CLINTON, S.C. - Presbyterian
College baseball combined dominant pitching with timely hits on a chamber of
commerce day to down USC Upstate and earn PC's first win of the season on
Sunday afternoon, 3-2. The Blue Hose
exacted revenge on the Spartans who defeated PC, 6-3 a day earlier in
Spartanburg. Jordan Pace went seven
strong innings in his first career start to carry the torch on the mound while Mack
Hite's 4-for-4 day at the plate highlighted the offense.
"I'm really happy with the way all three of our pitchers
went out and pitched today," said head coach Elton Pollock. "Jordan (Pace) went out there and gave us
seven awesome innings. Rodney (Scruggs)
and Jesse (Harmon) also went out there and threw very well for us. We kept out walks to a minimum and the guys
responded at the plate to get us the lead.
Overall, it was a great team win."
Pollock sent Pace to the bump and the sophomore responded by
retiring the first ten Spartan batters in order before Blake Greer registered
the first hit of the game for Upstate on a single through the left side. Two pitches later, Jimmy Tanner grounded into
a 6-4-3 double play to end the Upstate threat in the top of the fourth.
The Blue Hose got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the frame
off a two-run, bases loaded, single through the left side by Alex Loftin. He plated Tony Micklon and Nate Horton who
reached on a single and a hit by pitch.
However, consecutive strikeouts retired the side with runners stranded
on first and second.
The Spartans fought back and scored twice in the sixth
inning, sending Andre Harris across on a groundout and plating Joe Barnes on a
liner to right to tie the game. Pace
settled down in the inning and stranded a runner in scoring position.
With one down in the bottom of the seventh, Nate Chong
lashed his third extra base hit of the season to right to leg out a
double. He came around to score the
go-ahead run off of Mack Hite's single through the infield. Hite finished the game with four hits in four
chances for the Blue Hose. One run was
all PC could muster in the frame as PC flew out twice to end the threat with
Hite stuck at third.
Pace exited at the end of the seventh as the pitcher of
record, allowing just two runs and three hits in the longest outing of his
career. He was replaced by Rodney
Scruggs who quickly retired the Spartans in the top of the eighth.
A quick bottom of the eighth led the way for Jesse Harmon to
come in to nail down the save. The
hard-throwing righty dismissed the Spartans on 13 pitches in the ninth,
striking out two in the outing to earn his first save since the 2008 season.
Gaither Baumgardner took the loss for USC Upstate to fall to
0-1 on the season while Pace earned the first win of his collegiate career. The game was played at a brisk pace, ending
in an hour and 55 minutes.
Next up for the Blue Hose is a trip to Athens for a date
with the Georgia Bulldogs on Wednesday night starting at 6 p.m.
