SPARTANBURG, S.C. – Presbyterian College baseball jumped to a 10-0 lead against USC Upstate through three innings and never looked back, taking a decisive road win from the Spartans at Harley Park in a 16-7 victory.
PC improves to 16-9 and next kicks off a three-game series at Liberty on Friday at 7 p.m. on ESPN3. USC Upstate falls to 8-16.
The Blue Hose tied a season-high in runs and pounded Upstate for 16 hits. The team's first six runs came via the long ball, including two Cam McRae (Darlington, S.C.) home runs. McRae with 3-for-4 with four RBI and Ryan Hedrick (High Point, N.C.) tallied four RBI as well on a pair of hits. Six total Blue Hose delivered multi-hit performances on Tuesday while Jay Lizanich (Greer, S.C.) and Jacob Midkiff (Rock Hill, S.C.) each drove in a pair of runs. Ten Blue Hose hit safely on the night.
Reliever Russell Thompson (Alcolu, S.C.) earned the win by entering the game in the fourth to move to 3-1. He pitched 1.2 shutout innings, following by one scoreless inning each from Trey Hayes (Belton, S.C.) and Brian Kehner (Marietta, Ga.). Robert Moss (Jupiter, Fla.), Michael Trebendis (Fayetteville, Ga.) and Hayden Deal (Newton, N.C.) combined for the final two innings with four runs and starter Tanner Chock (Loris, S.C.) threw 3.1 innings with three runs—all unearned—and four strikeouts with six walks.
PC jumped to a 4-0 lead to start the game when Hedrick and McRae each hit two-run home runs in the first inning. Hedrick slammed the first pitch he saw to left center before McRae pulled one hard down the line two batters later.
Upstate moved batters to second and third with nobody out to start the first, but Chock recovered with two strikeouts and a bases-loaded pop fly to escape unscathed.
McRae struck again during his next at-bat with his second home run of the game. The senior smacked the first pitch about 20 feet left of center—about 390 feet—to score Johnson and himself for a 6-0 lead. The dinger sparked a six-run inning as Tyler Weyenberg (Marietta, Ga.) added another run on an RBI groundout, Hedrick drove in a pair by hitting a two-run single through the left side and Lizanich capped the scoring with an RBI single to center. PC took a 10-lead heading into the bottom of the third.
USC scored its first run via bases-loaded walk in the fourth and cut PC's lead to 10-3 with an RBI groundout and an error.
PC tagged Upstate for two more in the fifth. Some heads-up baserunning from Weyenberg allowed the sophomore to score on an error before Lizanich plated Hedrick with an RBI groundout.
Midkiff nearly hit a pinch-hit home run in the top of the eighth, lifting a full-count pitch to left field that reached the wall for a two-run double. Guy Casaceli (Jupiter, Fla.) hit an RBI groundout and a wild pitch plated Patrick Burt (Cayce, S.C.) for a 16-3 lead.
Upstate scored three in the eighth—two from a Charlie Carpenter triple—to make it a 16-6 game. The Spartans tacked on a final run with two outs in the ninth for the 16-7 final.
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Presbyterian College 406 020 040 - 16 16 3 (16-9)
USC Upstate......... 000 300 031 - 7 10 1 (8-16)
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Pitchers: Presbyterian College - CHOCK, Tanner; THOMPSON, Russell(4); HAYES, Trey(6);
KEHNER, Brian(7); MOSS, Robert(8); TREBENDIS, Michael(8); DEAL, Hayden(9) and KOSKI, Rob;
BURT, Patrick. USC Upstate - MITCHELL, Zach; SHANNON, Tresco(3); PARKER, Dylan(4);
HATHAWAY, Bryan(8) and CARPENTER, Charlie.
Win-THOMPSON, Russell(3-1) Loss-MITCHELL, Zach(1-2) T-3:10 A-104
HR PC - HEDRICK, Ryan; McRAE, Cam 2.
Weather: Low 70s, clear and bright
