SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Presbyterian College baseball team cut the Spartans lead to one in game two but couldn't complete the comeback as the hosts completed a three-game sweep of the Blue Hose with a 12-11 victory in Saturday night's nightcap at Harley Park. USC Upstate picked up an 8-4 victory in the opener on Saturday.
FINAL SCORE (G1): USC Upstate 8, Presbyterian 4
LOCATION: Cleveland S. Harley Park (Spartanburg, S.C.)
RECORDS: Presbyterian (12-16, 11-11 Big South) | USC Upstate (29-9, 20-9 Big South)
W: Alex Garbrick (6-2) | L: Peyton Knight (1-1) | Save: Austin Morgan (3)
FINAL SCORE (G2): USC Upstate 12, Presbyterian 11
LOCATION: Cleveland S. Harley Park (Spartanburg, S.C.)
RECORDS: Presbyterian (12-17, 11-12 Big South) | USC Upstate (30-9, 21-9 Big South)
W: Sawyer Worrell (3-0) | L: Duncan Howard (1-1) | Save: Kevin Davis (7)
NOTABLES
- Jeremiah Boyd paced the Blue Hose offense on Saturday with five hits as three of those came in the first game including a double. Boyd added a pair of hits and an RBI in the nightcap.
- Eric Toth had three hits including doubles in both contests and knocked in four runs for PC in game two off of a three-run double.
- With his two hits in game two, Toth now leads the team with 10 multi-hit contests on the season.
- Toth has hits in each of his last five games and has reached base safely in 11 consecutive games.
- In game one, Noah Lebron connected on his first collegiate home run.
- Sean Klein hit his fourth long ball of the season along with Kyle Merkle hitting his second in game two on Saturday.
- Merkle's home run in game two helped push his hit streak to five consecutive games.
- Zacchaeus Rasberry extended his reached base streak to eight straight games.
HOW IT HAPPENED GAME ONE
- Upstate got on the board first in the opening inning as the hosts took advantage of a Blue Hose error and PC wild pitch to get the early 2-0 lead. The Spartans tacked on a third run with an RBI triple in the first inning.
- The Blue Hose pushed across a run in the fourth via a sacrifice fly from David Sweat to cut the Upstate lead to 3-1.
- The hosts answered with two in their half of the fourth to push the advantage back out to 5-1.
- Boyd connected on an RBI single in the fifth to make it 5-2 Spartans.
- USC Upstate responded once again with three runs in its half of the fifth to push the lead to 8-2 after five innings.
- Lebron connected on his first career home run in the sixth to make it 8-3 Spartans before a Merkle RBI single in the seventh made it 8-4 Upstate but the Blue Hose would get no closer as the hosts secured the series win in Saturday's game one.
HOW IT HAPPENED GAME TWO
- The hosts got two runs in the opening inning to get out to the 2-0 lead.
- Upstate tacked on a run in the second with a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 3-0.
- PC got on the board in the third with a sac fly from Merkle to make it 3-1 through 2.5 innings.
- In the fourth, Fahr reached on an error which allowed Jay Wetherington to score before a Toth RBI single evened the game up at three.
- Boyd connected on an RBI single to give PC a 4-3 lead after 3.5 innings.
- Upstate responded in the bottom half of the fourth with six runs to jump back in front 9-4 after four frames.
- Klein connected on his fourth home run of the season in the fifth to cut it to 9-5.
- Toth continued his hot hitting with a three-run double to cut the Spartan lead to one, 9-8.
- Upstate added two in its half of the fifth to jump back in front 11-8.
- PC added two runs in the seventh to cut it to 11-10 before the Spartans added a sac fly to jump back in front 12-10.
- Merkle led off the eighth with a solo home run to cut the deficit in half at 12-11 but the Blue Hose were unable to get it any closer as Upstate finished off the sweep.
UP NEXT
- The Blue Hose returns home for the final week of games in Clinton beginning on Tuesday against UNC Asheville as first pitch is set for 3:30 p.m. at the PC Baseball Complex.
