant renovations to their stadium, the Trojans played their home games about 50 miles away, in Orange County. The team will finish classes on Thursday, live in Irvine, practice, then be near the baseball complex for the weekend. Last season, that home trip came at the top of the team’s Big Ten sweep, which made for a brutal, nomadic schedule.

As a freshman, Edwards finished with a 7.88 ERA in 37⅔ innings, but he now looks back on that season as an important part of his maturation as a pitcher.

“My freshman year was a big roller coaster,” he said. “I’d go out and flash really good stuff, have a really good outing, and then the next time I’d go and hit a yes-hitter and not really perform my best.”

He said the breakthrough came that summer in Bend, Oregon. Playing for the Bend Elks of the West Coast League, Edwards said the casual atmosphere of summer ball was one that made a big difference. After going 89-91 that year for USC, Edwards hit 94-95 in some summer outings, and he gave up just two earned runs in 22 innings.

Progression carried over into its second season, but it was still not linear. Edwards missed several weeks with a minor hand problem and moved between roles, sometimes starting and others coming out of the bullpen. When he was on, the swing-and-miss ability was evident.

He finished the year with a 3.86 ERA and showed enough late in the season to earn a spot in the weekend rotation.

This realization shaped one of the most important decisions of his career. Instead of chasing summer innings — and exposure — in the Cape Cod League, Edwards stayed home. The focus shifted from performance to development: building strength, refining its delivery, and establishing a routine. In the fall, the results were day by day.

Stankiewicz said it was already clear that Edwards would get the ball Friday night.

“Every time we had intersquads, we couldn’t hit him,” Stankiewicz said. “And usually the first couple of outs, your offense starts to get their teammate out a little bit. But we were down five, six and we still couldn’t hit him.

“I was thinking, ‘OK, is this guy really good or are we really bad offensively?'”

Mason Edwards is good at pitching. ⚔️

All 1⃣2⃣ K’s of the month outing tonight ✌️#FightOn x @MasonZWords pic.twitter.com/e3qkCmzxnw

— USC Baseball (@USC_Baseball) March 21, 2026

When the season started, opposing hitters had the same problem. Edwards did not allow an earned run in his first four starts and allowed just three in his first seven. Improved velocity has helped, but the curveball — two different types of curveballs, really — is the best pitch in his repertoire.

“He’s just learned how to command it better, and he can throw it for strikes when he needs to,” Stankiewicz. “The last couple of years, it was there, but it wasn’t a consistent pitch. It was in the zone, out of the zone, in the zone, out of the zone.”

Now, he’s using it effectively against righties and lefties, along with an improved changeup that has MLB scouts excited.

“I think as I get closer to July and the draft gets closer, I have to push it down a little bit and put it in the other room a little bit because I don’t want to get too ahead of myself,” Edwards said.

The Trojans haven’t made a trip to Omaha, Nebraska, for the Men’s College World Series since 2001, but there is internal belief that could change soon. With two series remaining in the regular season — starting Thursday with a home series against Nevada — USC (37-12) is ranked No. 18 in the latest D1Baseball Top-25 poll and is 28-1 at home.