March 20, 2008
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SPARTANBURG, S.C. - The USC Upstate baseball team, riding a four-game winning streak, will head into North Florida's Harmon Stadium looking to do something it has never done before: beat North Florida. The Spartans and Ospreys, former rivals from the Peach Belt Conference, will be reunited this weekend when their new conference affiliation with the Atlantic Sun pits them against one another for the first time since 2005 in a three-game series in Jacksonville.
The series, which will be covered with all three games on A-Sun.TV and Gametracker, has come at the right time for the Spartans, who are riding a four-game winning streak, including a sweep of Campbell that has the Spartans in a tie for third in the A-Sun. North Florida, meanwhile, has lost four of five after falling in three games at Belmont.
When both schools were members of the Peach Belt Conference, the Ospreys won 21 meeting between the two schools. The Ospreys, at the time, were a perennial Division II contender, winning the Peach Belt Conference six times.
Volunteering For A Challenge
The Spartans will get set for another tough challenge during the midweek when they travel to Knoxville, Tenn., to face the SEC's Tennessee in a Tuesday midweek game. The Vols, who are 13-5 overall, are receiving votes in national polls, thanks in large part to their first-ever sweep of LSU. The Spartans are 1-3 all-time against the Volunteers.
Realigning Rivals
After the trip to Tennessee, the Spartans will play two mid-week games against one of their most familiar rivals in Presbyterian. The Blue Hose, who are 5-10 overall, are also in the first year of the four-year transitional period to Division I. The Spartans and Blue Hose have faced 20 times, with each team winning 10 meetings. The two squads split their two games in 2007.
Stegbauer Stymies Asheville
A seemingly effortless 70-pitch, six-innings worth of work by freshman Robert Stegbauer and six late-inning runs helped pace Upstate to its fourth straight win, 6-4, over UNC Asheville in non-conference action on Tuesday night. Stegbauer picked up his first collegiate win as he tossed six innings of work, allowing seven hits, a walk and an unearned run. He struck out none, but impressively forced nine groundouts and eight flyouts and let a solid Spartan defense do the work for him. His ERA dropped from 8.40 to 6.00 as he recovered from the worst start of his career last week at Georgia Southern, where he allowed seven runs.
A Real Record-Setter
Already the school's all-time leader in complete games (12), shutouts (4) and strikeouts (228), senior Scott Eckard added one more notch to his belt on Monday when he picked up his first career win in relief against Campbell for his 20th career win. The hard-throwing lefty passed Eric Hunter (1986-89) for the most wins in school history with 19 wins when he got out of a one-out, runner on second jam in the ninth inning of a suspended game by getting a fly out and a strikeout. The Spartans quickly scored the winning run for Eckard in the bottom of the ninth, giving him another school record.
Walking-Off With A Sweep
Two walk-off wins highlighted Monday afternoon for the USC Upstate baseball team, as Upstate posted its first Atlantic Sun Conference series sweep in school history, defeating Campbell, 5-4, in the completion of a suspended game and finished with a 6-5 win in the second game at Harley Park. The Spartans defeated Campbell, 13-2, on Friday in the first game of the series.
In the conclusion of a game from Saturday, sophomore Jimmy Tanner singled in freshman Blake Green with the winning run in a 5-4 game in the bottom of the ninth inning to start off the festivities on Monday afternoon. In the second game, senior Kyle Bowley barreled home with two outs in the 10th inning to score on a passed ball and lift the Spartans to the sweep.
Runny's Run
Senior Andrew Runion has been on a tear for the last 11 games, hitting safely in all of them and going 20-for-44 (.454). The Simpsonville, S.C., native has recovered from a hamstring injury that kept him from the lineup for three games and has re-assumed the role of the team's heart. In the three-game set with Mercer, Runion hit home runs in back-to-back games. Against Campbell, Runion became the 11th player in school history to reach 100 career RBIs, as he went 6-for-13 with four runs scored during the three-game sweep of the Camels. Against UNC Asheville, Runion went 3-for-4 with a run and three RBIs, also socking his 42nd career double to move into a tie for second in school history.
Rookie Royalty
Freshmen Keith Bisgounis, Blake Green and A.J. Clark have helped pace the Upstate offense during the last 10 games. Bisgounis, who has started six games and appeared in seven games in that span, has hit safely in all his starts. He has gone 10-for-25 (.400) with six runs scored and four RBIs. He also has three doubles. Green is hitting .342 (13-for-38) with six runs, a double and four RBIs. He also has a stolen base. Clark is hitting .370 (10-for-27) with three runs and four RBIs in eight games. He delivered a big blow with a two-RBI single against UNC Asheville in the Spartans' four-run sixth.
Morgan's Mastery
Junior Phillip Morgan has continued to thrive early in the season, as the catcher is currently ranked among Atlantic Sun Conference leaders in RBIs. Hitting .313 in 19 starts, Morgan is currently fourth in the conference in RBIs with 21. Morgan, after going 1-for-17 in a four-game stretch at Mercer and Georgia Southern, saw his bat heat up again on March 12 at Georgia Southern as he went 2-for-4 with a double, a homer, a run and two RBIs and followed that by going 2-for-4 with three runs and an RBI on Friday against Campbell. In the past four Spartan games, Morgan is hitting .412 (7-for-17) with five runs and three RBIs.
Kyle's Korner
Senior Kyle Bowley pitched eight innings of six-hit, one-run baseball Upstate posted a 13-2 win over Campbell on Friday afternoon. Bowley, who lowered his ERA from 1.42 to 1.33 with his performance, posted his third quality start of the season by pitching eight innings, allowing six hits and walking none. He struck out seven and faced just five batters over the minimum. He also improved to 3-1 on the season and 15-10 in his career, which is tied for the fifth-most wins in school history with Don Brock (1987-88) He also became just the fifth hurler in school history to reach the 200-career inning mark in the game and now with 135 strikeouts, he passed Chris Hawkins (1986-87), the current head softball coach, for eighth on the all-time list.
Bowley is currently tied for the Atlantic Sun Conference lead in wins (3) and complete games (1) and is third in ERA (1.33), tied for fifth in strikeouts (27) and sixth in innings pitched (27.0).
